Happy Holidays!

 

I just wanted to do a quick post to say that I still exist. I'm a little sad that I don't tend this blog anymore, or even show up on Twitter much, but I just have too many other things to do these days. I still might do a post sharing my favorite photos from my trip to Indonesia this past autumn. Anyway, cheers to anyone who may still find their way to my blog here. Happy holidays!

This cactus is a Star Wars alien

I still exist! Yes, I've mostly moved on from this blog, being busy with other things now. But this was just too good not to share with anyone who might still be checking in.

I recently visited Koko Crater Botanical Garden, near the southeast corner of Oahu in one of the driest regions of the island. It's kind of amazing here, where you can go from tropical rainforest to near-desert conditions in just a 20-minute drive or so. I was there with my family, who were all in town for a big family reunion.

We saw some very cool trees--baobabs, sausage trees, something with pods containing red beans, strange fruit trees--and lots of interesting cacti--cacti hanging from a tree, making it look like it was covered with prickly snakes; large, round, fuzzy cacti that almost looked like they'd make a good seat. But when my brothers and I came across this one cactus, we stood there, looking up, until one of us said what the others were all thinking: "It looks like a Star Wars alien."

Here's the cactus:

Wait, what's that in the top left corner?

Oh my god it's a Talz! You know, this guy Muftak, from the cantina:

 

The fluffy "fur" on the ends of the cactus branches was genuinely soft, but you couldn't stroke too enthusiastically or else you'd find the short spines underneath. Of all the plants we saw in that botanical garden, this was definitely my favorite.

On another note, in a few days I will be leaving for Indonesia! I'll be there for about two weeks. When I get back, I may share some of my favorite photos from the trip. Might be another 8 months before I make a post, but uh, yeah. We'll see.

Manta rays and dolphin rescue

OK, this puts my own manta ray video to shame.

This video was taken at what I believe is the same location where I have now twice gone diving at night to see manta rays. It is a famous spot off the Kona coast where several dive companies set up bright lights to attract plankton, which in turn attract manta rays--which themselves attract divers and snorkelers who pay to gain access to the site, of course. This video shows how a nighttime manta ray dive a couple weeks ago turned into a dolphin rescue.

Bottlenose dolphins are intelligent creatures, so I wouldn't be surprised if this dolphin, whose fin and mouth were tangled with fishing line and hook, purposely sought out this large group of humans in the hope that one could help. Once one of the divers started to untangle it (around 3:30), the dolphin certainly looked like it was trying to hold still for him. Federal law technically prohibits "lay people" from touching or getting too close to marine mammals, but in this case I think it was a good call: the dolphin was seemingly asking for help (with a problem caused by humans in the first place), and the divers couldn't exactly explain that it would have to wait for a NOAA-sanctioned diver to arrive. Anyway, I think it's a heartwarming video. Enjoy.

Big Island photos - Summer 2012

Since I finally posted my manta ray video from this past summer, I figured I might as well post a few photos from that Big Island trip.

View from the lanai of the condo we stayed in.

Sea turtle (honu) I saw while scuba diving at Honaunau

Whitemouth moray eel at Honaunau

Action shot of me diving at Honaunau

More turtle stalking, this time while snorkeling at Magic Sands Beach

You can't get away from me that easily, pretty turtle

My favorite shot of the bunch

The Housemate seen through a cloud of zooplankton at our manta ray night dive. Barest glimpse of a manta's gills above and to the left

Manta rays aren't the only creatures that show up to feast on the swarms of zooplankton. Here are some goatfish.

Actually the clearest still photo we took of the manta rays, along with the top of my head. My camera setup was not ideal for moving animals in dark, plankton-filled water, needless to say.

The Housemate took this photo of a banded coral shrimp in a tide pool behind our condo at dusk. Pretty awesome, I think.

We went night snorkeling at Magic Sands Beach and saw this aptly named yellowhead moray eel

We also saw this brown slipper lobster. Look at those reflective eyes!

I need a summer home in Kona. It's so very lovely.

Manta Ray dive video!

A year and a half ago, I wrote a series of posts about my most amazing birthday, which I spent on the Big Island of Hawaii, including one post detailing my night scuba dive with manta rays. My one regret from that birthday was that I didn't have an underwater camera to record the spectacular things I'd seen.

This past summer, I returned with the Housemate to the Big Island and went on the Kona manta ray dive again, though this time we had to pay for the boat charter. It was worth every penny, though, because not only were we granted really nice underwater flashlights (like this one), over 30 manta rays showed up that evening (compared to what I counted as maybe 8 or 9 the previous year). And this time, I had a camera with an underwater housing to record every minute of it.

...Which was kind of the problem. I had so much footage, it was a huge and tortuous project to cut it down to a watchable length. But I've finally done it. Well, it's still a bit over 5 minutes, but you don't have to watch the whole thing to get the idea--how big they are, how graceful, how many there were, and just how close to us they swim (occasionally they'd bump into us). I do recommend checking out 3:01 to see the cloud of zooplankton swarming around us--it's these little guys that the manta rays show up to feast upon. You can hear my squeals as I realize that the rapid pitter-patter sounds I'm hearing is a blizzard of little creatures pinging off my mask (what I'm saying is mermaid for "Oh, whoa! Oh my God! Wow!"). Also, around 4:51 you can get a good view straight into the mouth of one of the manta rays (a large female they call "Lefty").

If you ever find yourself in Kona, I highly recommend this nighttime manta ray dive (though ask around to find out how many mantas have been showing up lately--if the week's been bad, you might not want to risk it, since sometimes none show up and few dive shops will give you a refund). They have snorkelers on the surface, holding onto floatation devices with lights shining down, as well as divers. Seeing the manta rays emerge from the dark and dance in the light is a truly beautiful, awe-inspiring experience.

Happy Holidays!

I know it's been a ridiculously long time since I've done a post, and I'm sorry. I really wanted at the very least to post my manta ray video (from August...yeah) because I'd made such a big deal the previous summer when my camera broke so I couldn't get any pictures of them. I'll try to post that some time over this winter break to tie up that loose end.

I don't know if anyone checks this blog anymore, but in case anyone's still around, I want to wish you all a joyful, peaceful holiday season!

Silent Night

(Life Day, on Ilum)

Why Pandas?

I've had pandas on the mind for much of the past week. First there was the news of the baby panda born last week at the National Zoo in D.C., with live webcams streaming footage of the mother and tiny infant (did you know that newborn pandas are about the size of a stick of butter???). Then there was the devastating news of the baby panda's death early this week. The thought of the staff hearing the mother make a "distress vocalization", shutting off the cameras, the vets rushing in to do baby-panda CPR etc. but failing to revive it...so tragic.

All the while, the websites I frequent are playing ads for Mists of Pandaria on 15-second loops. Not being a WoW player, I've mostly ignored the ads. Don't need to think about something that doesn't matter to me. But today I finally allowed myself to think about them long enough to come up with the obvious question that had been hanging hidden in the back of my mind: Why Pandas?

I dabbled in Warcraft II back in the day, and I know a bit about World of Warcraft, so I'm somewhat familiar with the races of that World: humans, elves (night and blood), orcs, dwarves, trolls...basically your typical fantasy fare. I don't recall hearing of any anthropomorphic Earth animals in World of Warcraft prior to this. So why the hell have kung fu pandas invaded WoW? Really, what went wrong? Why are WoW players being punished with fuzzy teddies?

Suddenly amused, mystified, but too lazy to put a lot of effort in finding the answer to my question, I headed over to Google to do a quick search. I thought about writing something clear and specific, like "why wow is introducing pandas in mists of pandaria". But then I thought, No, this is such an obvious question about such a famous internet sensation, I cannot be the first person wondering this, this is what I want to know and this search should work, and typed in simply
why pandas
Sure enough, the first hit I got was a very nice discussion of the topic at IGN. Question answered with minimal effort. I won't explain it here, so head over to that link if you're curious.

Having also been bombarded recently by ads for Bing claiming that people prefer Bing search results to Google 2:1, I tried doing the same search there, and was disappointed to find that none of the first page search results were related to Pandaria. Yes, it was a poor, lazy search, but Google knew what I was thinking. It can be kind of creepy, actually (like the time I typed in "What spe" and Google filled in the rest of my question: "What species is Yoda?" WTH you read my mind!).

I wasn't really going anywhere with this post, so I'll just leave you with a panda video. Why pandas? Because they're adorable! Enjoy!

Dragon Age III announced and other BioWare news

Yesterday in an open letter, Executive Producer Mark Darrah officially confirmed that BioWare is working on a Dragon Age sequel. We kinda already knew they were developing it, but at least now we have a title:
Dragon Age III: Inquisition
The title makes sense given the way Dragon Age II left off, and I'm pretty excited to see where that story will go. Unfortunately, Darrah gave few other details about the game, revealing nothing about the story other than what that single word in the title offers.

Kotaku has a good write up of what we do and don't know about Dragon Age III at this point. We do know that they heard player feedback from Dragon Age II and they will not be using recycled environments. Thank goodness. You can make us enter the cave from different corners and block off hallways, but it's still the same damn cave. What we don't know that I'm most anxious to learn is who the player character will be. The Hero of Ferelden? The Champion of Kirkwall? Someone else? Dragon Age: Origins seems to be the favored game, giving them reason to bring back the Grey Warden, but then not everyone's Warden is, uh, still around. If they bring in a new player character, it may make the series feel too disjointed, though if done right it could work. I wouldn't mind being Hawke again, but the lack of choice in her race and background makes her less unique than the Hero of Ferelden. The dilemma reminds me of how I felt after KotOR and KotOR 2, wondering which protagonist they'd have for KotOR 3. Well, we know the answer to that question, now.

In any case, Dragon Age III seems set up for some epic storytelling. The "Inquisition" title implies a focus on the chaos surrounding the Chantry following the events of Dragon Age II. But there's always Flemeth, and Morrigan with maybe a scary baby, lurking in the background.

In other BioWare news, BioWare co-founders Ray Muzyka and Greg Zeschuk both announced their retirement from BioWare today. They're moving on to other projects in other fields (social impact entrepreneurship and craft beer, respectively), having achieved what they wanted in the gaming industry. They founded the company in 1995, and starting with Baldur's Gate they've been creating outstanding, beautiful games ever since. BioWare remains my favorite game developer, so I'm sorry to see them go. But I'm hopeful the BioWare team they've put together is strong enough to keep churning out great games that I'll enjoy for many years to come.

Lastly, BioWare general manager Aaryn Flynn announced that the BioWare team is working on a whole new fictional universe:

While Casey [Hudson, executive producer for Mass Effect] continues to oversee the development of our new Mass Effect project, he and his leads are putting together their vision for an all new game set in a fictional universe, built from the bottom-up with all new gaming technology.

I love the universes BioWare created in Dragon Age and Mass Effect. I can't wait to see what they come out with next.

"Scary Smash" is hilarious!

You have to see this. I haven't laughed this hard in a long time. Funny for anyone who enjoys some adorable silliness, but especially hilarious for Joss Whedon fans.



So many things I love:
"There was a stream of milk to the ocean." How poetic and poignant.
Squatting, squatting, and more squatting.
Gerald being "fun"
The lip-syncing..."I need to go back to the station and get more stuff."
"And how did Gerald feel about [his people getting hurt]?" "He needs to hire more." "He needs to hire more men. Sure."

Fourth Blogiversary!

I think it was bad timing for me to start this blog the day after my birthday. Two celebrations back to back always seems excessive. Ah well, that's how it is. This blog has now been my home on the internet for four years. The same length of time that I was in college. Makes me feel old, as if that birthday yesterday wasn't enough.

My blogging frequency has dropped off considerably over the past year. My blog reading has also become a lot less frequent. Some of that is because many of the blogger friends I made at my blogging peak 2-3 years ago have been blogging a lot less, too, but it's also that I've found other ways to distract myself. Real life activities start to encroach on internet activities. Really, most of my blogging was done when I should have been working, so I guess I've just become a little better at doing what I'm supposed to (though this post itself proves there are exceptions).

I don't know how much longer I'll be able to keep this up, given changing priorities and new "distractions." I expect I'll keep on like this for a little while: dropping by once or twice a month to post about something that interests me or something fun I've done in Hawaii, and checking in on other blogs once in a while as well. I'll also be around Twitter, which is a bit easier to take because of the small dose size.

But I'm not willing to give up this online life of mine yet. The ability to find so many cool people with shared interests is one of the great things about the internet. In a way, I started this blog four years ago because I didn't feel like there were enough people like me, and I wanted to be recognized. But over the years I have found so many people like me. None exactly like me, but people with significant overlaps. I'm pleased and proud to find myself a member of such a community.

The relationships I've made online are also a special sort of relationship. People I know solely online can't know me in quite the same way people who know me in person do--how I sound carrying a conversation, or my immediate reaction to certain situations--but with the partial anonymity that the internet provides, I feel more free to share certain things here than I do in real life. People who have read this blog know some things about me no one I know in person knows. Maybe some day I'll meet a blog friend in real life. Not sure what would happen then.

Anyway, I'd better stop with all this sentimentality. In celebration of four years of blogging, I'm going to do something I haven't done on this blog before...

Me with an ancient Hawaiian petroglyph on the Big Island last year.

There. Sorry there's a hat. You know, it was actually quite hard to find an interesting photo of me without sunglasses. I do live in Hawaii, after all.

Three cubed

Today is my 27th birthday. I'd like to say "I've never felt this old before," but then--duh!--I've never been this old before. The same can be said for any person at any time. But I'm more averse to turning 27 than I have been to turning any previous age. Honestly, it's mainly because I'm kicking myself for never getting a certain vaccine that is only supposed to be given up to age 26 (not entirely my fault--I told my doctor I wanted it and she forgot, and I called her back once and she forgot again...but I still could have tried harder). Hopefully it will never matter, but just to have something like that which I am TOO OLD FOR NOW is kind of making me depressed. I'm over the hill. Also some of the depression may be from the fact that my boyfriend isn't here, but my mom is (and starting to drive me nuts), and I have to work today. Plus, there's no way this birthday will be as amazing as last year's. I guess it's kind of hard to live up to diving with dolphins and manta rays.

Anyway, it's my birthday, and a friend gave me cupcakes at school which I went around and shared with other friends. My mom gave me a pair of earrings. And tonight I'm going to Town--that's the name of the restaurant. It's a nice restaurant that uses fresh, local, organic ingredients, and it's supposed to be really good. So I'm excited about that, at least.

My dad sent me an email this morning pointing out that it's been 19 years since my last birthday was a perfect cube, and it'll be 37 years until my next perfect-cube birthday. In honor of that mathematical trivia, here's a photo of me when I was 8 (not on my birthday, but the first day of 3rd grade :)

For the record my mom made me that dress, and I loved it. It had a swirly skirt. This is one of the photos where I think I look most like my mom, too.

And just for fun, here's another photo of me from about that age. You can't see it because of the poor angle, but that sweatshirt was my first article of clothing to have an otter on it. And I rocked that hat.

Here's to having more nice photos (or whatever they'll have--holos?) of me at 64!

Ding! 50!

It took me 6 months, but I have finally leveled a character in SWTOR to 50, the current max level. Here she is, my new level 50 Jedi Sage:

Yipee!

To commemorate this event, I thought I'd share some screen shots from my adventures (excuse the low quality video settings--my computer system isn't that great). Cue the nostalgic music...

Overlooking the sarlacc pit

Reenacting The Lion King. If only I could have zoomed out more, it would be clearer that I'm on a narrow rock outcropping.

Speeder surfing (a fun glitch I got once)

My pet orokeet races to keep up with my speeder, like in that imprinted duckling video

Tattooine's twin suns

I loved Alderaan, especially for those sweeping thranta rides.

Wheeeee!

Reclining in the Alderaan palace throne room. I could get used to this.

Upon reaching level 40 (and all levels other than 50), the achievement was greeted by droids carrying a banner that says "Congratulations" (in this shot, it actually says "tulations con", but just picture it scrolling). Not sure why they thought level 50 deserved less celebration.

Hoth: cold, but in some places strikingly beautiful.

Lightsabers are great, but sometimes you need a big gun.

Portrait shot of my Sage on the bridge of her ship, from the load screen

I still haven't finished my class storyline--two more planets to go, I think. Then there are all the hardmode flashpoints and operations to improve my gear and hone my skills. No rest for the Jedi. But it has been, and continues to be, a fun, exciting journey.

Finally Brave

Today marks the premiere of this year's Pixar offering: Brave. As many news articles and reviews have pointed out, Brave is notable as the first Pixar film to have a female protagonist. Sure, they've had a few important female characters in some of their movies--Helen, EVE, Jessie, Dory--but the main characters at the center of each of their first 12 films were all male. In fact, I'd say only two female characters in previous Pixar films have even held the distinction of playing the second lead role (The Incredibles, WALL-E).

I actually wrote about this problem three years ago, when DreamWorks Animation was releasing its first film with a female protagonist (Monsters vs. Aliens), after 11 male-led CG feature films. I figure I might as well update my lists for Pixar and DreamWorks films and their protagonists...

CG feature films (and main character, females in bold):

Pixar
1. Toy Story (Woody)
2. A Bug's Life (Flik)
3. Toy Story 2 (Woody)
4. Monsters, Inc. (Sulley)
5. Finding Nemo (Marlin)
6. The Incredibles (Mr. Incredible)
7. Cars (Lightning McQueen)
8. Ratatoille (Remy)
9. Wall-E (Wall-E)
10. Up (Carl Fredricksen)
11. Toy Story 3 (Woody)
12. Cars 2 (Lightning McQueen)
13. Brave (Merida)

DreamWorks Animation
1. Antz (Z)
2. Shrek (Shrek)
3. Shrek 2 (Shrek)
4. Shark Tale (Oscar)
5. Madagascar (Alex)
6. Over the Hedge (RJ)
7. Flushed Away (Roddy)
8. Shrek the Third (Shrek)
9. Bee Movie (Barry)
10. Kung Fu Panda (Po)
11. Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa (Alex)
12. Monsters vs. Aliens (Susan)
13. How to Train Your Dragon (Hiccup)
14. Shrek Forever After (Shrek)
15. Megamind (Megamind)
16. Kung Fu Panda 2 (Po)
17. Puss in Boots (Puss)
18. Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted (Alex)

DreamWorks may have beaten Pixar to the punch with its first female protagonist, but now they're tied again. Looking ahead, DreamWorks has seven films with estimated release dates (according to Wikipedia); the last one, scheduled for late 2014, appears to be the only one with a female protagonist. Pixar's next film will be a Monsters, Inc. sequel with the same old male protagonists. I can't determine any characters in The Good Dinosaur, though the following Pixar film, planned for 2015, will at least take place inside a girl's mind. I would hope mainly female characters populate a girl's mind...

So we have some female protagonists now in this highest echelon of children's animated movies (not that there aren't other great kids' films, but these studios are definitely the two powerhouses), though they are still few and far between. As I said in my old post, I understand that film studios and development teams are mostly composed of men, and people like to create stories about what they know and relate to. First of all, they should try to find more women. But in any case, we are not so different that good writers can't write for the opposite sex. Really, if you can get inside the head of a trash-compacting robot who lives with a cockroach on a long-abandoned Earth, you can probably get inside the head of a woman. We're not that mysterious.

I also understand that movies are a business, and if boys respond more negatively to female-led films than girls do to male-led films, that gives studios motivation to release only male-led movies. But as I argued before, if you always release male-led kids films, of course young boys aren't going to learn to appreciate films with female leads. It's basically a self-fulfilling prophesy. Girls deserve characters to look up to just as much as boys do. Girls don't have to be the best friend or the love interest--we can be heroes in our own right. Pixar and DreamWorks films are so popular and successful, I think they can stand to be put a little faith in their storytelling and their audience, be brave, and release more female-starring films. Help little girls dream bigger. This is a good start, but more often than once a decade would be preferable.

It seems preliminary reviews for Brave are positive but not ecstatic. Certainly better than last year's Cars 2, widely recognized as Pixar's worst, but not as magical as the great Pixar films. The primary criticism is that it seems too...Disneyfied. That is, it's a somewhat formulaic princess fairy tale. I have nothing against princess stories if the princess is as capable as Merida, but I do remember some people expressing disappointment upon learning that Pixar's first female-led movie would be about a princess. It seems they had a point.

I remain extremely excited and optimistic about Brave, and I hope it's a huge hit in theaters. I love bows and arrows, I love spunky young female protagonists, and I adore Scottish accents. I will see the movie this weekend, and in all likelihood I will love it. It doesn't matter if Merida is a princess--she's a master archer and a worthy hero for any kid to admire. Thanks, Pixar, just keep the female protagonists coming.

Ready for Prometheus

Ever since we saw its first trailer back in January, my boyfriend has been repeatedly asking me, "So when does Prometheus come out?" He has fond memories of Alien from his childhood and loves horror as well as sci-fi, so this is right up his alley. Now his wait is finally over.

Strangely enough, up until a month ago I had never seen any of the Alien movies. It has been a huge hole in my science fiction movie experience (remaining hole: I've never seen a Terminator movie, though I did watch the Sarah Connor Chronicles TV show). It's especially funny because, as my parents tell it, Sigourney Weaver was my idol when I was a small child. I have no memories of this--I was probably 3 at the time--but apparently we saw an exhibit about Aliens at the science museum, which inspired me to gallop around the house battling imaginary aliens and proclaiming "I'm Sigouwney Weava!"

Well, I've finally watched both Alien and Aliens (it is my understanding that the rest are mostly not worth the trouble). Alien was great, though also frustrating as horror movies tend to be when people are so obviously being stupid, stupid, stupid. At least the cat was saved. Aliens had more, well, aliens, but also a lot more guns, so it seemed a bit more fair, and thus more to my taste. And Bill Paxton--oh my gosh. Did people actually talk like that?! Not just ninja turtles?

Now that I'm all caught up on Alien(s), I'm ready to see Prometheus. Shame it won't have Sigourney Weaver. Over 20 years after I first came to admire her, that lady still kicks ass.

How the Dalai Lama is, and isn't, like Yoda

Last month, I was lucky enough to hear the Dalai Lama speak at the UH Manoa campus. He actually gave two talks that weekend, one open to the general public and one targeted toward students; I went to the student talk, "Educating the Heart".

My favorite part of the talk has to be when I realized that the Dalai Lama is Yoda:

I think among emotions and thoughts, the real destroyer of our inner peace is fear... Fear develop frustration. Frustration develop anger. Anger brings violence.

I know no one likes the Phantom Menace, but you have to know what I was thinking at this point:
Fear is the path to the Dark Side. Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to suffering. 
It's not exactly the same, but along with his grumbling voice, his not-quite-proper English, his sweet yet authoritative wise old man persona... He was Yoda. And I was delighted.

Unfortunately, he then proceeded to say how we shouldn't rely on the use of Force. Yes, it was a message of non-violence--talk it out instead of fighting. Still, it would have been that much sweeter to hear him tell us, "Use the Force."

The missing noble girls of Westeros

No spoilers for recent episodes (I mention last night's, but it's not new information). Only a slight spoiler if you're so far behind that you don't know that someone in Game of Thrones is guilty of incest.

In last night's episode of Game of Thrones, Tyrion tells Cersei that she "beat the odds" because two of her three children are sane (it was always said the Targaryen children of incest had a 50/50 chance of insanity). As I reflected on this exchange between brother and sister, it occurred to me that she beat another set of 50/50 odds by having two boys--it is best, after all, to have both an heir and a spare. Of course, she herself came from a family with two boys and one girl... And Catelyn and Ned Stark were similarly lucky, with three sons and two daughters. This set me off, tallying sons and daughters in the most powerful noble families of Westeros. Some I knew off the top of my head, but I was able to fill in gaps thanks to George R. R. Martin's comprehensive appendices on the noble families of Westeros. The results were quite surprising.

Here is my tally. I only looked at the most prominent families (sorry, Florents and Freys), and I included two generations where the information was accessible--in general, this came down to the children of the current (or recently deceased) lord of each great house, plus the children of that lord's father (including the current lord himself).

Stark (Eddard): 3 boys/2 girls;           Stark Sr.: 3 boys/1 girl
Lannister (Tywin): 2 boys/1 girl;       Lannister Sr.: 4 boys/1 girl
Tully (Hoster): 1 boy/2 girls;              Tully Sr.: 2 boys/0 girls
Targaryen (Aerys): 2 boys/1 girl
Baratheon (Robert...): 2 boys/1 girl;  Baratheon Sr.: 3 boys/0 girls;
Baratheon (Stannis): 0 boys/1 girl
Tyrell (Mace): 3 boys/1 girl;               Tyrell Sr.: 1 boy/2 girls
Martell (Doran): 2 boys/1 girl;           Martell Sr.: 2 boys/1 girl
Greyjoy (Balon): 3 boys/1 girl;           Greyjoy Sr.: 4 boys/0 girls
Arryn (Jon): 1 boy/0 girls

Total: 38 boys/16 girls

Wow. Yes. It would appear that the noble houses of Westeros produce more than twice as many boys as girls. Now it's possible that the appendices didn't bother to mention noble children who died very young, though that group should include approximately equal numbers of boys and girls. It is also possible that the appendices left out sisters who married less important families and thus don't matter much anymore, but overall the appendices are pretty good at reporting marriages as well as deaths (at most, I think there could be girls missing from the Tully Sr., Greyjoy Sr., and maybe Martell Sr. counts). If you see any errors above, please let me know. Still, I find it highly unlikely that any of these sources of error could account for 22 missing girls.

This statistic stands out to me because I was recently reading some articles about the disturbing gender imbalance in parts of Asia (largely in China, but also in India and some other countries) due to gender-selection abortions (one such article: Asia's 163 Million Missing Girls). The noble families of Westeros look like an extreme version of that. But even if the maesters of Westeros have some sort of potion to induce a safe abortion, I'm pretty sure they don't have ultrasound capabilities to allow the identification of an unborn baby's gender. Is it possible that the nobles of Westeros are killing off newborn daughters? Extremely unlikely. First of all, the scandal would surely have gotten out. Second, daughters are useful for forming alliances through marriage. Third, the great noble houses have plenty of money, resources, and household staff, so extra children would not be a burden. If you get a girl, just try again for a boy. Every healthy born baby is an asset.

So what then caused this gender imbalance? I can only think that it is divine providence. I don't mean that praying to the Seven, the Old Gods, the Lord of Light or the Drowned God will give you more sons than daughters (who knows, maybe it will). I'm talking about the god of A Song of Ice and Fire, George R. R. Martin himself. He may not have been aware of it, but as he made up characters for his books, he simply wrote a lot more men into the noble families of Westeros than women. I can guess how this could have happened unintentionally. Martin created a story with a great collection of outstanding female characters. They are particularly outstanding because they live in a society where women have to work hard for influence, so most women end up playing the meek wife. Such meek women are less useful for a narrative than a knight swearing fealty and going into battle. Marrying a daughter off seems less urgent than arranging for succession of a lordship. Not to mention, the men kill each other quickly enough that they need to have a few spares written into the series.

Nicholas Eberstadt, a demographer at the American Enterprise Institute in Washington, said something for the article mentioned above that helps shed a little light on this situation of gender imbalance: The normal ratio should be 103 or 104 boys for every 100 girls. Over 107 starts to look suspicious, and over 130 is "sci-fi land".

So I guess that solves it. With an equivalent ratio of 237 boys for every 100 girls, we're in fantasy land.

Theme of the week: No evidence is evidence

Anyone else happen to have Fringe, Awake, and Grimm on their TV-viewing schedules? If so, you may have noticed a common thread in their most recent episodes: No evidence is evidence. Spoilers ahead.

Even though Awake airs first, Fringe was the first of the three that I watched. In Friday's episode, called "The Consultant", Walter helps Fauxlivia solve the mystery of the mole in Fringe Division when he tells her "No evidence is evidence." By that, he means that her being unable to find any trace of the mole implies that the mole must be someone high up, with the power to tamper with evidence and erase his tracks. Though she initially can't believe that Colonel Broyles would betray them, by the end of the episode, they have him in custody.

It's a shame Walter can't be in every show (really, he'd be an excellent addition to just about anything). In Thursday's episode of Awake, titled "Ricky's Tacos," Detective Britten's subconscious--or magic power or whatever--is telling him to look back at a case he was working on before his accident. He checks out a building related to the case, but finds nothing. When he tries to find the case file back at the station, it is missing. When he reports this to Captain Harper, rather than being concerned that a whole case file is gone, she questions why he's investigating the closed case in the first place. Britten is deflected. No evidence is evidence, Detective. Of course, we the audience know that the police chief is involved in...something...which requires her to cover up this case and keep Detective Britten distracted. In her position of power, it's not a difficult thing for her to do.

Then we come to Grimm. Friday's episode, "Love Sick," starts with police Captain Renard killing two men (who probably had it coming) in a parking garage. Don't mess with Sam Adama. He knows just what to do to make it look like the men killed each other, but he misses one thing: the guy's cell phone, which could reveal that its most recent call was made to the captain himself. After Nick collects the phone for evidence, Renard is able to replace its SIM card. So, when the lab reports their findings back to Nick, they reveal that the old phone has a completely clean, new SIM card. How odd. No evidence is evidence, Nick. It's time for Nick to figure out that something's up with Renard, because I'm dying to know who/what he is and what he's doing.

I couldn't help but be amused by this apparent theme of the week. I guess it says something about the kind of TV shows that I watch. By now we've learned this lesson very well: If you can't find evidence, or your evidence goes missing, your boss is probably conspiring against you.

The Hunger Games, with Beanie Babies

If you're a fan of The Hunger Games and don't mind a bit of cuteness, I suggest you check out this retelling of the story with Beanie Babies. Surprisingly faithful to the source material, it's really very well done and had enough cleverness to win me over completely. And, in just 11 minutes, they managed to include some plot points that the movie had to leave out. I wish I could make home movies like this.

Game of Thrones, Season Two: A Clash of Kings

It's already aired in some of the world, but I am so excited to see the new season of HBO's Game of Thrones, which premieres tonight. One of my friends who watches the show just got HBO, so we'll be gathering at her house every Sunday for the next few months. I had grand plans to make lemon cakes for the premiere, but only got as far as buying lemons; Sunday laziness kicked in, and it didn't happen. Maybe some other week.

I've heard excellent things from the critics who I gather have been treated to the first four episodes of the season, so I have high hopes. I'm particularly looking forward to Arya and Dany's storylines in this season. And Tyrion's of course. The only trouble is that of the four of us who will be watching together, I'm the only one who's read the book Clash of Kings (I'm still in the middle of Storm of Swords). I'm pretty bad at keeping a straight face, so I don't know what I'm going to do when they turn to me and ask questions, or share their theories... One friend suggested "Put a paper bag over your head", but that's not very sustainable. Well, I'll just have to learn to deal with it.

If you're not watching Game of Thrones, I highly recommend you catch up quickly and jump on Season 2. It's going to be an exciting ride.

What I missed from the Hunger Games movie

On Wednesday, I went with some friends to the theater to see The Hunger Games. We skipped opening weekend to avoid the crowds, but it was still impressively crowded for a Wednesday night. I thought they did a great job with the movie--my boyfriend, who hadn't read the book, loved it as well and thought it all made sense--but I couldn't help but miss a lot of things from the book that got left out. I understand the necessity of cutting things down for a movie adaptation. Nothing that was in the movie stood out to me as unnecessary, and the movie is already 142 minutes long. I doubt it could have gotten away with a Lord-of-the-Rings runtime. But would it have hurt to flesh out just a few of these things?

Over on io9 they have a good post on Everything The Hunger Games Movie Left Out. They don't exactly get everything, and many of the things they mention I'm OK with being left out. Here I'll share the things that I really missed--the things I wanted to tell my boyfriend all about until he shut me up by saying he might still read the book. So, if like him you've only seen the movie but are considering reading the book, these might be considered slight SPOILERS. Really, if you liked the movie and haven't read the book, I highly recommend it. There's a lot you haven't seen that's worth seeing.

If you haven't read the books OR seen the movie, then these DEFINITELY contain SPOILERS.

Capitol living
In spite of the audience being treated to secret conversations between President Snow and head gamemaker Seneca Crane, I feel we get much less of a sense of what life is like for residents of the Capitol. Elizabeth Banks is great as Effie, but we could have used more of her. They could have added a couple lines here and there explaining how she feels about being the escort for District 12, rather than some nicer district that produces more victors. Not only would it have cleared up exactly what her role is for the District 12 tributes (not obvious in the movie), but it would have further highlighted how silly and self-centered most residents of the Capitol are. Giving Octavia, Flavius, and Venia just one short session with Katniss where they got to blab about their frivolous parties would have helped, too. Those characters get a little more to do in the next two books, so I wonder whether the movies are going to continue to leave them out entirely. If so, I'll definitely miss them.

Life in District 11 and Rue bonding time
They had to budget their runtime, but I still was disappointed by how brief the Rue alliance was in the movie. There was no time for them to discuss what life was like at home--how Rue worked in the orchards and could climb to the highest branches, and even though they grow the food they are just as starving as the residents of District 12. Panem keeps the districts completely isolated from each other, since it helps them maintain control, so this is really Katniss's first look into life in another district. It enriches her relationship with Rue, making it all the more poignant when Rue is killed, Katniss sings (because we know how Rue loves music), and she gets the bread. Yes, I missed the bread on a parachute, but I think they were right to cut it out. It would have required a random scene of Peeta explaining district bread types, and Katniss was still able to salute the people of District 11 without it.

Warming up to Cinna
Spending more time with Cinna, and the preparations before the games in general, would have slowed the movie down, but I still wished there were a little more with Cinna. Saying "I'm sorry" was enough to make Katniss like him? Really? I missed the scene where he acknowledges that Katniss must find them (in the Capitol) disgusting for having more food than they could ever need, while the outlying districts struggle to avoid starvation. It's through a series of similar interactions that he finally wins Katniss's appreciation. It was also his idea for Peeta and Katniss to hold hands in the chariot, which really paved the way to their success leading up to the Games.

It's complicated with Peeta
The Katniss-Peeta relationship is really important to this story. Not being able to read Katniss's thoughts made it much harder to explain, but it was also cut down a lot by time constraints of the movie. Haymitch made it very clear to Katniss that her best chance for sponsors was to play the Peeta romance angle. After a little peck in the cave, she is rewarded with hot broth (this happens in the movie). When she really opens up to Peeta, they get a feast (this is skipped). This progression is largely lost in the movie. The few days Katniss spends with Peeta hiding out in the cave are when the line starts to blur between what she's doing for the sponsors, for her district (if she lets Peeta die, they'll never forgive her), and for what might actually be genuine love for Peeta.

I was really bothered by the movie flashback scene in which Peeta throws the bread, because they seemed to change it, or at the very least left out a significant bit. In the movie, Peeta and Katniss don't look any younger (maybe just a problem with the medium), and he kind of callously tosses a burnt roll into a puddle for her. She's drenched, but it's not clear if she's starving or just sad. I wonder how someone who hasn't read the book interpreted this. In the book, they were only 11 at the time. It's after her father died, and she's absolutely starving. If she doesn't get something for her and her family to eat, they may die--today. She's rooting through the trash, and Peeta's mother tells her to get lost. Peeta purposely burns a couple loaves of bread, even though he knows it will mean a slap from his mother, so that he can go out to throw the bread "to the pigs". He really throws them to Katniss, who has collapsed from hunger and exhaustion. It's this renewed hope that Peeta brought that allows Katniss to turn her life around, start hunting in the woods and providing for her family. He didn't just feed her--he saved her life. How much of this came across in the movie?

Their decision not to have Peeta lose part of his leg certainly simplified things, but it also removed the urgency and drama from the end of the arena portion of the story. They need to get out of the arena FAST or Peeta will bleed out, leading to her rash decision with the berries. When they get lifted into the hovercraft (which I think are unseen in the arena in the movie), and they're separated as medics tend to Peeta, Katniss goes crazy. It's heart-wrenching and suspenseful, and I missed it. Lastly, they decided to leave out the bit where Haymitch tells Katniss that her feigned relationship with Peeta can't stop when they get back to District 12. This is a big plot point that is important for the second book. I guess they'll have to mention it at the beginning of the second movie, but I don't know why they didn't just stick in a line from Haymitch at the end of this one.

A couple other things
Did they ever explain what a mockingjay was? I don't know when they would have, but since it becomes such an important symbol, they'll have to explain it some time.

io9 makes a good point about the movie downplaying the hunger in the Hunger Games. You see how excited Katniss is when Gale pulls out a roll of bread, then you see all the pastries laid out on the train, but that's really all you have to go on to understand just how different the food situation is between the Capitol and the poorer districts. It's really important, and they could have done more here.


Those were the main things I felt I missed. All that said, there was one thing the movie included that was not in the book that I absolutely loved: The quick, wordless scene at the end with Seneca Crane. In the second book, we find out after the fact that Crane was executed (not clear how) due to his failure with the Games. In the movie, we see him escorted to then locked in a beautiful room with a beautiful bowl of beautiful purple berries. So. Perfect.

They got a lot right in the movie. I really enjoyed it, and they did as well as I had hoped. Their depiction of District 12 and the Capitol and the arena were great, and they got the essentials of the story across. But I'm still glad I read the book.