I think this place should be voted for the most neglected blog in all of interweb history.

Lately, I can't peel my eyes off Ebay.com, Amazon.com, and many other selling communities I follow. It seems everybody is trying to make a little extra cash by selling everything they own, if you know what I mean. Even I've come to selling some of my brand clothing here and there just to buy an original artwork from a favorite artist! Nonetheless, I have always been a poor, starving artist/geek so this economic crisis we're suffering in isn't really making any sort of difference in my already sad state of income.

In fact, I've snagged some low-priced DVDs off of Amazon sellers-- V for Vendetta and Planet Terror for both less than $20!

Nonetheless, hobbies have suffered from all this lack of money. I've quit cosplay and anime conventions. I've narrowed down my conventions to basically San Diego Comic Con... and that's about it! I would still consider WWLA, but it all depends if anyone will actually be there next year.

There is kind of a void in my little nerdy heart-- especially since I don't even buy as many comic books as I would like to these days. Maybe I should stop buying used brand clothing on eBay, right? Girl and Geek– both sides in constant battle!

Anyways, as always, I promise to think of a way to make this blog and website more interesting in the future!

I have a confession to make.

Recently, I watched both Fantastic Four movies starring Jessica Alba... and I enjoyed them.

Do I need to get shot in the head for this???

I think it was the pure cheesiness and "badness" of it all that really made me feel like I was watching a Marvel comic come to life. Not that I'm saying Marvel is bad. What I'm trying to get at is... in the old days, comics were cheesy-- but in a really good way! It's Stan Lee, for goodness sakes. He's brilliant without falling into that "edgy" trap, which is what comics these days seem to be vying for. Marvel superheroes were fun and a little campy a lot of times. These F4 movies were all about campy-ness. The cast was even almost perfect. I have mad crush on the actor who plays Reed Richards-- he suits the character so well!

Jessica Alba... well, she's hot, and her acting skills were just right for these type of movies so I have no complaints, really. I know they have to have that Hollywood face to sell even if she doesn't quite scream 'Sue Storm' to me. At least it wasn't Kirsten Dunst. Shudder.

I give these F4 movies a thumbs up since they were just fun to watch.

Plus... the uniforms didn't deviate too much from the original either!
See, guys? When you don't try too damn hard to be so "edgy" everything actually works out... coughX-Men3coughCOUGH...

We all have our little morbid fascinations and one of mine are serial killers. There are nights when I would peruse websites online and read up on killers throughout history. I don't do this EVERY night... just once in a blue moon when something perks my interest again. When I heard of Showtime's new show, Dexter, I wanted to watch it soooo bad...

But. I'm always a late-comer when it comes to new things so I didn't get to watch the first season till this year (when Netflix placed the entire first season on their watch instantly section. Whoop! Though it was a bitch trying to update my media player on my desktop until I finally managed to update my laptop's so it would place netflix videos. Fuck you, Netflix, and your Windows Media Player 11 requirement).

Now, I have joined the not-so-massive-maybe?-legion of Dexter lovers.

Michael C. Hall does an amazing job with this character. Yes, there is something very sick about endearing a serial killer... but if you can resist Dexter, then I almost wonder if there's something wrong with you! It is a unique experience to sympathize with a killer– but Dexter proves it is possible. He is a killer with a code of conduct and he doesn't have 'innocent' victims. Just his own fellow serial killers. He's a sort of turncoat on his own brotherhood because he's protecting the other side from people like him.

I mean we all have an urge to kill that guy who cut you off the freeway... but you won't act on it.

... Right?

I first "met" this actor when I watched the movie A Knight's Tale and he immediately went down on my favorite actors list.

I know, I know... the movie wasn't THAT great, but damn, the male cast was fantastic! I think that movie was one of the first movies I tortured Mjade with at my house, since it was one of those movies I just couldn't stop watching for some reason. Mjade, of course, immediately pointed out to me all that was wrong with the movie. I just kind of grinned, agreed, but still decided I loved it... and that I loved Heath Ledger. She then insisted I watch 10 Things I Hate About You in order to get the full Heath effect.

Eventually, I did watch that movie and I loved it for him.

I've never been a drooling jackass over Heath. I respected him for his talents-- which I strongly believed he possessed despite the numerous somewhat kitschy and crappy films he's done in the past. Of course, it helped that he was quite good looking in his own way.

When it was first announced that he will be playing the Joker in the next Batman film, most people were adamant against this decision. While on the other hand, I strongly defended Ledger's talent as a character actor. Despite the crappy-ness of say... Casanova, he still pulled off his role and made it believable.

I had always looked forward to all the films he would be in because I knew he always delivered.

Needless to say, I am devastated that Hollywood lost one of their few honestly good actors. I am sad that I will never see him again in a movie after the ones he's already made before his passing.

I tip my hat to him and all that he accomplished in his small time with us. I rarely ever agree that a celebrity death is truly tragic-- and probably, this isn't as tragic in the bigger picture. Still, in my heart it is a big lost to the entertainment world. .. even if it's just in the small world of true Ledger fans.

I am finally contributing to this blog, I hope this makes you all happy.

Last summer, all of us saw a strange and mysterious trailer that caused a lot of fuss, and raised a lot of questions. A movie with no name, only a date: 1-18-08. J.J. Abrams, the producer, probably wouldn't have it any other way.

Today, January 18th of 2008, I saw this film, now known as "Cloverfield". I was worried that this film would be a disappointment, since all the anticipation caused by the ambiguous trailers and intriguing viral campaigning could most certainly outdo the film itself.

I have to say, the movie lived up to my expectations (and they were quite high). I won't give away what "it" is that is terrorizing Manhattan exactly, but I will say that the great thing about this movie is that the point of view is always realistic. Everything we see is from a little camcorder, so we experience the terror as any person experiencing it would. The movie did start off a bit slow, but by the time chaos ensues, the story becomes intense, emotional, and at times disturbing, but always very entertaining.

I must warn though, that those of you who are not fans of the "shaky camera" (ala Bourne Supremacy/Ultimatum) will probably become annoyed. The picture can be very unsteady at times, but it is only to try to convey a sense of realism amongst the panic of what is occurring.

This is the type of movie that stays with you long after you're through watching (which is what I'm sure was intended). Although the actual premise in this film is a bit unlikely (or so we hope), the reaction of the people is not so different than that of a natural catastrophe. You find yourself questioning what your actions would be in such situations. The actions of the characters in the movie are realistic, and not preachy like some of other catastrophe movies. The ending is a bit blunt, but then again, in the real world, endings don't always have complete closure like they do in the movies.

Of course being a film associated with the cryptic J.J. Abrams, pay attention to the last scene in the movie. It gives a hint to what may have started the entire catastrophe.

And last, but not least, the best part of seeing this movie was getting to see the TEASER TRAILER FOR STAR TREK! Yes, my friends, a teaser trailer for Star Trek. My nerdiness knows no bounds.

~Gizzy

No one reads this blog, but we like to pretend people actually do! I get pure enjoyment out of it, despite the fact that the only other person writing is the website co-owner, Mjade. Isn't she fabulous though? I enjoy her entries way too much-- especially the last one about The Golden Compass.

It reminds me of our high school days when we would offend people with our elaborate rants on why we don't look a certain book or a certain movie-- and there were a lot of those. Both of us have very specific tastes. Most of the time we agree on things, and yes, we do disagree on some. I miss those days some times. I can't believe high school is already so far away, first of all!


I think about this website all the time. Although we do use the space for personal projects and file uploading, we really wanted the blog to be the heart of it. Right now, I feel like it's just the 'front' and not quite the main star yet. I guess we really haven't worked hard enough to advertise this "blog"-- though I prefer it be more of an old-school online newsletter, but with the hint of something more modern. I really need to flesh out this idea more.

I also need our other members to post here. Christ. Lazy jackasses.

For now-- 2007 is coming to an end. Mjade is flying home from England and we will be celebrating the coming of 2008 in San Francisco. We'll congratulate ourselves on this website and try to figure out how to pull an audience. We were never very good at pimping ourselves. Neither of us is willing to get naked online either, so I don't know where this leaves two cute girl geeks.

Sigh.

Happy Holidays and Happy New Years, everyone!!!

I read the Golden Compass and accompanying books when I was in high school. I found the first one interesting, the second one a bit odd, and the third one terrible. I went away from the trilogy wondering why everyone thought it was amazing.

Fast forward six years. I work in a games company and hang out with people who actually read. One night we got to discussing why I love 'kids' books and they assumed I must love the His Dark Materials trilogy. I revealed that I didn't like it. In actual fact, I was apathetic at that point. I didn't remember much about it except that it left a bad taste in my mouth when I finished it. They were shocked. They all felt it was a fabulous trilogy, ground breaking etc etc etc.

I began to wonder, had my teenage self miss-judged the series? Was I too self-involved, or uneducated in religious symbolism and history to understand these so-called amazing books? I wasn't sure. I hardly ever change my opinion on a book, I know what I like and what I don't like, sometimes I can even articulate why.

So, I decided that with the movie coming out shortly, it was time to reread the trilogy and see if I was incorrect in my first impression. Well...I wasn't. I still can't stand them.

The first book starts out well enough, the story is interesting, the characters somewhat compelling. I got annoyed at his bizarre choice to rename common things from our world in Lyra's just to make it more fantastical. Like he says to himself, "Hmmmmm, how do I create a believable fantasy world with the least amount of effort? I know, I'll take random words and find different root words for them. It'll make me look really clever and like I put a lot of effort into it." This concept irritated me because it threw me out of the story. I would try and imagine the scene in my head only to get stuck on a word and go, "Wait, what the hell is anbaric? Is it gas, electric, candle?" and then have to reread the passage because I'd lost the flow.

But the first book isn't that bad, all things considered. It holds together pretty well as long as he doesn't talk about Dust. It's almost as if even he can't decide what the hell Dust is.

The second book just isn't really that memorable. You get through it quickly because you know you need to. Will is so flat as a character and I really just didn't care about him. It's also in this book where everyone starts acting more like super heroes than people. The characters are presented as normal in the first book, but suddenly some of them (namely Mrs Coulter) can now do whatever they want, without proper explanation.

The third book is the worst by far. It's long and blustery and mostly pointless. More and more the characters have these insane abilities and knowledge of what they have to do, and considering this is mostly a war to get rid of God, they sure seemed blessed with powers to do so. But more on that later. My real gripe with the third one is the terrible editing. There's a good three chapters about a stupid bomb that has nothing WHAT SO EVER to do with the main plot. You could rip those pages out and nothing would be lost. Nothing. What kind of editor did this man have? Next gripe is those weird mulefas. I mean, come on. It's the same problem Star Wars books have, they create these absolutely mind blowing creatures that I can't even begin to imagine so I'm stuck with this ugly horse/elephant/on roller skates in my head.

And can we stop being all "Oooooooh be one with the earth" crap? Yes, we get it, their world is perfectly fucking balanced. It's so simplistically balanced they can explain it with elephant trunks! Not like our world where we can only begin to understand the causes and effects of the environment on larger scales and can't comprehend it on small scale at all. Yeah, that's a great piece of writing; let's point out the flaws of humanity by making a metaphor that doesn't work.

Finally, the ending of the third book just sucks. But, that's not really a gripe with his writing so much as it made me regret reading the whole series because it's such a downer. I'm not even one that has to have happy endings, but after all that bullshit you read through to get to the end and that's it? Shit, I'd rather watch Old Yeller.

Now, about this whole religious controversy, everyone keeps saying it's promoting atheism. Well, the definition of atheism is "the doctrine or belief that there is no God." It seems to me that if they're going to war with "The Authority" then in the terms that we have defined Atheism, the book isn't promoting atheism because it states there is a God. The important point is Pullman is saying the God we've come to believe isn't the creator, but that doesn't mean he's saying there isn't one. So, get off his back and stop giving the Atheists a bad name.

As for whether or not Pullman is having a go at the Catholic church, well, considering he's having a war on the one true God (which involves several religions, let's not get self-obsessed here) then he's really writing a book against all organized religions. So, everybody should be pissed off, not just the Catholics.

Personally, I don't see why the church is paying any attention. Whatever his book is saying, it's badly written and confusing so why pay it any heed? They're just drawing more attention to it. I think their time is much better spent banning Harry Potter which is at least teaching children morals and that doing what is right isn't easy. God wouldn't want that now would he/she?