What Reminds you of Futurama: Fit the 3rd

[Reply #560 on:]

When I visit the doctor I bring my own needles.

[Reply #561 on:]

I've taken to watching hockey--less out of genuine interest, more because I have some friends who are into it--and there is a player on the Columbus Blue Jackets named Jack Johnson. Tonight the Blue Jackets are playing the Rangers and, alas, there is no bitter rival on the opposing team named John Jackson!

[Reply #562 on:]

Well, shit.

[Reply #563 on:]

Well, shit.

FTFY

They're nine years late, anyways. *tsk tsk*

When I was in the movie theater last Sunday, before the movie had started and the lights had dimmed, the man in front of me received what I assume to be a text message. "Good news, everyone!," his phone chimed.

[Reply #564 on:]

Earlier today I came across some movie called The Zookeeper's Wife on HBO, and thought immediately of this guy...



...along with Fry's assessment that the deadliest animal of all is the Zookeeper!

[Reply #565 on:]

That hand looks really weird.  Did you pick that one on purpose?

[Reply #566 on:]

I had not noticed the weird hand, but now that you've mentioned it it's gonna bug me real bad. It looks like the screen-grab itself was taken between frames or something--like, mid-finger-drumming--and that appearance of an extra thumb is just the result of bad timing on the screen-grabber's part.  

[Reply #567 on:]

A couple weeks ago, I came across a different article every day that bore a striking resemblance to something from Futurama. Unfortunately, I forgot most of them, but here is one from a pretty good satire site:

Santa Claus Converts To Calvinism, Moves Everybody To Naughty List | The Babylon Bee

[Reply #568 on:]

I've been a fan of a writer/director Carson Mell since 2011. In the summer of 2012, he started uploading a little animated webseries to his YouTube channel called Tarantula, all written & voiced by Mell. It had a nice little cult following, fast-forward to 2017 and it's now a fully-fledged TV show on TBS, produced by Danny McBride and featuring a bunch of voice actors & improved animation (not that the original animation was bad at all, it had Mell's unique-style).

Summer 2012 was also when season 7 of Futurama began to air, so that & Tarantula are closely linked in my mind. But anyway, the Tarantula TV show features a lot of voice work from Phil LaMarr & David Herman, animation by Rough Draft Studios (Scott Vanzo's name appears in the opening credits of every episode) & a dozen directors from Futurama (Claudia Katz, Crystal Chesney-Thompson, Edmund Fong, Dwayne Carey-Hill & probably a few others that I can't think of off the top of my head).

It's just kind of cool & sentimental to me that these two separate entities that influenced me at lot (at the same time) have somehow come together all these years later (2012 wasn't that long ago, but you get me).

Also, definitely check-out Tarantula & Carson Mell's YouTube channel! Perhaps the original, short-length episodes of the show will inspire you to give the full thing a watch.

[Reply #569 on:]

A friend of mine from Texas is currently aboard a scientific research vessel which recently left New Zealand on its way to Antarctica. He just posted this photo and it reminded me of The Birdbot of Ice-Catraz

[Reply #570 on:]

If only they'd built it with 6001 hulls! When will they learn?

*edit*

This reminded me of something we'd see in Futurama.

[Reply #571 on:]

On my travels today I passed something called "The Land Bank Center," whose clunky title reminded me of none other than that most majestic of passenger vessels: The Land Titanic!

(I think "The Mutants Are Revolting" is a pretty dumb episode, but damn do I get a kick out of the phrase "land-drowned.")

[Reply #572 on:]

"The Land Bank Center" does have a character to it that would fit right into that episode

This reminded me of something we'd see in Futurama.

Yes, that's a pretty neat dress

And I'm wracking my brain, as I clearly recall something roughly similar to it that a woman built to wear to a festival, I think? But I can't recall where/when I saw it.

[Reply #573 on:]

A few local Targets carry this brand of chips:



"Kif, show them my personal brand of potato chips!"

[Reply #574 on:]

The VP of HR just sent out an all-company bulletin which begins:

"Hi everyone,
Good news!!"

And just like in Futurama, the news may not be quite as promising as it appears at first glance

[Reply #575 on:]

Last night I came across the following phrase in a book I'm reading--"energy drinks spiked with alcohol, the taste of purple"--and was reminded, of course, of "The Why of Fry" and the Nibblonian's preferred method of blanking people's memories:



As I am the sort of dork who writes in the margins of her books, I then felt obliged to underline the aforementioned passage and leave a note that said, "Ah, the taste of memory loss!" Amused me, at least.

[Reply #576 on:]

What better place to make notes about a book than in the book itself?

[Reply #577 on:]

Someone posted this over on Twitter; I imagine it's what the professor would be like if he had to use a mobile phone, I couldn't help but read the last message in his voice:

[Reply #578 on:]

That's cute


The other day I was chatting with Fishy Jeff and a few others in the PEEL Hangout, when he mentioned his frustration trying to help an "elderly relative" navigate a website earlier in the day. Given that I typically manage to browse websites without extreme difficulty and that I'm one of the oldest ever to join PEEL, I naturally asked him "Just how old do you mean by 'elderly'?" And he wouldn't tell me

There are times when I really wish that I could pull off the Professor's voice

[Reply #579 on:]

So my parents order random stuff from Amazon every other day or so (making them very well-known to the UPS delivery guys, but that's another story). Today, for unknown reasons, my dad got a package from Amazon containing an enormous bulk bag of candy hearts.

As in the chalky and unpleasant things that allude to the foreign concept of 'wuv':


I have yet to find "U leave me breathless".

[Reply #580 on:]

Hahahaha, that's great! It's true that I've shopped for goodies on Amazon before, principally dark chocolate, but can't imagine why anyone with a remotely normal palate would consider buying mass quantities of candy hearts—except perhaps to cause gastric distress in the stomachs of their enemies. I think that my stomach is rebelling just at the thought. Luckily for my neighborhood image, my frequent orders from Amazon are delivered discreetly to my workplace, so my neighbors have no idea that I'm a shopaholic

OMG, you just reminded me of a frightening incident with an Amazon order a few weeks ago, that had slipped my mind with all the personal stress I've been dealing with lately!

Over my life I've read mostly sci-fi, but in recent years have become very interested in autobiographies, concentrating on those of American submariners in the Pacific theater during WW2. But I do collect other autobiographies, and had a couple on order from Amazon when I learned that there had been an issue with the order, and I was alarmed to learn that the parcel might be dropped off at my company without my name on the address label...and that someone might open the package in order to ascertain the intended recipient.

One of the books was a semi-autobiography by Jack Kerouac, his On The Road (the original scrolls). And the other happened to be the autobiography of one Marilyn Chambers, a very famous adult film star from the '70s and early '80s. Naturally the latter was published with a rather saucy cover, presumably to sell a few extra copies based simply on its prurient appeal. If one of my coworkers had opened the box to find that book, with my name on the receipt, I would never, ever have lived it down

(caution, saucy cover photo)

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[Reply #581 on:]

I'm not sure, either! They live on a 10-acre plot of heavily wooded farmland all the way out in the sticks, so our neighbours couldn't care less, much less see past all the trees that cover the property. Amazon is kind of a hit or miss. I've had some luck with jewellery and books, but clothes are cheaply made and unpredictably sized. I'm not sure if it's easier to brave the pushy salespeople who work on commission, or risk getting something that looks good on the online model but makes you look like a total frump.

That was quite a close call you had with the book! It probably would have raised a few eyebrows in the workplace.

As for why my dad got the candy hearts-- the New England Confectionery Company (Necco for short) has just been auctioned off after going bankrupt and its future remains uncertain, so people have been buying the bone-meal-and-earwig-honey-based concoctions in case they'll never be made again. Maybe it was bought out by the Milwaukee-based Romanticorp.

[Reply #582 on:]

Wow, thanks for the info; I'd known about Necco for ages, of course, but had no idea that it was an acronym. And I lived in New England for twenty years!

[Reply #583 on:]

Bumping only to bend the thread back to being mostly on-topic, despite my tendency to derail things. Perhaps I'm distantly related to Fry?




Earlier this evening I was puttering at the seemingly (and possibly actually) impossible task of sorting through and rearranging many decades' worth of (mostly literal) junk in my garage, in order to clear out a sufficiently large space for the local door company to work while replacing my garage door, which it on its last legs rails.

One of the items I stumbled across that hadn't seen the light of day in ages was my nibbler!



Unlike the fictional Nibbler, this one nibbles on sheet metal or plastic rather than flesh and bone. I bought this one in Japan, at one of the innumerable little stalls under the overpasses in the old part of the Akihabara district of Tokyo. This little guy has done magnificent duty over the years, and I'm glad to have it back in my toolbox.


The other thing that reminded me of Futurama was this rather bizarre helium-filled balloon near the entrance of my local supermarket.



It's kind of creepy, actually, and also reminded me of scenes in The Butterjunk Effect.

[Reply #584 on:]

Is it creepy that when I saw your photo of the balloon butterfly my first thought went to that iconic image from Silence of the Lambs?



I had to rub the lotion on my skin analyze this scene for film and lit class back in HS.

[Reply #585 on:]

That's creepy as fuck, and I'd completely spaced that scene. In fact, what bits I'd heard about the movie were enough to completely put me off seeing it, ever...and students are watching and discussing it in high school?? You guys are made of tougher stuff than we were, that's for sure.

The only reason I eventually watched it was on-topic, because a week or two before Silence of the Clamps aired, I wanted to see it in case there was a subtle reference or two in the episode and I didn't want to miss anything

[Reply #586 on:]

Well, Film & Lit was only offered for Juniors/Seniors so it was 16-18 year olds in the class. Frankly, I don't find that movie scary/overly creepy. Yes, it's a physiological thriller, but I never really found myself turning away because I "didn't want to look" (well, except for the basement chase scene). It's a good movie...not for everyone...but I certainly prefer it over a blood and guts (OMG what just popped out behind the corner?!) type movie that normlly sacrifices plot for sheer terror.

[Reply #587 on:]

A Food-O-Mat has just opened in downtown Minneapolis! The restaurant, known as the Sushi Train, features a 200-foot conveyor belt carrying sushi past each table. To make the restaurant even more Futurama-ish, each plate is placed on a sensor, which records how long the sushi has been on the belt and which table took it.

Apparently conveyor belt restaurants have been popular in Japan since the 1950's, particularly with sushi-- they're commonly referred to as Kaiten-zushi or sushi-go-rounds. Such restaurants have also been spotted in Europe, as well as major cities on the East and West Coast. Of course, since we Midwesterners are still in the Dark Ages, it was revolutionary enough for us to make the local news.

[Reply #588 on:]

Newfangled technology

It's been too long, but I vaguely recall eating at the occasional conveyor belt restaurant when I lived in Japan. If my memory is correct, the places made use of different-colored dishes, with each color representing a particular price. When you were ready to leave, a...server(?) would tally up your various plates and write up a bill for your total. If the sensor technology you describe was in use back then, I don't remember encountering it.

Is there any particular cuisine or dish you're looking forward to enjoying more of, once you relocate to Virginia?

[Reply #589 on:]

It's been too long, but I vaguely recall eating at the occasional conveyor belt restaurant when I lived in Japan. If my memory is correct, the places made use of different-colored dishes, with each color representing a particular price. When you were ready to leave, a...server(?) would tally up your various plates and write up a bill for your total. If the sensor technology you describe was in use back then, I don't remember encountering it.

Apparently the sensors are primarily there to alert the staff how long each plate has been on the belt. Once thirty minutes have passed, the sushi is no longer considered "fresh" and gets discarded. Seems like a waste if there aren't many customers present. The plates are indeed colour-coded, just like the ones you encountered, and everything is inventoried from each table when determining the bills.

Is there any particular cuisine or dish you're looking forward to enjoying more of, once you relocate to Virginia?

There's a Hawaiian dish called a poke bowl that is virtually nonexistent over here but is trendy on the coasts. It's basically sushi in bowl form, except you get to construct it and you get a lot more fish. There is a poke bar not far from the medical school I'm attending. One bowl costs about $10 but provides enough food for three meals.

Some of the coffee shops (the "healthy" ones, anyway) sell something along the lines of a "blue latte", where they mix algae into the espresso. I wasn't brave enough to try it, but it probably tastes exactly like you think it does.

[Reply #590 on:]

Last week at work, I was tasked with stamping the college president's signature on a huge stack of donor letters, and as I did so I found myself a.) mentally singing along to the song from "How Hermes Requisitioned His Groove Back" and b.) mentally reciting the line "Welcome to Stampy Town" from the same episode. Pleasant Futurama reminders, both!

Also, I hung up this postcard on the wall in my office and my supervisor quite approved. So that was kind of neat.

[Reply #591 on:]

Bender

[Reply #592 on:]

Futurama has been getting some love in the Grrl Power 'verse recently.

[Reply #593 on:]

Listening to the Song Radio based on Goldfinger's Superman led me eventually to Your Life by The Mighty Mighty Bosstones. The melody and other musical qualities immediately made me think of My Broken Friend from Bendin' in the Wind.


Your Life | The Mighty Mighty Bosstones

The lyrics share a lot of themes, too, actually.

P.S. I honestly am not sure if I did the YouTube embedding correctly, as it has been a while for me to make such a post and my work computer's internet service blocks YouTube and all other stream-able media.

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You were successful.

[Reply #595 on:]

Being terrible with names, I'd forgotten that Sky's drummer was Tristan Fry.

[Reply #596 on:]

This guy creates useless inventions, but he somehow stumbled on the most USEFUL INVENTION EVER:

[Reply #597 on:]

A Fing-fonger! Yay

[Reply #598 on:]

Don't look if you're squeamish at all, but THEY FOUND SEYMOUR!

[Reply #599 on:]

Wow!

Also, I might be a terrible person...

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