Human Revolution: Deus Ex

Here's another fun violent short sci-fi film from Machinima. This one I've watched half of before I had to get to work this morning. I actually thought the first person camera work was not bad. Usually I feel like that trick is stupid and cheap but since this is an homage to a video game I thought it worked well. I do sort of doubt that a cigar cutter could really take off a finger. You'd cut someone to the bone but unless you were at a joint I doubt it would go all the way through. Totes unrealistic.

ECCC Story: Girl Power

I know, I know. Girl Power is a very 90s, Spice Girls thing to say. It's almost come to represent a superficial female empowerment that's often driven by embracing sexist attitudes in a half-hearted attempt to subvert them, yet in the end kind of reinforces them further. Sometimes when dealing with heavy issues like sexism and racism the illusion of change becomes more important than any sort of real, substantial, change.

Sorry that paragraph got way deeper than I usually get.

There were a lot of kick ass female artists/writers at Emerald City Comic Con this year. Out of the measly 10 books I did get signed, 5 were either written or drawn by women. And I'll be honest, the women that I talked to, like Kelly Sue DeConnick or Amanda Conner, were a lot nicer and more interesting as a whole than their male counterparts. That's not to say that I didn't have some great conversations with a couple dude artists. It's just that if I had to choose between hanging out with the gals or the guys, I'm picking the gals. Maybe that says more about me than anything else? I don't know.

It's amazing how quickly I can get away from my original point.

As the father of a 7 month old future geek girl, it was great seeing how many positive female role models there are in the industry and culture that I love so much. There's still a long way to go but it feels like the tide is turning. I know that one father's experience at one convention doesn't erase all the fake geek girl memes or the boorish behavior of some guys that think seeing cleavage is a free pass to harassment but it did provide some needed encouragement that this is a community I'd be happy to raise my daughter in.



ps. the girl dressed as Deadpool in the picture up top was one of my favorite cosplayers at the con. She was super bad ass. I didn't take the picture but I wanted to share it.

pps. I have lots to blather on about regarding Emerald City Comic Con this last weekend. I'm going to try and spread it all out over this week, so if you didn't want to read about ECCC, maybe you should hang out at Ars Technica this week. Go head, I won't hold it against you.

ah ha ha ha Staying Alive Gable 5

One of the panels I went to this weekend at Emerald City Comic Con (more on that later) was a Q&A with Eliza Dushku. She wasn't as entertaining as Richard Dean Anderson but she was a lot nicer to look at. She talked quite a bit about this short film called The Gable 5. I haven't watched it yet but a room full of nerds thought it was good. Ok, maybe just the 1/4 of the room that had seen it.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles looks awful

that is all.

Spank Prank? Spank Prank

Hidden camera pranks are usualy kind of stupid. Like what would you do if someone in a Yeti costume jumped out of a garbage can? You'd poop your pants is what you'd do. It's what anyone would do. You don't have to rent a Yeti costume to learn that.

This prank however involves butts, so it's pretty cool.

Can You Walk on Water? Yes, if You Cheat

Some geeks in Kuala Lumpur filled a small pool full of non-newtonian fluid and had people run across it. Looks fun. I'm going to propose this for the next bachelor party I'm invited to. Anyone know where you can get a couple thousand gallons of non-newtonian fluid?

Hello Scarlet Witch in Avengers: Age of Ultron

A bunch of set pictures from Avengers: Age of Ultron hit the interwebs yesterday. They're noteworthy because they're the first we've seen of The Scarlet Witch and her brother Quicksilver. They also show a few pictures of a real half assed looking Ultron thing that I assume will end up pretty heavy with the cgi.

So far I think everything looks great. Scarlet Witch kinda looks like a cross between evil Willow from Buffy and Daria's best friend Jane, which really hits all the right buttons for me. A bunch of people are crapping all over Quicksilver's costume but I don't think it looks too bad. It's a guy in a tech shirt wearing Nikes. What did they expect? The spandex quicksilver suit with the deep v-neck and the high collar? Now that would look ridiculous.

The Durham Bulls will cosplay as RD-D2 this year

For Star Wars day the Durham Bulls, who I have been told are a minor league BA-SE-BA-LL (?) team, are dressing up as R2-D2 this year. It's all part of their "lets get people interested in Baseball by doing as many non-baseball things as possible" campaign. When asked for comment R2-D2 said "beep beep boop, wahoooooooo".