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!

A Voiced Appreciation

My latest geek obsession has been The Venture Bros! This Adult Swim show parodies classic cartoons - such as Johnny Quest, Scooby-Doo, The Hardy Boys and G.I. Joe - in a hilarious story about a father, his twin sons, their bodyguard, and their adventures across the globe. (Perhaps, that's putting it too simply...)

I could spend a day geeking-out about how much I love this show! All of the characters are twisted versions of classic cartoon characters. The level of continuity in this complicated storyline is amazing. Every episode is absolute hilarity.

However, the two aspects that make The Venture Bros. one of my favorite shows of all time are:

Creators Jackson Publick & Doc Hammer

Not only are they the brains behind this fantastic show, but they're many of the voices in the show, too! Many adult animated television shows (like Family Guy & South Park) feature a ton of characters performed by a small handful of voice actors. It's amazing how one person can provide voice to many beloved personalities.

In my opinion, voice acting is one of many underrated creative gigs. Sure, voice actors aren't the richest, but it's fun and quite rewarding. With very little physical acting involved, voice actors can be a wide range of different characters making each experience new and exciting. (Not to mention lessening the likelihood of typecasting.)

In a Comic-Con panel, Jackson Publick and Doc Hammer talked about how straining certain voices are to perform. Sometimes, a character's voice is not so easy to produce. It takes skill and practice to be a great voice actor. It's an art that, if done poorly, can ruin the entire experience...

Who does your favorite cartoon voice?

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The Beauty of Being In The Same Room

Nowadays, video games are all about multiplayer. Even games that have been single-player for many years now have multiplayer capabilities. This is mostly because no plot imaginable could compete with playing with real people. Interestingly, the word "multiplayer" has evolved into something completely different in the gaming world...


When I was growing up, "multiplayer" looked something like this:

One console. Multiple controllers. Split screens.

Now multiplayer looks more like this:

One player. One controller. One Headset.

Online multiplayer has completely changed gaming. Instead of gathering all of your friends together in your living room (and creating a wire jungle with your controllers), you can play with people from around the world via the Internet. Online multiplayer is undoubtedly an incredible innovation that has improved the gaming experience.

However, it has almost completely eliminated co-opt gameplay! In my opinion, there is still something irreplaceable about having friends and family in the same location playing a game (without strangers). Not only playing video games; when was the last time anyone played a board/card game?

A few familiar faces in the geek world have YouTube series featuring games like these, and they're certainly worth watching. Check out a couple of my favorite episodes below! I guarantee they will make you want to get your friends together for a game night.

There's just so much fun to be had in this pile.

The Guild's Felicia Day & her brother Ryon have a hilarious web series, called Co-optitude, on the Geek & Sundry channel. On the show, Felicia and Ryon play the old school video games their mom never let them play as children. 

The frustration, Day-sibling-hilariousness, and nostalgia make each episode a side-splitting joy. It also makes me want to a get a Super Nintendo and play video games with my best friend. 

(Fun Fact: You can order a brand new Super NES on Amazon for $350!)

On The Nerdist channel, Wil Wheaton (of just-about-everything fame: Star Trek, The Big Bang Theory, Eureka, etc.) hosts a table-top gaming show called... Table Top.

The Haunt starts in Part 2

Until I came upon this show, I thought they'd stopped making table-top games. It's always fun to get a bunch of geeks together for a game. Whether it's D&D or something you've never heard of, there's nothing like basking in the boundless creativity no game design studio could muster.

These are my favorite episodes of Co-optitude & Table Top. I hope you've found them thoroughly entertaining. More so, I hope you've been inspired to gather some friends together and create some hilarity of your own!

Happy Gaming! 

Geek My Room

I'd like to share a video I came across on Felicia Day's Geek & Sundry YouTube channel:

What a fun project! Your home is your castle; it should reflect the things you love. This video gives some great tips for geeking-out your room on a budget. To recap:

• Frame your posters
• Find a theme & use its color scheme (60% primary color; 30% secondary color; 10% accent color)
• Use old toys as decorations
• DIY is fun and inexpensive
• Avoid clutter!!!

If I might add a few ideas:

• Look into different decor styles (traditional, contemporary, eclectic, etc.) and try to build a geek-infused design from there
• Your room doesn't have to represent every TV show, movie, video game, and comic you love. Narrow your focus.
• Keep the layout simple enough to change things over time.
• Have a fellow fan help you, if you can. An extra set of eyes can't hurt.
• Remember you have to LIVE in what you come up with.

I hope this has given you a few a ideas and some motivation to update the look of your favorite room with a little more of the things you love. There's no better way to introduce someone into your life than bringing them home to see how much you love Doctor Who.

Check out this eclectic zombie apocalypse living room I designed on Polyvore!
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Geek Cave by alexified featuring crate and barrel furniture

We Have The Technology...

Samsung's Galaxy Gear is an exciting piece of technology! Much like the introduction of the touchscreen, this is yet another step toward the future our forefathers only dreamed of in fiction.

The Jetsons. Tex Avery's "House of Tomorrow". Star Trek. I often wonder how close are we to the advanced technology of "the future". After all, this is the future, right?

Science and technology have made incredible advances. Apparently, time travel is possible (in one direction). Hovercrafts are real. Video-chatting allows us to see people we're speaking with in real-time. Late performers have returned to the stage via hologram. Cars can self-park!

I'm admittedly excited about Galaxy Gear. However, I doubt this trend will stick. 

For some reason, it feels like we aren't ready for it to be "the future" yet. Sure, we'll adopt the technological advances that preserve us and make our lives easier, but society hasn't fully embraced the futuristic age. 

To my knowledge, no major car company is producing a hover car. No one is adding cybernetic upgrades to themselves. Futuristic home furnishings are regarded as mere novelty items. We have the technology; we just don't have the will to implement it. Why is that?

The distinction between the past, present and future is only a stubbornly persistent illusion. 

--Albert Einstein

Perhaps we have too much respect for the past to abandon it. (This would explain trends like Instagram and "vintage" decor and clothing.) Maybe we have too many issues to work out in the present to look forward to the future right now.

My theory is, along with all of the aforementioned reasons, fear keeps us from adopting serious technological advances. If we were to create this very different, wildly expensive infrastructure based on fairly new technology, the likelihood of glitches and failures would be astronomical! And the costs would be just as high. There would be no turning back, and life on Earth could get really bad really fast. 

"Doesn't look so cool now, does it?" - Our Robot Overlords

So, it might be better to ease our way into the futuristic world with a talking phone or a fancy watch than having your cyber-brain installed...

Who's Your Favorite Sociopath?

Death Note is about a straight-A, high school senior named Light Yagami, who - through arbitrary circumstance and a Shinigami's boredom - comes across a mysterious notebook called a Death Note. Light learns that if you write someone's name (and envision their face) in the Death Note, that person will die. He then proceeds to use the Death Note to kill heinous criminals, to whom he feels deserve capital punishment, in an effort to create a better world...and be regarded as a "god" of this new & better world.

Unfortunately for Light, the police notice the several dozen criminals meeting an unfortunate demise and come to the conclusion that, somehow, someone is responsible for this. They hire the legendary, world-famous detective, known only as L, to solve this mystery - along with a task-force of the police's best officers (which includes Light's father).

Keeping his enemies close, Light also joins the task-force to find the mysterious murderer known as Kira (which, in reality, is Light himself). The great minds of Light and L compete in a sophisticated game of cat-and-mouse that makes Death Note a must-see for anime fans! 

Death Note is a fantastic series, but what blew my mind? It wasn't until the last episode that I realized: Light is a sociopath! 

I'd been cheering for him the entire time! Every time he was backed into a corner, I'd sit on the edge of my seat hoping he'd find a solution! Then, at the very end, I realized something that was evident from the beginning yet I ignored: the protagonist and his cause are utterly immoral!

Go Light! Kill those criminals! Become a god! Woo!

I recently read an intriguing article on io9 that lists 10 reasons the audience would root for amoral protagonists. Without spoiling the story, Light did some pretty awful things, but he meets a few of the article's listed criteria.

• "1) Make their ends noble (or neutral) even if their means are evil": Light's ideal world without violent crimes was a noble cause. However, he chose immoral means of achieving this goal.

• "3) Someone or something they care about": There were moments when Light showed us he wasn't a complete monster. There were people, such as his father, that he cared about.

Furthermore, I think audiences appreciate strong skill regardless of the morality conflicts. Though Light was a sociopath, he was undeniably good at what he was doing! It was fun to watch him think his way out of sticky situations. After all, the good guys are measured by the strength of the bad ones, right?

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A Very Punky Halloween

Happy October, everybody! Not only has Autumn arrived, but Halloween - one of my favorite holidays - is right around the corner! Why do I love Halloween? Well, aside from having a valid excuse to eat a LOT of candy and the delightful terror of haunted houses, Halloween is all about costumes!!!

I'm a huge cosplay fan! I love to see people's recreations of beloved characters. If you're not familiar with cosplay, I strongly suggest taking a look at the YouTube series Just Cos on the Nerdist Channel. It really opened my eyes to what cosplay means to its participants; it's actually quite freeing. 

Upon "researching" cosplay, I came across two interesting costume styles I'd like to share: Steampunk & Cyberpunk.

Steampunk

If you're familiar with the setting of Bioshock: Infinite, that is essentially Steampunk. Steampunk is a sub-genre of science fiction that is more retrospective than futuristic. The style is 19th Century Western, but the technology well-beyond that.

Steampunk dates back to early 20th century science fiction literature, although most cosplayers are not specific characters. Instead Steampunk cosplayers are simply people from a different era - the far future where another Industrial Revolution is taking place.

Characteristics of a Steampunk costume:

• No neon or bold colors; more browns, creams, neutral colors
• Industrial aspects (typically gears, clocks)
• 19th century fashion (corsets, top hats, ruffled skirts, etc)

Cyberpunk

I like to think of Cyberpunk as the opposite of Steampunk. Where Steampunk is the punk of the past, Cyberpunk is the punk of the future.

The Cyberpunk style seems to have originated in the late 20th century. (The 1980s respectively.) Again, these cosplayers are not any particularly character, but instead represent a future time period. The Cyberpunk future is one where humans have merged with very advanced technology to create a world of androids and cyborgs.

Characteristics of a Cyberpunk costume:

• Bright neon/Bold colors/Metallics
• Lights
• Technology (mechanical limbs/enhancements)
• Tubes/wires
• Colored Hair
• *Gothic elements & Sex appeal

*Not entirely sure why Cyberpunk is more Gothic and revealing, but those are common characteristics.

If you're still looking for a cool Halloween costume idea, you might consider being a punk. There is a lot of creative potential here! Steampunk Tinkerbell, Cyberpunk Bride...

And, of course, there's always the classic punk...

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& let me know what you want to be for Halloween!

Lady Anti-Hero

I came across an interesting point on IGN today: There has never been a female protagonist in Grand Theft Auto.

The franchise has received more than its fair share of criticism - as one might imagine regarding a game about violent crimes - so, I don't mean to add to it. In fact, I understand where a woman may not fit into the classic Grand Theft Auto main character role.

However, the thought of an awesome woman protagonist intrigued me! Sure, she wouldn't do everything her male counterparts have in the past, but she could conquer in her own way. Aside from Rockstar breaking a gender barrier in gaming, a leading lady in GTA has plenty of potential...

Think of an former queen bee at rock-bottom out for revenge on the people who hurt her. What if she was the daughter of a mob boss or a gangster's widow? What if she was smoking hot, smarter than most men, and afraid of NOTHING? Suddenly, this bad idea sounds groundbreaking!

On the other hand, I may be a little biased. I'm a [very geeky] girl, and GTA is essentially a role playing game with a large male audience. I'm not sure how men in their late-teens to early-thirties would feel about assuming the role of a woman - regardless of how tough she is.

Not many guys are trying to play this.

I LOVE strong female leads! Fiona Glenanne (Burn Notice), Revy (Black Lagoon), Jo Lupo (Eureka)... There's something empowering about watching a fellow female take a gun apart and put it back together in 20 seconds! Grand Theft Auto, a game with virtually no boundaries, about low-level criminals rising to the top, would be a perfect arena for the next great strong female character.

...That isn't sci-fi or magically-enhanced...

What do you think? 

Does a woman belong in GTA? Or is it a man's world?

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P.S. Someone started a petition to Rockstar for a female protagonist in Grand Theft Auto! Who knows? Maybe GTA VI?

Hooray For The Sims 4

Recently, I got a first look at a game I've been looking forward to ever since being blown away by The Sims 3:

The Sims is fascinating in that, somehow, it always finds a way to exceed itself. While becoming unrealistically more comical, each generation of The Sims is still more lifelike than its predecessor. Each generation opens more doors for your Sims (and their lives) to walk through.

"Omg! They have cars now!!!" - Me (upon the release of The Sims 2 in 2005)

However, as a long-time fan, I've discovered a few patterns that make me wonder how long the Sims innovation will continue. Will The Sims 4 be yet another awe-inspiring leap for the game? Or will it simply be "same game, different box"?

If you're not familiar with the franchise, it's not difficult to understand. The Sims is a life-simulator wherein you create characters (Sims) and live through their lives (i.e. get them jobs, have them start relationships with other Sims, have children, etc.). The game starts with the base game (The Sims, The Sims 2, The Sims 3, or The Sims 4) and becomes more fun as you add expansion packs to it (e.g. House Party, Night Life, Showtime, etc.).

The base games are pretty standard; you can't do much more with your Sims than the basics. Though, fans of The Sims probably notice a trend in the expansion packs...

Deja Vu?

Hopefully, The Sims 4 will incorporate some of the beloved aspects of past expansion packs into the base game so that players don't have to wait for and buy expansions packs to keep up with the last generation!

Some other things on my wishlist:

• Bring back the ability to plead to the grim reaper to save a loved one. (For some reason, you could do that in 1 and 2 but not 3)
• The Sims have had "juice bars" for a while, but in The Sims 3 Late Night it was tongue-in-cheek acknowledged that there was alcohol in those beverages. I think the ability to get drunk (and make bad decisions) would be awesome in The Sims 4. 
• It would be cool if you could ask a friend watch your child instead of hiring a babysitter. Or at least choose your babysitter.
• Something totally new...

Of course, there are also gems within the previous games that I hope remain in the newest installment. But, for now, these are the major things that come to mind as I anticipate the release of more details about this game. In the meantime, we have this: 

What do you think so far?
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