TMNT: Traversing the Uncanny Valley

When I was growing up, I loved the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles! Of course, I'm referring to the classic television show from the late 1980s.

They were funny. They loved pizza. They were animated. They didn't look creepy. This is more than I can say (so far) regarding the newest incarnation of TMNT coming to theaters in August.

What do you think?

I'm not too excited about the new Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie for the same reason I wasn't really happy with the newest Scooby-Doo movies. I don't live-action remakes of animated characters.

I understand this is an age where explosions equal great action movies, and new movie magic has its place in old classics, for sure. However, live action characters are simply creepy to me. They too often fall into "the uncanny valley", where they look too-fake-to-be-real yet too-real-to-be-fake. This ambiguity makes me uncomfortable.

You can't tell me that isn't creepy.

The movie hasn't even released yet, and fans are already making their corrections:

Much better. Well done!

Well, we shall soon see how the movie turns out. With the right story and acting, we might be able to ignore the creepiness of the turtles. However, it is a Michael Bay movie...

Are you excited for the new TMNT movie?

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World Keeps Spinning Right Round

I read this yesterday and I found it absolutely terrifying. I never realized how awful it would be if the world stopped spinning.

The notion has been in poetry since we learned the Earth spins. After seeing what would happen if the world stopped spinning, I think your love leaving you will probably not be that bad. It really puts things into perspective...

As the World Doesn't Turn

It's frightening to know that at any point the world could collapse into utter chaos. (After all, it's not impossible for the world to stop spinning.) However, it is very unlikely. Definitely not as likely to happen as many other bad things in life.

What I take away from this installment of Vsauce is: No matter how bad these everyday things are, my world is still turning.

An Offer From The Zuka Club

Ouran High School Host Club Episode 9: A Challenge from Lobelia Girls' Academy! The girls' academy musical theatre Zuka club offers to "rescue" Haruhi from The Host Club. So our protagonist has to make a difficult decision: Will she abandon the boys for the girls?

If I were in her shoes...

There's no way I would leave Ouran Academy - much less The Host Club! Especially after the boys went to the extent of dressing as ladies to entice her to stay! That's incredible loyalty. They really showed her they care about her and want her to stay in the club. 

Even Kyoya dressed up!

The Ouran Host Club is like a family. Their genuine love for each other - particularly Tamaki & Haruhi - is what makes this anime so great! As soon as I finished it, I thought: "I MUST read the manga!"

I suppose that's what anime is for, right? Well done!

My Cosplay Bucket List

Back in April, Girl Gone Geek put together a bucket list of characters, she'd like to cosplay in the future. (Check it out!)

I was inspired to do the same thing! Below are a few characters I'd like to cosplay!

Poison Ivy & Harley Quinn (The New Batman Adventures)

I love this dynamic duo! Not only are they beautiful, they are the epitome of supervillainesses. They're resourceful, intelligent, independent, charming, and fun! Personally, they remind me of myself and my partner-in-crime, Sandy. She's not particularly geeky, but I'm sure I could put her in a Harley Quinn costume and drag her to Dragon-Con.

Revy (Black Lagoon)

Is it obvious now that I have a thing for bad girls? Revy is as bad as they come! With a loud, foul mouth, short shorts, and a gun in her hand, Revy is my number one reason for watching Black Lagoon. 

This is a pretty simple cosplay outfit, too. Most of it I could buy at the mall.

A Bleach Captain

None of these specifically. I would like to cosplay as the captain of my own squad - maybe an imagined Squad 14 or the successor to one of the above captains. Of course, I'll need a cool zanpakutō!

Launch (Dragonball)

Another great best friend cosplay that could work alone as well. Since I prefer the "bad girl" look, I would probably be blonde Launch and carry a gun. For those unfamiliar with this #throwback character...

The most dangerous sneeze in the world.

Rule 63 Tomoe (Kamisama Hajimemashita)

I read some fanfiction about Tomoe having a little sister that looked just like him. This intrigued me. I imagined her looking a lot like this:

Regardless of whether the Kamisama Hajimemashita reference sticks, fox spirits are throughout anime and their usually really cool characters.

In a Facebook group, a question arose about the accuracy of cosplay. Is the goal to be most like the actual character or is it okay to put your own spin on it? What qualities do you look for in a character when choosing who to cosplay as? Is it only about the costume or does personality fit into it?

Hmm... something to think about... 

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Renegade Angel Brain Mush

I'm an Adult Swim fan. I have been since the good ole days where the promos were adults swimming in a public pool, and Adult Swim started around 10pm with: "All kids out of the pool!"

Those were the days!

Anyway...

Being a fan of late-night Cartoon Network, I've seen some strange stuff: Super Jail, Frisky Dingo, The Mighty Boosh, etc. But this recent show I've discovered takes the cake!

AdultSwim runs marathons on its website. Sometimes, these are their popular shows, like The Venture Brothers or AquaTeen Hunger Force. Other times, it's their lesser known original series like: Xavier: Renegade Angel.

This show caught my eye because it had the graphics of one of those Taiwanese news animations! The main character, Xavier the renegade angel, is a strange combination of an Egyptian hieroglyphic and a pseudo-enlightened, beach boy hipster. He's on a quest to find his train-wreck mother (I think...), and gets into these bizarre situations.

I was able to watch an episode and a half before I had to watch something else. This show made me feel like I was on some kind of hallucinogen.

That being said, if you're looking for a safe(?) way to kill some brain cells and waste a little time, two seasons worth of episodes are free to stream on adultswim.com! You never know; it might be somewhat enlightening...

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The Devil Is In The Anime

So, I've started watching two anime series: Blue Exorcist & The Devil Is A Part-Timer. I didn't choose either anime for this reason, but I notice a common supernatural theme: The Devil.

Blue Exorcist is about young man training to become an exorcist and avenge the death of the his father - or, more precisely, the man who raised him. His actual father is... the devil. Yes, young Rin Okumura is the literal spawn of Satan. (Yet, surprisingly, he's quite the good guy!)

The Devil Is A Part-Timer is about Satan, his most devoted servant, and the only human who can stop him from taking over the world living surprisingly normal, part-time lives in our world while trying to return their more mystical world. This devil is also an astonishingly nice guy.

It's aspects like demon heroes that make me appreciate foreign media. A sympathetic devil is not something The United States would easily accept. Surely, numerous religious groups would protest these shows if they were American-made.

Personally, I try not to allow my religious convictions to keep me from enjoying a narrative with a different perspective. In doing so, anime like these often open my mind to possibilities like: What if the devil had a chance to live a normal human life? Would he embrace the opportunity? Would the world embrace him? Should they?

Also, I must admit seeing the devil working at (essentially) McDonald's is spiritually gratifying!

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Pinterest Knows Me!

So I got on Pinterest today, and I found that they've added this new feature: Explore Interests. It's merely in a preview phase now, but it's actually quite exciting.

From the looks of it, Explore Interest compiles pins based on what you seem to be interested in. Based on my 43 Boards (8,464 pins) & 632 Likes, this is a screenshot of some of my interests:

It's amazing how accurate these categories are. For instance, I have a board called "Beauty of the Beast" consisting of interesting beauty pins - crazy hair colors, nail art, etc. However, somehow Pinterest found that I'm specifically fond of red hair! 

I took a class on privacy in college. From it, I gathered that the largest issue of online privacy is the judgement that comes from aggregated information. We may not care so much that the information about us is collected, but we do care about what the collection of information means once put together. It makes me happy that my interests have been accurately predicted so far!