Naming Your Kids - Be Responsible

A certain piece of news caught my attention this week. A couple made headlines due to the fact that they named their kid Adolf Hitler. No Shit. The same spelling and all but they added a Campbell at the end though. This baby Hitler is living in New Jersey with his family when Social Services took him away because they said that naming your kid after a genocidal maniac is a form of abuse. The couple is currently fighting it out with the government in court to gain custody back of their kid. 

In totally related news, they also named their daughter Joycelyn Aryan Nation Campbell. They said that they were totally not pro-nazi. Apparently, the swastikas in their home are just "decorations"

"The color really does wonders to your wall dear"

Now, If you want to name yourself  Boobie or Goku or Super Agent Man I'm all for it. Whatever makes you happy but if you are going to give your kid a name, the least you can do is be responsible. What the hell is wrong with you naming your kid after one of the most hated men in history? Do you really think that it's cool? I could just imagine this kid having a ball of a time growing up. He'll be the school's punching bag. Every bully in school will love to stomp his face in just because he was named after the guy with the horrible mustache. This is one of the reasons why children grow up beating up their classmates and shooting their teachers because their parents lack brain cells and gets off calling him stupid shit.

Every person has the right to be treated with respect. You have the right to express yourself (In most countries anyway) and make yourself known. If you want to be a dick just do movie plot drive by or tell some hipster that Apple products are so mainstream but don't let your kid grow up with blinding rage as their everyday companion.

Read more:

http://www.inquisitr.com/154741/adolf-hitler-in-custody-battle/

Movies: Superhero Overload

Is it just me or every other movie coming out is something from a novel or a comic book? It seems like Hollywood is running out of ideas.
Don't get me wrong, I've got nothing against seeing an angry Hulk tearing it up in the big screen or an uber hot Scarlett Johansen in a tight, black, body-hugging outfit. Stan Lee is making a killing with all these superhero movies coming out.
What is wrong anyway? Is Hollywood getting lazy or just riding the popularity wave of comic books?
I can't even remember the last time I saw a 'good' movie that has nothing to do with Tolkien, Rowling, or Lee.
I guess it's also us the consumer that drives these movie makers into bringing these comic book heroes into life. For somebody that grew up reading The X-Men, why would you want to pass up the opportunity to see if Jean Grey is as hot in the movies as in the comic book. It's just feels like Hollywood is just not doing a good job anymore. It more like that dumb kid that keeps on copying the smart kid's answers during a pop quiz. It keeps our expectations low.
Though I don't mind seeing a hot Emma Watson.

Reading: Taking 'Fantasy' Into Account

There seems to be a misconception that when you say Fantasy Literature, we're talking about 10-16 year old fanboys/fangirls taking about Harry Potter and how it is 'the best thing evah' while on the other side we have the older, more 'mature' readers thinking that these books are mostly a small step above children bedtime stories.

Take note, I spelled the 'L' in Fantasy Literature in capital.

Other than it being a noun, it is also a much misinterpreted genre. I blame the movies. They tend to pick the most generic of the lot which they can sell to the people as something great. Like a McDonalds Fries. It's good and tasty but nothing beyond that (other than clogging your arteries)

Movie adaptations tend to glamorize the stories a bit. You'd probably have seen the Lord of The Rings trilogy and appreciated the huge battles, great characters, how cute Elija Wood as a hobbit is, and how overly long it is. If you have read the first print of it, not the novels that came out during the movies, you will notice that the man did not write it while eating dinner and watching Wheel of Fortune. It's pretty damn amazing the level of intellect and imagination that Tolkien must have had to almost single-handedly define the fantasy genre for all writers after him. When was the last time when you hear a person say elf you think of those small, pointy-hat wearing, candy eating characters? No, you think of a lithe, androgynous, pointy-eared creature with flowing hair. Unless you watched 'Elf' and you're thinking about Will Farrell which is anything but.  He basically carved his face in the genre. His very own Mount Rushmore.

There are a lot of fantasy novels that uses different styles. There is the almost lyrical prose of Tad Williams that made you feel like you're reading a poem without all the boring feeling of...reading a poem, to the gritty no-hero-is-safe exposition of George R.R. Martin who I think is the biggest thing right now after the death of the great Robert Jordan who wrote his massively  (overly) long LoTR-esque series 'The Wheel of Time'
Fantasy does not mean medieval swords and sorcery. There are a lot of  writers who uses the modern day as the common setting. Just pick up a Dresden series book written by Jim Butcher or a Nightside series book by Simon R. Green and you'll know what I mean. They still have sword and magic but now accompanied with a gun. That's like a value meal with a sundae.

If you like reading, give fantasy a chance. It's like buying a new pair of shoes. Sometimes, they just don't fit or they may be exactly what you need to bring you to footwear nirvana. If you don't know where you start, check this site's recommendations. Execpt for a book or two in there, I've probably read everything.

http://www.bestfantasybooks.com/top25-fantasy-books.php

Music: Rocker's Pride

When it seems like everybody is trying to get their music featured in Glee, somebody finally said no. David Grohl, former drummer of Nirvana and now lead singer of Foo Fighters, basically told the show to Eff off and I quote:

“It’s every band’s right, you shouldn’t have to do f---ing Glee,” Grohl told THR following the premiere of Foo Fighters: Back and Forth, the new Foo Fighters documentary which just made its South By Southwest debut. “And then the guy who created Glee is so offended that we’re not, like, begging to be on his f---ing show… f--- that guy for thinking anybody and everybody should want to do Glee.”
Source: http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/foo-fighters-dave-grohl-ryan-murphy-glee-168949

I imagine that will all the publicity that the show gets, it should have a lot of muscle in the music industry to push bands around.

Fitness: Crazy Six Pack Maker

Why exercise when you have things like this:

Supposedly, it will give you the six pack that you want.
Yes.
You get six packs by using a BBQ grill on your stomach.

Sometimes, people are just too much. Go figure.

Check more here:
http://www.neatorama.com/2011/03/17/the-ab-hancer/

Gaming: Dragons and Pirates. What Can Go Wrong?

Dragon Age 2 had been out for about a week or so and people are not happy.

Scratch that. People are mad.

Why? Well if you are a fan of the original game then there are quite a few things (meaning a lot) in DA2 that will chafe on lovely memories of DA:Origins.

To give you an idea what the hoopla is all about, Hawke, the main protagonist of the game escaped the Blight of Ferelden escaping with his family from Lothering. He will then go to Kirkwall to start a new life and eventually become the city’s Champion. How you get from a dirt poor runaway to a money showering celebrity is the question.

The game is told from the perspective of Varric a suave (and hairy) dwarf who is one of Hawke’s companions. He is being interrogated by Cassandra a Seeker of the Chantry. It is interesting in the way that depending on how you play the game, the narration will revolve around it. The game is separated using Bioware’s three act scheme. The time line of the game starts as the same time as the Blight hit Ferelden and will span the next 10 years. As usual, incredible writing makes each act compelling on its own though there is a lack of having a main bad guy. The first game had the cataclysmic Blight to work the end-of-the-world route but for DA2, it feels more like you’re a glorified investigator. All that search and apprehend (or destroy if it suits your fancy) makes it difficult to appreciate anything bigger than getting that dick who started killing people.

The environment is bigger and richer than the previous game as you have a veritable city to explore but that’s it. Yes folks, aside from a little frolicking in the forest to meet the elves, you’re pretty much stuck in Kirkwall. It’s got its charms but looking at the same scene over and over again for the next 50 hours makes me wish that I can pee on the walls. At least the music is still top notch though all those spiders dropping at the same time makes for a very loud entrance that almost gave me a heart attack.

Combat has been streamlined. Everything is faster and your enemies explode like watermelons. It could get a bit hectic as combat is very flashy. The game highlights the different skills you can use in combat but what it doesn’t highlight is the tactical zoom that the previous game use to have. You can still pause and give commands but the tactical element of it is zilch as you will have to wait for your enemies to come to you or you go to them.

The linear skill trees have been replaced with a new system that lets you choose skills with its branching function. I’m still not decided where that is a good thing or not.

Your companions are probably one of the elements that can make or break a game especially with the DA series which has that Fellowship-of-the-ring feel to it. Each one of your companions has a story to share and it rewards the player who unravels them. One of your companions has a particularly Greek Drama feel to it as it tries to follow the tragic hero routine. Your hero can build a romantic relationship with practically anything that has two legs with a few exceptions.
Party banter is top notch and may I say a lot more crude. Characters in game will be cussing up a storm and you’ll notice how much more polite people are across the sea in Ferelden.

There are a lot things that makes this game somewhat better than the first and there certainly also a lot more things here that will probably piss the living hell out of the fan boys. Do I hate it? No. I love the game. It might have sucked compared to the first one but it’s still a game.

Tubing The Weekend Away

Hello world! It is I, Soopah, your master and ruler.Hear me and obey.

I so totally did not get that from Three Dog.

Since it is my first post here (which coincidentally is also a Sunday) let's talk a little about YouTube.

Ah yes. Everybody's favorite site next to Facebook. Where everybody can show the world how super cool they are or how crushingly embarrassing you can be that ended up in Failblog.
How can you not love it? Other than the fact that there are those supremely irritating pop-ups when streaming videos, it's a nice alternative to the TV. Everything and anything that can be put in the frame of a camera is there. It's like the 9 pm prime time slot without the commercials.

One favorite of mine to do in the Tube is to search for musical artist. I stress artist. Nothing of that Justin Beiber crap. He's gonna grow up sometime time and when that high angelic voice of his crack, little teenage girls will be in a world of emotional pain.
Let me introduce you to three of my favorite arists:

Alex Goot
This man is a musical genius. He plays every instrument and he's a fairly decent singer. What makes him interesting is he looks like the geek that sits in front of class and never speaks to hot chick with the douche.

J-Rice
He's been posting vids for quite some time. Some of them are not very well known but he does have a lot of hits.

Kenny M.
This video is old as hell. Singing on the bed with a girl. Where did I hear that before. Jennifer Kae here from what I know made it big in Europe.

Some of them already have their songs in I-tunes should you want to check it out.

So, what videos do you like?