Thoughts, ramblings and other stuff

The popularity of the new Star Wars is still soaring. And it's very popular - it just became the highest grossing film in US ever and third in the world already and despite everyone saying China doesn't care for Star Wars it's also did extremely well on it's first day there (I knew it - what does it matter they didn't watch the originals in cinemas - they stay on point on popular culture as well as everyone else and love big spectacle as much as everyone else - maybe even more). This kind of popularity means inevitable fan art and parodies.

There are the beautiful mash-ups of Star Wars with Calvin and Hobbes by Disney artist Brian Kesinger. The most popular one is the most classical:


By my favourite one is this - so true


After all we all know Kylo Ren is the emo one (I wondered if he dies his hair from the start - noone in the family had hair this dark). He shows us all how misunderstood he truly is through his twitter account. Misunderstood by his parents and picked on by his very lonely uncle Luke.

You should talk, @KyloR3n I taught you to levitate rocks You dropped them all when a girl walked by Then you stormed off to write poetry.

— Very Lonely Luke (@VeryLonelyLuke) January 7, 2016

It's a hard life. The one that's may lead one to drank Force calling that girl Rey and keep offering to teach her the Dark Side. Because "No" is never an answer and and she will eventually want him if only Hux stops putting his tantrums on Youtube. It's all described in Kylo Ren needs to Chill.

So I break the catching up posts for something different.

John Scalzi reads a book about the truth about John Scalzi (for money). It uncovers the truth about SJW and the fact that John Scalzi Is Not A Very Popular Author And I Myself Am Quite Popular. If audio version isn't enough you can also get it in ebook (and read the amazon reviews helpfully pointing out that it isn't about the "award-winning" Florida meteorologist John Scalzi in case you didn't know) - also non-amazon version.

For those who don't know - this is a parody of the book from the guy who organised Rabid Puppies take over of Hugo nominations this year. It makes fun of his obsession with John Scalzi who he blames for being removed from SFWA (not true) and accuses of being SJW (true) and gamma male (Hulk?). This parody is superior to the original as it has even more chapter 5s (showing that Alexandra Erin or alexandraerin is also better editor than the Hugo nominated Vox Day and also live tweeted her read of the original so you don't have to). And the charity is worthy too.

Now all we need is the song.

And to complete the SJWness of this post here is Target Ad from their gender confusing gender neutral Star Wars line

Everyone you know and a lot of people you don't have been doing the ice bucket challenge for ALS. That includes some billionaires, our favourite celebrities and even writers. It almost feels like everyone poured ice water on themselves. But this is nothing*. Here's a guy pouring liquid nitrogen on himself. It works because of the Leidenfrost effect - skin is so hot compared to liquid nitrogen that it turns into gas instantly so the liquid never touches the skin. Still - not something to try at home.
EDIT: The original video is down so here's another version


*I didn't mean it like that. ALS is one of those terrifying neurodegenerative diseases I talked about earlier. It's almost the exact opposite of the things like Alzheimer's but is equally horrifying. You're not loosing your mind but it becomes trapped inside your unresponsive body - still there inside, unable to do anything. As I said - these are the kind of things that horrify me. Anything that helps to make it better is awesome.

EDIT: And since I'm adding things to this - here is Stephen Hawking version

Jewel Staite did AMA on redid this week and shared her head canon for Kylee's future:
"Kaylee's kicked Mal down a couple pegs and become Captain, obviously. Simon looks after the babies."
It's probably better then Wheadon's (where one of them is almost certainly dead).

Both Lev Grossman and John Scalzi are going to visit place where I live next week. They are both promoting their new books. I still feels so weird that I live somewhere where that happens regularly.

By clicking on this link you decide to see 11th Doctor, Stan Lee and TARDIS in one photo. I'm not responsible for the result of seeing this.

Speaking of th Doctor, Doctor Who will be back tomorrow and it's coming with a new title sequence based on the design made by a fan. I suppose this is fitting. The show is run by a fan, the Doctor is played by a fan and now the design is by a fan. I just watched Moffat admit this on TV during the tour special. It's like the whole show is like tumblr for middle aged men ;P. It sure must feel good.

There are first pictures of Peter Capaldi as the Doctor in series 8. We still don't know his look but we know he, at least, didn't forget how to ride a horse.

There are also more and more proof showing the fan of Doctor Who that Capapldi was - he made fan art. Pretty good fan art. The TARDIS drawing is beautiful and 4th caricature he did recently is spot on. I'm glad he's still drawing.

There is a new version of 1984 in the works that is to remake it as a dystopian love story. It's almost as if they couldn't find another YA book. To make it even more sellable to teens it will star Kirsten Stewart and Nicholas Hoult. If you, like me, wonder why - maybe because romances in times of oppression are in vogue now? Apparently, that's all that has been learnt from Hunger Games popularity.

Jamie Alexander will be on Agents of SHIELD. I have to admit that this show finally become watchable. I mean it still isn't awesome but watching it no longer feels like chore and I don't feel like I hate everyone on it and their stupidity (Helix doing fine with that - seriously GFP thing was ridiculous and that was the least of the problems of that episode). The team interactions seem less forced and they are finally doing something about their mysteries and story arc (I'm intrigued about the Clairvoyant more then the Coulson not!death already and Skye's backstory has finally become interesting). They are also getting more and more of the wider Marvel Universe in it and I certainly don't mind more Lady Sif (in fact I could have a lot more).

Also there are more and more details coming out that suggest that the Agent Carter show might actually be happening on ABC. This may mean actual sf comic book based show based on female character. Sounds too good to be true but everyone keeps talking about it.

There are some things that are fashionable to hate in certain parts of the webs. People look down at you if you don't despise them properly and spend unduly amount of time on making others hate them too. Today I will talk about few such things.

Comic Sans - it's been called the font of the feeble minded and ugliest type ever invented. There are articles and songs about how bad it is and a website dedicated to banning it. Mentioning it anywhere with even slightly more readers then my blog will result with someone expressing how ugly it is.

I have no problem with it. It wouldn't be my choice as it feels dated because I strongly associate it with the early internet of geocities and angelfire (I'm old - you can look that up on wikipedia). Still, I don't see the reason for hate. It's readable. I don't expect much more from a font. And it looks nice to me. It may not be the prettiest type but it's not the ugliest thing ever - none of the examples in the video bother me. So Happy Birthday Comic Sans. However, American quotation standards drive me nuts - they are awful, stupid and I will not willingly adhere to them ever so to each their own.

Nickelback - sometimes it feel like it's more uncool to like them then any of the boybands (at least you can like boybands ironically). I'm not sure why they are hated so much and I don't care enough to google it. I'm not a fan because I usually like songs not bands (at least until I like so many songs from one artist I admit I do like their music in general). However, both Photograph (for it's you can go home again vibe) and Rockstar (for it self aware satirical take) are among my favourite songs.

I do care about the lyrics and I have a things for songs that are not about love (I like plenty love ones but still). I also like artist who make fun of themselves - that's how Robbie Williams convinced me to like him despite me being dead set not to (for what it's worth I still don't care for his boyband days and his love songs). Now, I just don't care anymore about who I'm supposed to like. I don't even keep track of who we are supposed to look down on to be cool (what is the recent status of Coldplay?) but, as I mentioned, I still care about the words so no matter how cool the melody sounds I do despise Roots - Seed and Blurred Lines.

Big Bang Theory - it's all slander and stupidity and they just do it to make people laugh at us (nerds, geeks and scientist are all us to me). I think it's OK. When I happen to watch it from time to time I find it funny. I do it more often now because of Bernadette and Amy who are both close to me. Of course, they are not very representative. Just look how Mayim Bialik the real neuroscientist differs from Amy Farrah Fowler the sitcom neuroscientist. And SFF genre fandom is not so male (most likely both Bernadette and Amy would fans or at least had exposure to fandom before meeting the guys), and most physicist don't dress so badly, and most scientist are not that socially awkward.

However, if you look for true to life and thoughtful representation of a group of people sitcoms are not a best place. They are exaggerating fringe and ridiculous to make things seem funnier. In this case fine as you also feel great dose of sympathy for the characters. And I do love that they do check their science. That's actually makes me fan of the show because it is so rare on TV. However, I do hate Two and Half Men and find it unfunny and can't even go through a full episode so there might be something inherently wrong with Chuck Lorre.

Johnny Mnemonic - I always liked this movie - dolphins and all - despite people laughing at that. I liked a lot of stuff in it - Dina Meyer's cybernetically enhanced bodygaurd, Dolph Lundgren's cyberpriest/bounty hunter, cyberdolphin - generally all the cyberthings. I liked the action. I generally am fond of Keanu in everything he's in (I know - another point proving my bad taste) and even Ice-T was OK with me (even if not as hilarious as in Tank Girl). I still have fondness for it despite the way it aged (32GB - LOL). Also Strange Days was a great film and Richard K. Morgan thinks so too.

I still haven't read or watch Twilight but the excerpts I saw convinced me not to waste my time and trailers make me want to band my head on the wall until I unconscious so I think I'll agree with the haters on this one. Still, it's not worth the amount of time and pages people spend on hating it.

Now, go leave hate posts and unfriending threats below (good, that not enough people read my posts for this to actually happen but it'd be funny if it did).

Jeff Victor has a gallery full of n the evolution of our favourite artists and heroes through their film career. Go see how Sigourney Weaver changed form lady with a cat to a cat lady.

Troy & Abed = Geordi & Data. How long before this will become a meme? I see it spreading with the new season (whenever that might be).

The web version of BSG: Blood and Chrome has just reached finale so you can see the whole thing now. It has space battles and loads of cameos.

My new obsession - Busty Girl Comics. That's the story of my life.Too soon, too much, constantly uncomfortable. 34GG. I just had a physician advise a reduction. It would be so nice for my shoulders and back but the scars and complications and long healing time are a little discouraging. Enlargement is so much easier.

Can there be anything more nerdy then turning Star Trek action figures into famous scientists action figures? Certainly, there are only few things more awesome. Although, I would wish for more women.

The reason to have famous parents - the kitchen after your birthday can look like this:

Is it wrong that my first though after "this is so awesome" was about all the fanfiction it must've spawned? I'm afraid to look but rule 34 makes it inevitable.

I think I'm going to be sick - my throat starting to hurt, my nose is almost running and I'm tired, sleepy and my muscles are sore. So instead of finishing writing my thoughts about The Crippled God I just mindlessly spent time searching the internets for other fans (you know outside the malazanempire forums which are practically official). I learned that reddit has a Malazan subreddit. There are Malazan fans on tumblr and they even do shipping (these are not good books for shippers).

I also realised that Subterrean Press is taking preorders for collectors edition of Memories of Ice (especially since even normal hardback is impossible to get). Their illustrated and signed editions are so beautiful (my icon and the poster SE signed was their cover for Gardens of the Moon) I still feel bad about not buying them from the start. The cover and illustrations inside will be made by the J. K. Drummond who also did Deadhouse Gates. And her Coltaine cover was awesome too.

And tor.com has a new page for their Malazan Re-read of the Fallen. It collects all the posts and even has it's own spoiler thread.

Ah, Internetz you never stop being full of dickhead trolls but sometimes this inspires some awesome moments. Still, wouldn't it be better if we didn't have to have those moments? If there was no awfulness to react to? I know - never will happen so for now lets enjoy the response of Nick Mamatas to your standard death threat (and homophobic slurs (and webspeak)). New kung-fu movie - Nick Mamatas vs. Internet trolls.

Genevieve Valentine posted a two months sum-up of the Readercon "experience". I would say it had happy ending but in RL nothing ever really ends and Rene Walling still attends cons and behaves badly and has friends defending him.

It was part of the long string of convention troubles with harassment recently. The sad part is that the one that was the least awful in RL turned into the biggest mess on the Internet. I still cannot quite believe the mess that Elevatorgate turned to and the Defcon "contest" is hard to even grasp it really happened now and not in Mad Men.