Their Halloween episode was hilarious. It WAS a Firefly costume!

Castle: *comes out dressed as Captain Reynolds*

Castle's daughter: What are you supposed to be?

Castle: A space cowboy

Daughter: *sigh* 1) There are no cowboys in space and 2) didn't you already wear that like 5 years ago?

Castle: Well ...yeah

Daughter: Don't you think you should be moving on?

Big Bang Theory was a repeat last night but I got all my geek jokes from Castle instead XD

I think the dude on Topless Robot sums it up best:

Holy @#$% Lookit Nathan Fillion's Halloween Costume from Castle!

... to the "Dear, Sweet Aliens Who Need a HUG" list

Oh Pilot. :)

Farscape continues to be the awesomest of awesome-sauce. It really does start to come into it's own at the end of season 1/beginning of season 2 as everyone starts to move away from "I hate you all and only put up with you because I have no other choice" towards "you know you guys aren't so bad - I think I like you"

(Actually we've past that point and are at the "I think I like like you" stage although have not yet reached the "I want to frell the daylights out of you yet" stage) ;)

Two more eps till I get to show jetsan_supreme the much anticipated body switching episode! Whoot!

Don't sit still when you come over to my house - you may get doodled on ;)





I employ this cunning plan where I put on something engaging like Farscape and then attack when people aren't looking ;)

I'm pretty happy with this. The yellow make-up was in fact far more iridescent and gold when I first mixed it (it was a combination of gold powder, mixing liquid, and liquid yellow make-up) but I didn't catch it at quite the right point. Use it too soon and you get nothing but the pure gold (the mixing liquid needs time to absorb the powder). But leave it too long and apparently the gold mixes TOO well and you get left with nothing but the yellow. But yellow which doesn't blend as well as the pure yellow would have on it's own (hence the lack of more 3D looking shading).

But then again it was just a doodling session - the point was to get messy and make mistakes!

So I must thank jetsan_supreme for being patient and holding her arm still - and not objecting to being Bumblebee-ized! ;)

Ok a couple days late but still...

- I'm a little "enhhh" about the whole Disney/Marvel merger (more or less in "wait and see" mode) EXCEPT in regards to the fate of Marvel Island at Universal. My beloved Spidey ride! Seriously The-Best-Theme-Park-Ride-EVER! And it may (and in all likelihood is going to) all go away. If they don't move the ride (or rebuild it) at the inevitable new Disney incarnation of Marvel Island I will be so sad.

When we went to Florida in 2000 I was expecting the Spider-Man Ride to be cool but not amazing (after all the ride designers have to obey safety rules not to mention the laws of physics - unlike my imagination). And instead I ended up completely forgetting I was on a ride (seriously - I was that close to yelling out "Help! Peter!" during the climax of the ride) The only other time my suspension of disbelief has been so strong was seeing Jurassic Park for the first time when I was 12-ish and getting halfway down the block from the movie theatre before I remembered that the dinosaurs weren't actually real...

The next day we went back and I rode the ride twice in a row. Would have gone a few more times if Mom hadn't said "enough" and dragged me away. I always figured one day I'd get to go back and visit again... but now probably not... :(

- And the end of a far more important era, Reading Rainbow is being cancelled. This makes me REALLY sad. I mean obviously I haven't watched an episode in years but... it's Reading Rainbow! That's a MASSIVE chunk of my childhood right there. In fact I still remember the first time they had the Star Trek episode and I realized for the first time that Geordi and LeVar were the same guy...

Heck I remember in my last year of university one of the prof's asking in a psych studies class if anyone cared to hazard a guess as to what the "John Henry effect" was. So I raised my hand, saying that John Henry was an American folk hero who worked on the railroad and outraced a new spike driving machine meant to replace him. However he pushed himself so hard he died of a heartattack after. So I guessed that the "John Henry effect" would be something along the lines that people in a scientific study will push themselves much harder than normal if they think that they are being graded and/or in competition with someone or something else. When the prof said that was exactly right the girl ahead of me turned around and asked "How the HELL did you know that!?!" And I sorta blinked and went "Reading Rainbow".

And whenever I'm putting away stuff in the kids' section at the library I inevitably end up saying "This book was on Reading Rainbow!" And then I feel all warm and fuzzy inside.

Finally, speaking of the library. I had my first shift at Central yesterday. Since I'm not down there often I forget just how BIG Central branch is. And they have sections I didn't even know were there. I got taken down to the Stacks in the basement and saw the rows and rows and rows of old books, documents, magazines, microfiche - both creepy and exciting.

And juuuuuust before my shift was over I was putting away DVDs and spotted Children of Dune. Yaaaaay! Leto! Since I have neither the time or money to go back and see D-9 again I shall watch Children of Dune instead (of which there are more similarities than you might think). At least Leto isn't a idiot/jerk like Wikus (he's far cuter too - mmmm James McAvoy).

And Justice League (because Kingscourt had a DVD full of eps that I snagged the other night).

I love the library! :D

I decided Monday that I did have to go see District 9 again at some point, so this afternoon I went to a matinee showing (would have gone downtown or waited till evening but I am Battleshell-less this week and did not want to bother with bus schedules - this way I could walk)

Sat in the very, very, very, back row and managed not to be ill (at least from the camera shaking - the "popcorn" scene still makes me queasy for entirely different reasons)

Wow - I think it's a good sign when you feel guilty about "breaking the spell" by getting up too soon after the movie is over. Judging from the other people still motionless in their seats as I was leaving I wasn't the only one who felt like that.

Ohhh so conflicted about how to react to this movie. On the one hand there are several elements that push my squee buttons like WOW (like the creature designs. I DID keep hoping the camera would hold still but this time because I wanted a good look at the aliens) and on the other... it's just so raw and gritty and powerful I almost feel guilty for squeeing.

I guess it's a bit like Pan's Labyrinth - I think of it fondly, I fawn over the absolutely gorgeous design of the Faun, the creepiness of the Pale Man, and the utter care GDT took in making it period - yet it's really not a "happy" movie. You can argue it at least has a hopeful or slightly uplifting ending - but then you can say the same thing about District 9.

That being said...

( cut for slightly more spoilerish squeeing )

And if you haven't gone to see the movie yet - GO SEE IT!

I really wish I'd known going into it that it is 99% hand-held camera. It makes sense (at least at the beginning of the movie) but I'm really going to want to watch the movie again when it comes out on DVD, when it is less likely to make me puke.

EDIT: I do think though that it is probably the most realistic depiction of a first contact situation I've ever seen.

And I'm totally adding Christopher to the list of aliens I want to give a hug.

(Yeah I had to back up, episode wise quite a bit)

But... Can I hug the Martian now? Pleeeeeease? XD
Morgan Le Fey making poor J'Onn think he was back with his family on Mars - soooooo mean ;P

(And I do think he looks much cooler in true Martian form than his "Manhunter" hybrid look but oh well)

... but Justice League Batman is frickkin' hilarious XD

(from a bonus episode of Justice League Unlimited included on the New Frontier DVD)

*After ejecting from a crashing Batplane and completely deadpanned*

"This is Batman. I could use some air assistance... since you know, I can't fly..."

*falls some more*

"... at all."

*about 50 feet from the ground*

"Anytime now"


The Atom is also highly entertaining.

"I'm just going to lie here for a moment and rest. Because you know, I'm old"

And I really bet he's not complaining about getting to ride in Wonder Woman's cleavage later in the same episode.

... we were stopped at the lights across from the Invista Centre and I see a flash of yellow in the parking lot.

Now, some of you may have noticed these days that I have a habit of calling out "Bumblebee!" every time I see a yellow muscle car (or a yellow car with black stripes). And this time was no exception except...

... this time I was 100% right! :D

He was still there on Sunday when we came back, so when I got home I grabbed jetsan_supreme and we went all paparazzi-like on a certain Transformer :D



(Clicking "View All" should take you to the Photobucket album with more pics)



It was coolness indeed and completely unexpected. Apparently there was a product show on at the sports shop inside the Invista Centre with "special guest" Bumblebee. What Bee has to do with hockey sticks I have no idea but I am NOT going to complain ;)

I have no idea whether this is one of the actual cars used in the film or just made up to look like one (some cynical side of me suspects the latter). But even if it's not a "real" Bee he certainly looked the part! If you look close in some pics you can even see the "Bee-yotch" and disco ball hanging from the rearview mirror and the Autobot logo on the seats.

At one point the "handler" got in and turned the car on. Boy does that engine purr!

Sadly there was a barrier all around so I could not hug the car ;)
But Jetsan and I definitely still had fun!

I had a wonderfully fun, Fulghum-esque day yesterday (although only viewpoints is probably going to get that reference ;) )

Anyways it was the type of super-enjoyable day full of simple pleasures that sort of sneak up on you - and in this case including a generous helping of surprise steampunk and dinosaurs!

jetsan_supreme and I had a surprise sleepover Wed night, on account of landlord imposed renovations at her apartment not being complete, despite her already being away for 4 days. So we enjoyed generous helpings of the Soul Music cartoon (Have I mentioned lately that Death is frickkin' ADORABLE?) and cursed the unfinished pilot for Reaper Man that was included on the DVD (because we both totally want to see the Death vs Death fight)

The next morning since Jetsan had to get to work on campus, Dad and Court both had doctor's appointments, and I had a meeting at 11:00, we all rode downtown together. I had the intention of killing time at the library till my meeting, but then I remembered that on Thursdays the Agnes Etherington Art Centre is open for free. So I went there instead.

I am very sad that a) I did not bring the camera, because the day was gorgeous. Absolutely gorgeous. And b) even if I had the camera, no cameras are allowed in the gallery. Which really sucks because there is a marvelous exhibit there right now by an artist named Michael Campbell. A STEAMPUNK exhibit! :D

At first it just looked like a large pile of driftwood and rusted metal so I went over to the handy description on the wall:

The series Field Recordings of Icebergs Melting has been constructed from salvaged materials gathered and assembled into a flotilla of vessels. Each object suggests a practical purpose that combines Victorian-industrial iron and steam practicality merged with contemporary and future technologies. These vessels carry a physical history of damage, repair and patching far beyond a given life expectancy. Every object appears to be functioning and sustained, but just barely.

See? Steampunk! Canadiana steampunk :)

With that in mind I looked back at the sculpture and saw that it was indeed a ship on top of a wooden wave. Then I moved into the next room where there was a whole fleet of vessels. You can see pictures of them on the artist's website. Unfortunately they are not laid out nearly as nicely on is website as they are at the Agnes Etherington. At the gallery they had a huge branching shape made out of steel pipe and on the top of each pipe was a ship. It was super, super, cool!

There was another room where they had a cosplayer exhibit too! Sort of.... It was actually an exhibit about historical re-enacters and the disconnect between the detailing of the costumes versus the historical inaccuracy of the people wearing the costumes (ie that they are well fed, not missing limbs, teeth, etc as soldiers in various ages would)

I had to go to my meeting (which went FABULOUSLY) and was down in a beautiful old house on Earl St. Then I went back to the gallery to finish looking around. There was a docent wandering around by that time - basically a volunteer to give information about and interpret the paintings (like a live version of Sister Wendy).

So when I was finsihed with the gallery, I went back out into the gorgeous sunshine, then wandered across campus to the geology museum in Miller Hall. Where they just happen to have some very pretty rocks ... and dinosaurs! :)

On my way out I grabbed some fresh hot fries from a chip-truck and had a very fun conversation with the fry-guy (apparently he had NO idea there was an art gallery at Queens and turns out he's a museum nut).

Then I walked back up to Brock St and caught a bus home.

Wonderful day! Although I was wiped for my evening shift at the library and SO sore when I got home. I woke up and my legs STILL ached. Although they did feel better by about noon today.



But for the Kingston folks - if you can get down to see the steampunk stuff it's definitely worth a go. The exhibit is only on until August 16th. There is also an interesting article from the Whig about the show here

Oh PBS - I seriously love you. Like wow.

I was thinking yesterday about art spaces and murals and this memory fragment came wandering to the surface. I used to watch a show where the guy had this massive mural on one side of the studio that he would just add a little bit to during each show. He'd made up these various characters (one species were teddybears with unicorn horns, another were just fuzzballs with arms and legs) and he'd create cities and forests, and other settings for them. He'd just pick up in another area one day and add something new, and when he ran out of blank spaces he'd go back and add details.

Now when you think of kids art shows, Art Attack is probably the first thing that springs to mind. But this was another show, this one with a space theme (in fact with secondary characters who were dressed as robots and aliens) and was devoted more to drawing than to crafts.

But for the life of me I couldn't remember the name. I remember it had something to do with creating your own world through drawing (which was what I found so cool about it) but I couldn't remember the name.

Thanks to some Google-Fu learned from montyollie I figured it out though. The mystery show was called Secret City and some kind soul has put several episodes up on YouTube. So I spent some time strolling down memory lane last night.





It's still pretty cool. The drawing principles he's trying to teach are definitely sound, even if somewhat roughly shoe-horned into "7 Magic Drawing Words" - foreshortening, shading, surface/texture, contour, overlapping, and density. And although everyone's high-pitched, kid-friendly tones can grate on the ears after awhile no show that attempts to teach 10-year-olds the definition of the word "aesthetic" can be accused of being condescending.

Oh PBS - you are so many shades of win XD

And ... I want one
And ... WE'RE ALL GOING TO DIE XD

The blog Topless Robot reports that a Japanese company has apparently created robotic enhancement suits which, like Guyver armour, increase the user's strength by picking up on electrical signals transmitted across the skin (sadly though, current models lack elbow swords, laser beams, and chest cannons - in future upgrades perhaps?)

Here's the kicker. They decided to name these things Hybrid Assistive Limb, or in short form - HAL!

And the company's name is Cyberdyne

Or, sa the guy on TR said: "FUCKING CYBERDYNE. IS MAKING IMMENSELY STRONG EXOSKELETONS. IN JAPAN. NAMED HAL.
In related news, there's is no reason of earth not to get drunk out of your goddamn mind tonight. Because tomorrow, these things could be tearing us apart like fresh bread."

XD

Or rather Batman's sock.

While Christine is apparently the dude from Thunderbirds and Dr Bashir is the Persian (no really - that last one is true)

And already 10000X more amusing than Webber's planned Phantom Of The Opera sequel

... but this more than makes up for it! XD

This is hilarious! John Hodgman (AKA the "I'm a PC" guy) giving a speech at the 2009 Radio and TV Correspondents' Dinner at the White House. And Obama totally plays along.

If you've got 14 minutes to kill (or put it on while you do something else) it's WELL worth it.




And jetsan_supreme you'd be so proud - I got the last three questions right ;)

As more and more people on my FL brave the wilds and venture out to see Transformers 2 some of them are coming back and saying they liked it. Or, that at least they didn't have a problem with it because all they wanted to do was see stuff blow up (and yes, stuff most definitely blows up)

And actually, despite all my ranting and raving I am 100% fine with other people liking the movie. I have very specific reasons for hating it and I realize that not everyone shares these. But people are continually making two arguments that bug the crap out of me (especially coming from people who, if they don't consider themselves outright geeks I know at least have geekish tendencies), which is why I've made 3 posts on this already.

So please, please, PLEASE, I'm begging, for the love of all things Geeky DO NOT use the reasoning "Of course Transformer 2 is bad - it's a movie based on TOYS" because quite frankly that argument is a load of crap.

The guy in that review I linked to said it best. He said:

"I've seen shitty movies made about the life of Christ and I've seen great movies made about funny books involving a rich guy who dresses up like a [flying] rodent and beats up bank robbers because he misses his mommy."

His point being that the source material should not automatically mean that the movie is either good or bad. How the movie is made should determine whether it's good or bad.

So if you like Transformers 2 because of the giant robot stomping action or because there were lots of big explosions - that's fine. If you did like the humour - again also fine. If you thought it was fun and not one of the worst movies ever made I'm OK with that. Really. I mean it. Because these are reasons. But don't try and hint (or outright say) that NOT liking it is pointless based simply on the source material or else you might as well hand in your Geek Card right now.

A lot of "normal" people would say that discussing, reading, writing, drawing, costuming, going to conventions, or otherwise doing any extensive thinking (for good or bad) over anything to do with any sort of fictional character (whether based on toys, cartoons, comics, tv shows, movies, or books) is silly and a waste of time, period. But we know that's not true.

And from this point forth if you ever catch me saying "But of course it's bad - it's based on _____" you have my permission to smack me upside the head.

PS. Given the qualifer that I did like the first movie, substituting "it's a Michael Bay film" in for "it's a movie about toys" and therefore I can't complain it's bad is also silly (no, wookiemart I don't mean you - you gave me a very nice "I told you so" ;) ). That basically amounts to "You must like (or loathe) all films in a director's body of work equally because they were all made by the same person." So if you LOVED the original Star Wars you have to LOVE Episode 1, 2, and 3 the exact same amount because all four were directed by George Lucas. Or, having loved Spider-Man and Spider-Man 2, I have no right to want to chase Sam Raimi down with a soggy spleen as payback for Spidey 3.

In the wake of the horrible travesty that was Transformers 2 I've been trying to figure out where I went wrong. How did I get suckered into believing this movie could be anything other than 2 and a half hours of Baysplosions.

And I have come to the conclusion that it is all Steven Spielberg's fault.

(But before that, for those of you lucky enough to have still not seen this piece of garbage, yet are fighting your overwhelming curiosity - or just are looking for LOLs - the Nostalgia Critic summarizes the entire movie in under 5 minutes. Be warned it is full of SPOILERS for you masochistic folks who still insist on seeing, or are being dragged to see, the actual movie)

So, I had me a wee think about just what tipped the scales for me the first time from "adequately exciting summer flick based on an 80's cartoon I liked but was never crazy about" to "Cool! Awesome! Must Add To List Of Personal Fandoms NOW" and it pretty much comes down to Bumblebee. I love that Bee's a playful, funny character without being a stupid one (occasional juvenile actions can be attributed to his youth, not his intelligence level). I love the friendship that develops between Bee and Sam (Bee and Mikaela too). Bee and the kids become the heart of that movie and the main thing that counteracts the Baysplosions.

And the reason Bee's in the first movie, in fact the reason the first movie got made at all is because of Steven Spielberg. According to the Transformers DVD it was Spielberg who really decided that Transformers needed to be a live action movie, and Spielberg that decided that the main relationship/theme of the first film should be "a boy and his car" (because Bumblebee was his favorite character from the days when he used to watch the cartoon with his son).

And it was also Steven Spielberg's severe lapse of judgement that somehow decided that Michael Bay would be the perfect person to direct it. I can only assume that it was Spielberg's producing that kept things from getting out of hand on the first film and his lack of paying attention that allowed the second to turn into a bloated mess severely lacking in said "boy and his car"-ness (because kazahaya and I have both decided that many of the problems with the second film would have been fixed by actually letting Bee, you know, do stuff).

Hence the "shame on you Steven Spielberg, you tricked me".

And though I certainly don't agree with everything this guy from The Escapist says (because obviously I DID like the first film) he also makes several valid points and a good counter argument to the extremely irritating "it's a summer movie based on robot toys - what do you expect?" apparent justification for the movie sucking.

My take - If the lazy, stereotyped, confused, half-assed writing in TF2 can be entirely justified by "it's a summer blockbuster" then we should be giving $200 million dollars, a full film crew, and free reign to every film student with a half-baked idea for an action flick no matter how bad.

And I'm all over the "why are the robots the C string characters in their own damn movie?" point as well. In the first movie it makes a certain amount of sense - almost all sf/superhero movies take a while to get going as they set the scene/pour out the exposition but this is the second film - there's NO reason for the robots to have such minor roles. I don't think all the human characters should be eliminated but the emphasis should be on the Transformers not the humans.

And after all that - I still want Michael Bay's head on a platter. Like that last reviewer said "I just don't feel like I've seen a bad movie ... I feel like I've been defeated by some malevolent force"




But don't worry Bee - I still love you

I really, really do. That was beyond stupid.

the4thhokage was right - Transformers 2 is far less of an extended car commercial than Transformers and it's because the Autobots are barely in the damn thing!

Seriously it was all Decepticons Vs Humans. The Autobots got even fewer lines than they did in the first movie - except for the two pieces of utterly insulting stupidity they dared to call the Twins (who looked like mechanical versions of Gizmo and talked like the worst black rapper stereotypes you can possibly get away with in a PG film). THEY never shut up.

And What The HELL was with the constantly farting robots?!? And all the testicle jokes?

And they're ROBOTS, not Aliens - all the slime and goop is not necessary. In fact, take that tongue and go stick it in Spider-Man 3 where it belongs!

The ONLY good thing to come out of this is the fact I no longer have to feel dirty about liking the first film despite the fact you are a pompous ass. Because obviously all the things I liked in the first movie were a complete fluke, you jerk.

DAMMIT that was worse than Spider-Man 3 and X-Men 3 COMBINED XP





EDIT: lelola pointed this review (http://bexless.livejournal.com/789078.html) out to viewpoints a few days ago and I didn't read it because I was trying not to read ANY reviews or info going into the movie. My plan was to just go in and sit down, and enjoy the giant robots. Sadly I have to concur that the reviewer got it exactly right.
So not only is the movie DUMB it's SEXIST and RACIST and just generally all around ignorant. XP

Oh and only Michael Bay could manage to make Obama come off as a xenophobic jerk in comparison to George W Bush :P

Wow - it's been a LONG time since I used oil paints. Like 15 years at least. When I was young I did a lot of drawings with oil pastels because well, that's what my parents got me the year I asked for "art supplies" for my birthday.

When I decided I wanted to move on to actual paint I got a set of oil paints. Why? Because my favorite painting show was Bob Ross' Joy of Painting and he used oils. And fan brushes. You couldn't make a "happy little tree" without a fan brush ;)

After a couple attempts though I eventually gave up with the oil paints. I did a couple really neat landscapes I was happy with but I hated having to clean everything up with paint thinner and the paintings took FOREVER to dry. Like, not over night, not by the next night - like one to two weeks. As a 13 year old I was just not that patient. I switched to acrylic and never looked back.

Now though, I'm loving how long the oils take to dry. It's perfect for the experimental mood I'm in. I can go at everything at a leisurely pace - if something's not working I leave it, go do something else, then come back later and try again. Yesterday I tried a "painting" that was all basic 3D shapes like a cube, cylinder, sphere, and a "donut" (I think it's called a torus), got frustrated with my attempts at blending, so left it till today. And now I've managed to fix it (or at least part of it - I know I didn't get a couple things right but it's a 1st attempt - and I can always paint over it and try again later).

Tomorrow I'm going to try an actual still life. I spent all night sketching teacups, but it's late so I'll hold off applying the paint till tomorrow.

I've just discovered Teletoon is in the middle of a MASSIVE G1 Transformers marathon.

Apparently it started at 9am and it's going till 9 tommorow morning.

All right! Transformers all night!