"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.