New Doctor, new complaints.

Well shit, it's been forever. I guess I might actually have a life after all. Fuck me, I never knew. Well, what better way to come back, all grown-up and grizzled instead of starry-eyed and naive than in the same way I started, with some Doctor Who news.

You know

Peter Capaldi, Mr. Sexy-pants-from-The-Thick-of-It, has been announced as the 12th Doctor. I, personally, am ecstatic. Finally another actor I know I can trust to do right by the Doctor. I don't hate Matt Smith, don't get me wrong, he has his charms, but he just isn't that primal fan that's needed to do right by the Doctor after so long. David Tennant knew what the Doctor needed to succeed. He brought Doctor Who back into the spotlight and it exploded into the massive fandom I see all around me as I gaze upon the mass of fans in giddy, childlike wonder. I love that Who's gone mainstream. It makes my everyday memorabilia acquisitions that much easier and less awkward now that everyone knows what I'm talking about. Finally.

BUT, there's a huge but here. As with any fandom gone viral, an interesting brand of fan begins to emerge. The fan that likes to bitch and complain while knowing absolutely nothing about what they're bitching and complaining about. In this particular case, I'm talking about the people I'm hearing right now bitching about Capaldi being cast because he's older.

Don't care, still hot.

To them I say, so fucking what? William Hartnell was almost 60 years old when he portrayed the First. He started the mammoth that was, and still is (YES!) the Doctor Who vehicle. Clearly audiences then didn't think Hartnell was too old to do his job (you know, act) properly. And do it he did. The first episodes of Doctor Who are some of my all-time favourites. They put the magical world I had grown up in (I'm a child of Baker on early-morning re-runs) into amazing perspective. They gave me that sought-after origin story every superhero has. And I loved them. I never once thought to myself, "you know, this guy's old, maybe they should have put a Frankie Avalon lookalike in there instead. (If you're too young, or not into late 50s pop music enough to know who Avalon is, take a gander.) I liked Hartnell because he had character that gave his character character, you savvy? I wasn't looking to him to serve solely as eye-candy while I drank in my science fiction fix; I was looking to him to entertain me. And entertain me he did.

That's my biggest issue I'm having with accepting a modern audience to my beloved classic. The New Who Fandom is comprised of younger, more spoiled-by-Hollywood people. People who might have by-passed all the classic Who that made my childhood so damn tolerable, maybe even awesome altogether. I don't hate them for that. I understand. Sometimes the "special effects" are a little hard to swallow, sometimes the stories aren't the greatest. But the actors, oh the actors, were superb. The actors have continued to be superb, no matter what sort of crap has been passing through the script room, sometimes even being green-lighted. (That movie could have been better guys, you know that.) I have no doubt in my mind that Capaldi will keep on with the noble tradition, and, being a fan of the 'dom himself, I feel he has valuable experience to help him do so.

But these spoiled (mostly female, sorry to call you out ladies, but it's true) fans are bitching and moaning because they don't think he's pretty. (Not everyone is Tennant-levels of attractive, the wolrd can't handle that shit.) Fuck that shit before it even gets out of the asshole. There are a lot of people (probably old farts, older than me, even, and I'm a senior citizen on the internet) who do think he's a sexy piece of man-meat, but sadly, we're also majorly the ones who appreciate him for more than his looks.

Capaldi is a phenomenal actor. He's already graced our 'dom before in Series 4's episode The Fires of Pompeii, and in Torchwood: Children of Earth (which is a series I STILL maintain, did NOT happen, okay?). I've seen him blend seamlessly into my beloved fandom before. I know he can do it again, and this time, he'll be in the spotlight, deservedly so.

Give this man a Screwdriver, he's ready.

Basically, what I'm saying here is give the man a chance to do awesome, or in the very least, not fuck it up. (He won't, I know it.) Don't go moaning about all twelve years old bitching about how he's not Bieber, or a Jonas, or whatever the fuck is popular or "sexy" right now. Do like I did when I was your age, all young and doe-eyed, look past the grey hair and see the beautiful creature in there, acting his heart out and giving his all to entertain. You want six-pack abs, open a porno mag. You want a baby face boy, look into any pop mag and you'll find whatever is the new flavour sensation of the month in there. You want entertainment, shut up and let the actors do their jobs before you try to criticize them. Give them a bloody chance to wow you first.

Cheers, gonna go hang myself because it's not November yet.

Anime... Why haven't I grown out of it?

For a large amount of my childhood, I was very into anime. Not just anime, but the whole anime/manga/popular Japanese culture thing. I was into colourful characters with huge eyes, loved Japanese music, and became an all-around fangirl of the stuff. And I was often told by those older than me that anime was a phase, and I would grow out of it. And for a couple of years, I thought they had been right.

Look him in the eye and tell him he's not sexy... for a drawing. 

Work happened, harder school, a lot more duties fell onto my plate and I was forced to give up a lot of the spare time I was so used to having when I was younger. Things like anime, scifi shows and comics wound up getting put on the back burner while I worked to be able to afford the things I loved. I had less time to devote to hobbies, so a lot of things sat forgotten in the bottom desk drawer. I had limited time, so I wound up only following one or two comic series at a time and maybe watching one or two shows I was really into. That didn't leave much time for anime or manga. I was a grown-up and I had grown-up problems to deal with; a job, tax forms, trying to look put-together at family gatherings... I suppose anime wound up being forgotten for a while.

Part of the problem might have been pure tiredness. When I got home from a day at school or at work, I really didn't want to go rooting through different animes to find something new to watch, nor did I really want to go rooting through my old stuff to figure out what I wanted to re-watch. Basically, I didn't want to work for my entertainment.

To be honest, Netflix spoiled me.
"Instant queue." Can't get any easier.

I'm not sure what it was that brought me back to anime, but it started with Gundam SEED. It must have been something my ancient history prof had said, because one evening after that class, I went rooting around the anime drawer for it.

It was as if I'd never stopped watching. SEED led to SEED Destiny, the led to a re-watch of Death Note, which led to my friend forcing me to sit through an episode of Le Chevalier D'Eon which led me to where I am now, determinedly searching through new series that don't bore the crap out of me.

Does this ever get interesting?

But honestly, I couldn't explain it. Even cartoons I love as a child have lost some of their colour to me (the Transformers seemed more interesting when I was seven). But somehow, SEED was still as awesome to me as it was when it aired in 2002. (Honestly, has it been that long? Damn.) Sure, I laughed a little more at some cheesy dialogue, maybe made a few jokes at characters' expense, but who doesn't do that about their favourite things? The thing is, anime hasn't lost its appeal, even though I could now be technically classified as an adult.

Maybe it's my desire to never grow up. My bed is still covered in Transformers or Spider-Man sheets, there are still cartoons on almost 24/7, I still act like a five-year-old if I go out shopping with my mother. Maybe this could be the appeal, but I have a different theory.

I've met people of all age groups who enjoy anime and manga. There are titles out there to appeal to each and every one of them. You've got titles like Junjou Romantica or Gravitation for your teenaged girls, you've got titles like Naruto for younger boys. Then there are titles like Death Note and the various Gundam series that seem to hold universal appeal. Anime is not just another cartoon for children, it's a whole new art form that can take many forms. Certainly there are anime titles for younger audiences, but there are also those for older ones as well. It's like any other genre of entertainment. Why should it just be disregarded because people don't understand its appeal? I'm not saying everyone needs to like anime, it's a matter of taste, of course. All I'm saying as that anime fans seem to be getting a bad reputation, even with the more mainstream "nerd culture" that's growing. I think it's time or that to change.

Cheers.

There is nothing in this world better than fighting robots.

I miss tactical, turn-based gaming.

Call me old-school, call me a clumsy, all-around terrible gamer if you want, I just miss turn-based fighting in old-school video games. Looking back to 1986, when one of my favourite gaming series was released, you find games with covers like this:

Note: not as many dragons as you'd think.

But with graphics like this:

Half the size of the castle? That's me.

But here's the thing. I didn't care about the graphics. The graphics were, and still are when I break these games out, the last thing on my mind. First and foremost, I care about the story and their playability. Now, I'm not saying the original Dragon Warrior was an amazing fantastical masterpiece, but it did spawn my second favourite game of all time, Dragon Warrior IV.

Blow in me. Do it.

This game had it all, great characters, compelling story, long enough play time. The only thing it didn't have was fantastic graphics.

Although that's up for debate.
I almost believe those are real mountains.

But at the time this game was released, these graphics were state-of-the-art. And that was great. The limited technology available to game designers also affected how fighting could happen in games.

Hot damn I almost believe I'm there fighting.

But here's what I love about that style of fighting. It isn't that it's easy, although it's nice to just sit back and press a button to fight sometimes. I just enjoy the way it plays without detracting from the story. It also lets all the hard work done by artists who create monsters to not go to waste; it's a lot more difficult to see a monster when you're all over the place trying to kill it, rather than calmly fighting based on turns, which gives you a really good look at whatever it is you're fighting.

I've also come to see that a lot of these first-person games that have been coming out recently all look the same, play the same, and have similar stories (or lack of, in the case of all those shooting games). Now, there are, of course some exceptions to this, games that have done really well, or should be doing really well, such as Skyrim and Dishonored. These are games with fantastic stories and immersive worlds. The first-person view adds to the immersion without taking away from gameplay. But games like Final Fantasy, or Dragon Quest, or any other games that began as turn-based should remain that way. It's a formula that's worked well for them over these years.

Black Ops.

Modern Warfare. A different game, apparently.

I don't know, maybe I'm old. Maybe I just can't see the allure of the live-action, first-person games like the rest of the world can. If that's the case, I hope someone can explain it to me so I can understand it too.

Or maybe it's that game designers, particularly those tasked with story are simply getting lazy, or reusing the same old formula again and again because it worked. All I know is, we're seeing a degradation of fantastic story, or great games are being overshadowed by the same game being released over and over again (what are we at now, Call of Duty 54?). I understand that games like Call of Duty can appeal to more people than say, an epic about slaying dragons using magic. But does that really mean one has to be taken more seriously than the other? Yes, I understand that money is on the line and the Call of Duty franchise generates A LOT. And I'm not saying that enjoying war games like it makes you any less of a gamer than someone who's logged 40+ hours into a, RPG. That certainly isn't true, both people enjoy playing games and most likely do so frequently. They are just different types of gamers. But why, are we ignoring a whole slew of types of gamers to favour just one? Why can't I just sit back after a long day and press A, or X, or Circle, or whatever to fight? And if I'm up for a more challenging or immersive game, I'll grab something different like Dishonored or Dark Souls, or whatever's on hand.

The world of gaming has indeed changed. There are times when I'm very happy about it. Like when Dragon Warrior IV was remade for the DS with slightly better graphics.

Thank you, Nintendo, for bringing my childhood back to me.

But then I question, when a game that is strikingly similar to to its predecessor(s) is released, why we even bothered to make the leap into the future in the first place. Have we really come to value graphics over the game itself?

Now, I'm not claiming to be an expert, or even a hardcore gamer. I honestly haven't touched many games since I did my research paper on them and wound up ripping most of my favourite titles apart. All I'm saying is I long for the good old days, where we had no graphics to rely on to make sales, so we had to rely on a good story with solid characters instead of using the same game over and over again and just dressing it differently.

Well, that's my angry rant for the day.

Cheers.

Binary - A Poem by Yours Truly

Rather than bitch about something tonight, I feel like posting this poem I write, mostly because I like it. Hope you like.

Binary


Constant motion:
Everything Moves around us;
From the tides of the ocean
To our crew and their devotion.
In a system so marvellous.
Like two suns
,We form a perfect balance.
Everything we have done
,And all we can become
Depends on this delicate dance.


The two of us, we're binary
One can't function without the other.
You might say it's destiny
But I know I'll never love another.


We're like one and zero,
Only together can we form our language.
With one gone, there's no tomorrow,
Sense is lost in the other's sorrow.
No way to program around that damage.


The two of us are binary,
Depending on each other.
Nothing I'll ever see
Will make me want another.


We are one and Zero,
Two suns bound together.
Together, we can make a language flow.
Together in our warm glow,
Bound together forever.


I've seen whole systems die
When one sun loses its lover.
And the two of us are binary
And I'll never love another.

My problem with DC's Earth 2 and why it probably won't stop me reading

This totally has spoilers, so if you read on and haven't read it yet, it's your fault.

A side note before I begin: Is this not one of the coolest covers ever?
Wonder Woman is shiny. This is a thing. A good thing.

It's no secret that I'm more than a little into slash. It's a character flaw, I've been told, and I have to live with it. I am okay with this. It appeared that the Slash Gods somewhere out there were rewarding my unwavering faith when it turned out that Alan Scott (Green Lantern) was totally in love with a man named Sam. (Couldn't have picked a more unisex name, DC, well, other than Leslie.)

I knew it would be risky to get attached to Sam. Significant others in origin stories tend to have a high mortality rate. I knew this and yet... I was hopeful the writers (who are awesome, by the way, regardless of what I say next, they are great and I love them; T'Lema=Robinson fangirl) would stray from the cliché "lover's dead so we must fight in their memory" plotline. I was kind of asking for the moon on that one. It's hard to come up with compelling origin stories that stir the emotions of readers and give the heroes reasons to fight the evil coming for them. In my experience, people are less likely to risk their necks if they've got a lot to lose, by taking away their "everything", in this case Sam, they've got nothing left to lose, and everything to give to the world they protect.

That said, there were some really original and moving things added to this "cliché", although I find it hard to believe that anything can be a cliché any more; in a world where tentacle Hentai exists, I'm pretty sure everything's been done at least once. My favourite part, and the part that actually moved me to tears (which, incidentally is really hard for a comic book to get me to do) was the origin and Alan Scott's Green Lantern ring. It's the ring he was going to use to propose to Sam. If that is not heart-wrenchingly touching, you've got a heart of stone-cold steel and I never want to talk to you. I cried like a baby and then went through about twelve hours of blind anger at James Robinson for making Alan Scott gay and then killing off his lover just after introducing him. Sort of a blow to the whole "acceptance" thing that went with this revelation. But, I'm over that. It is almost 3 am and I can say I'm no longer furious. Characters die. Sam wasn't mine. I knew it was going to happen. I have no right to be angry over a creative decision. And to me, it was a smart decision. You know, the whole "nothing to lose" thing.

Yes, I was actually angry to the point of possible flame sightings in or around my ear-area. Yes I'm really sad that Sam died. But I'm looking at this on the bright side. Sam is actually giving Alan more power, as he is "close to his heart" and all that cliché romantic noise (so cute♥). Also, I didn't see Sam's body, therefore I have liscence to hope he'll be brought back into the story. Between me and you, internet, I'm hoping he'll be used by Grundy to get at Alan. Hello, my favourite plot ever. Lovers pitted against each other, and Alan will DEFINITELY have a reason to defeat Grundy then. (Seriously, James Robinson, if I mention you enough in this will you read it and use that? Please? James Robinson. Please. ...That's not how the internet works, and I'm sad.)

And this is the cover. I'm sorry, bad. ass.

Oh yeah, did I mention Grundy's the villain? Yeah. This is going to be sweet, nay, epic. I just, my fangirliness is getting in the way. Let me turn that off for a bit. Yes this is an option, slash fans. Not a fun one, but it's an option all the same. And yes, I'm fully capable of removing the "slash goggles".

Let's talk Hawkgirl. Super hot. I'm not kidding. She's a real ice queen and I love it. I'd continue reading on in the series for her snarkiness alone. I actually have no opinion on the Flash yet. I fin him sort of dumb and a little whiny, but I feel like that will go away once he understands more of what's going on. Plus, Alan Scott will be there to whack him if he gets whiny. This is something I really want to see happen. Someone please draw the Green Lantern smacking the Flash across the face for being whiny. I will love you forever.

So, the Wonders are dead. I was indifferent to this. A minor character introduced one volume ago had me up in arms for half a day. I was actually invested in Alan Scott's happiness. Alan Scott is someone I hated growing up. But Robinson and the two Scott's have made me like him a lot. He's a strong character with one hell of a heart. Seeing that heart broken made me feel as though my own were being attacked. This is the kind of writing the comic book world needs. This is also why I can't wait to get my mitts on the next issue of Earth 2, regardless of heartache. I want to see where this goes and I want to see more of this fantastic writing.

Seriously, your biggest fan, right here.
Use my ideas. My brain is yours to pick and then throw away, disgusted.

All I need now is for Batman Earth One to be fantastic and my summer will have been made. Since I've just found out I'm going to get to meet Frank Cho in September. DC, you're rocking it this summer, please don't stop.

Cheers!

How to live as an incorrigible flirt

Have you ever met someone with such a pretty face you couldn't help but flirt a little? Maybe they were in a relationship, but you flirted a bit anyways. Maybe you yourself were in a relationship and felt bad for the flirtations. But at the time, you simply couldn't help yourself. Now, imagine this happening with more than half the people you meet.

If they looked like either, you really can't
be held responsible for any flirtation.
It's a knee-jerk reaction.

So let's say you're someone who can't see even a moderately pretty face without the flirting coming out. Let's say people start to label you as "creepy" or some variation of the word. What can you do? It's who you are. I say, stop apologizing for who you are. So long as you're not actively engaging in any true creeper behaviour (eg. stealing underwear), I say, why try to change. A little flirting does a great deal for a person's ego/confidence. You're doing someone a favour by flirting with them, even if they don't flirt back. It makes them feel special and wanted. It makes them feel attractive. If that's a bad thing, I'll gladly go to jail for it.

This man could file SO many lawsuits
if flirting were illegal...
against me alone.

Now, I'm not one to be judgemental about looks. It takes A LOT to keep me from flirting if I'm in a flirtatious mood. To me, pretty much everyone is beautiful, and they deserve to know that. There have been occasions I may have toed the line of creepiness, but I usually know when to reign it in.

If he wasn't so nice, he could file quite
the sexual harassment suit.

All I want to say is, flirting is healthy. It's a great way to have a little fun, even if you're not in for a commitment. It's a great way to let someone know you think they're attractive, which certainly makes a person feel good about themselves. If that's so wrong, I don't want to know what right is.

Cheers!

In Defence of Grammar Nazis Everywhere

Have you ever been in a conversation with someone who types like they're a monkey bashing its head against the keyboard?

I feel like the monkey is probably better at both
typing and spelling.

"but i liek to typ3 li3k dis" is often a defence for such crimes against language, or "its shorter 2 not type it all out and ur super dumb 4 not doin this 2" is an alternative. Why? For the first one, why would you want to look like a drunk ape learning how to use a complex piece of equipment? I honestly don't see the allure in looking like a complete moron in a setting where everyone across the globe could conceivably see your act of idiocy. For the second one... well, you're using a full keyboard. Can you honestly not spare the extra half-second it takes to type "to" or "too" instead of using the digit? If you're really that busy, should you honestly be wasting your precious, precious time on an internet forum or the comments section of whatever it is you're browsing? Quickly, get off your computer and get back to your life-changing work.

Seriously, these monkeys know what
they're doing.

Surely, if you are a lover of languages like myself, or at least a human being of moderate intelligence, you've wanted to, at some point, correct at least one egregious error in your time on the internet. Perhaps you've restrained yourself for fear of being labelled a "Grammar Nazi" for the whole internet to see.

My question is, why be afraid? Why fear being known for proper use of your language? Since the internet really started to soar in popularity, the quality of grammar everywhere has been deteriorating. It's gotten to the point where people, grown, adult people, have no idea how to use simple words like "your" and "you're" properly, and are simply confounded by the idea of "there", "they're", and "their" being different things with different meanings. Please, don't even get me starting on using "then" rather than "than" to make comparisons. This is simple grammar people should have picked up in grade school when they were learning how to read and write. No amount of wifi should ever change the fact that this is important linguistic knowledge.

Yes languages change an mutate over the years. Otherwise, we'd still be going around asking "what light through yonder window breaks" or "how art thee this fine morrow?" However, languages should not mutate to the point where words lose their meanings, or become so confused with similar words that no one knows how to spell or use them correctly without several visits to a dictionary. My point here is, use a darned dictionary, learn what words mean and how to use them, and I'll stay off your back. Until you do that, I will continue to be one of the last crusaders for linguistic purity.

Cheers.