Okay, not all of them -- but I've been hanging onto many of these links for quite a while and now my Firefox has 80+ open tabs. So it's time to clear the board with another exciting linkage post! You may have seen many of these by now, but hopefully you'll find something interesting in here that you haven't encountered yet.

• Hardcore Gaming 101: Athena

  I must've had this tab open for months -- ever since I started playing SNK vs. Capcom: SVC Chaos earlier this year as part of the Capcom and SNK kick that stemmed from my purchase of the Mai Shiranui and Chun-Li action figure set. Athena's one of the two secret bosses, and she's got quite a history as a character! I tried desperately to find the Athena: Awakening from an Ordinary Life live-action drama, but I have not yet been successful in that endeavor.

• Destroy All Monsters: Rogues Gallery -- Prehistoric Isle

  At least once a year -- and probably more along the lines of thrice a year -- I go off on a dinosaur kick. I think I found this during the most recent one, which took place from October-November and resulted in me buying a handful of velociraptor figures. It looks bloody cool! It's also an SNK game, which makes two thus far.

• Beyonce: Now it's time for a black Wonder Woman

  I'm not sure how I'd feel about this. There are some characters -- many characters -- perhaps even most characters -- for whom I wouldn't at all object to a skin color change in the leap from comic to film. I thought it was fine for Kingpin in Daredevil, since Kingpin's supposed to be a big crime boss and they don't come much bigger than Michael Clarke Duncan, and while Catwoman had many flaws (or so I'm told; I still can't bring myself to watch it), I doubt that Halle Berry's skin color was among them. (Besides, in that respect, Eartha Kitt had already established a precedent for the character.) Batman, the Flash, Hawkgirl, Huntress, just about any of the X-Men... there are a ton of characters who could change their skin color and it wouldn't at all seem problematic for me.

  But Wonder Woman? Something about that just doesn't work for me. It might be because many other characters are more/less defined by their backstory, or by their costumes, or by certain physical characteristics -- for example, as with Kingpin, their size -- but Wonder Woman has an iconic look that incorporates not only her costume, but her entire physical appearance. Her backstory is kinda crap, but it also arguably demands a more "classical" appearance for her: she was fashioned out of clay by the Amazonian queen Hippolyta and brought to life by Athena. Granted, I have no idea who I'd cast in the role -- only Steel comes to mind, but she looks a bit too hard and I doubt she can act -- but WW is one character I'd probably try to match to her comic appearance as closely as possible.

  That said, if a live-action X-Men film ever touched on the Mojoverse, I think Beyonce would make an interesting casting choice for Spiral.

• Zina Saunders paints Sarah Palin

  Obviously a holdover from the election, I found this painting to be pretty darned cool.

(more...)

This toy ordering is getting excessive.

The Stampman saga continues -- and apparently more harassment took place on Sunday! At one point he blocked my mother's path in the church and refused to let her pass until she shook his hand. Then, at the Thanksgiving dinner, ol' Stampy made a point of sitting at a table adjacent to my mother's so that his back was to hers. God only knows how much time he spent staring at the back of her head, but, when the churchgoers were asked to applaud our veterans and current soldiers, he turned, leaned over, and slammed his hands together roughly a foot from my mother's ear. The most unfortunate part is that Mom met with the pastor (again) to discuss the Stampman's harassment following the church service, so this latter incident happened after the pastor told him to leave her the frick alone.

Oh, and he left another message on the voice mail tonight -- once again begging Mom to be his friend. Ugh.

Anyway, remember the Halloween card I mentioned in the last Stampman entry? Here it is! This is actually the first time I'd actually looked at it -- I wasn't really eager to touch it (and not because he has HIV, but rather because he's uber creepy and I wouldn't put it past him to seal the envelope with jizz or something), so I was working from my mother's description before -- and wow. Wow. Even the envelope is creepy, what with the tiny snowcat creatures and the fact that he's addressed it as being from a fictional sender who lives at a nonexistent address. Yay! (more...)

He's called multiple times today -- likely once from his health care service provider (seriously!) and at least twice from a pay phone. He may also have called at least once using a calling card, though we can't say for certain whether those calls (which occur daily from the same 866 number) are from him or a telemarketer.

Anyway, since we obviously didn't answer his most recent pay phone call, he left a short message:

Blocking my phone number is not in your best interests.

...Yes.

Despite what I say in the lengthier discussion, I'm not really sure what compelled me to try my hand, voice, and visage at a video log -- but here we go. So yeah, if you've never seen me in person and would like to point and laugh at my awkward mannerisms and rambling speech, now you can! The 24-second test video is below, followed by a much lengthier three-part discussion behind the cut. As note at one point, I really hadn't intended for it to be so long -- I neglected to time myself and ended up rambling on for 23 minutes. Eat your heart out, Vice President-elect Joe Biden!

Part 1 (6:40)

Part 2 (8:35)

Part 3 (8:06)

And get this: there's even more stuff that I wanted to discuss, like that this mindset mine is arguably unhealthy because it makes me significantly less motivated to go out and "succeed" in social and/or material contexts, since I largely have everything that I want -- or at least what I feel it is important to have -- aboard the floating citadel in my psyche. (Even a room filled with mannequins!) Perhaps I'll save that for a future vlog or a text follow-up (or even the comments section below, if it comes up there).

Anyway, let me know what you think. I may post this on YouTube, but I obviously have no aspirations to be some widely-watched YT celebrity -- I don't ever plan to care enough to add special effects (beyond the fades) or cut stuff out or even work from a script (though outlines or checklists may be helpful in the future) so keep that in mind when offering criticisms, comments, et cetera. There's also no need to suggest that I not ramble so much or make shorter videos, since I am both well aware of those issues and inclined to agree! And while I certainly have no plans to transform Wesoteric into a vlog -- this would be a biweekly feature at the absolute maximum, and probably more like a monthly thing -- do let me know if you'd balk at video entries even that infrequently. I certainly have no problem with text entries, and as noted I'm infinitely more comfortable with them. 🙂