The next person who tries to use a Rotten Tomatoes rating to tell me that a movie sucks is going to be backhanded. Why do people put so much stock into what this website says?
Of course, anyone who says "Rotten Tomatoes just likes hating everything" can automatically be pointed toward the fact that they fall all over any movie that "everybody" is going to love or see as genius. Dark Knight. Well, they can't rip on Dark Knight...people might stop putting credence into their meaningless ratings!
This is a site that gives Hostel a 59%. Hostel. The movie that is pretty much a softcore snuff film. In fact, they give a pass to plenty of movies because "they're exactly what they're supposed to be." Some films are apparently allowed to be full of explosions and boobs as long as that's what they're "supposed to be"....but the "supposed to be" is a completely arbitrary designation. Vampires Suck is pretty obviously supposed to be a silly mocking of Twilight, among other things, but that gets a 6% rating. The Nightmare on Elm Street remake? 13%. Someone explain to me how that movie was not what it was "supposed to be." Please.
Meanwhile, Piranha 3D enjoys a whopping 75% positive rating.
I was extremely interested when the "D20 Girls Magazine Summer Sampler" showed up in my e-mail yesterday. The text accompanying the e-zine sounded promising:
Well, the highly anticipated D20 Girls Magazine is right around the corner. But just cause we like to tease a bit. Here is a sample of what you can expect to see in the upcoming edition. The full edition is 32 pages, higher resolution, and filled with alot more content. You can pick up a print edition at Origins 2010 for only $10. Read the not from the publisher inside the magazine to find other ways you can also get a copy! Anyway, feedback is appreciated and I hope you like our magazine!
Ideally, based on the cover, the magazine offers an inside look into the world of female gaming.
Sadly, once you open the cover, it becomes apparent that this compares with Playboy's insistence that people will buy the magazine merely to read the articles. Yes, I said it. (I know, I actually DO read the articles... but I'm not stupid. I know that my husband isn't interested in learning about what the articles say.) The entire spread is interspersed around a pictorial wet dream that assumes "the position".
Now, there is a small bit of merit--- there are the promised articles. However, it's over-shadowed heavily in light of what is obviously the primary focus of the e-zine.
It begs the question, if I'm a hot gamer-chick, can I get my photo taken of me licking a d12 while suggestively laying across a battle mat, my pile of washable markers next to me and my hair spread across my DMG 3.5? Oh, and can that be construed an "inside perspective on the female gamer?" Wouldn't it me more accurate to show me in my stained Wonder Woman t-shirt, sitting at the head of a dining room table with all the mismatched chairs, surrounded by a random assortment of guys- my hair in a messy ponytail and my glasses sitting on the end of my nose. Oh yeah, and don't forget one of my kids wandering into the scene with queso all over his face...
Today I wanted to shine the light on some very cool artists on Twitter, two of them might not be widely known, but you can bet they will be in the near future. And one of them has even written for the movie industry.
Her daily tweets can be called poetic and up lifting. Everything she writes just jumps off the pages. Cynthia is a big promoter of the Luvbabyluv ( and I think I owe her $200 for using that ) which she says and preaches on a daily basis. I’ve read her work and I’m sure that she will be a future N.Y Time Bestseller. If you haven’t followed Cynthia by now, you really should. One amazing tweet that also helps promote the indie artist on the net. A very cool friend to have.
Harsh, honest ,blunt, to the freaking point. All the makings of a fantastic film critic, and that’s what Josh brings to the table. This kid lives and breaths film, and if you ever want to talk shop with him, he’ll box a few rounds with you. ( I STILL SAY DRAGON BALL EVOLUTION SHOULD HAVE WON AN OSCAR, JOSH) no, I am kidding, that movie was crap.
I’m glad to see these new breed of critics out there, working hard giving their two cents on what’s what. I won’t be surprise to see this kid on T.V soon weighing in on the next big thing. Give Josh a follow and lend him your support.
GINGER SNAPS!!!!! I love that movie, and I have to thank this great mind for writing the script to it. If you don't know by now, Ms. Karen Walton is out there on twitter, she's talking it up and giving her two cents on anything on her mind. She loves her hockey too, so I will give out a shout out to her HABS, beat the Washington Captails!
I know some of you Geekachicas might be saying " what about my twitter page! " That's for another article ;) I haven't forgotten about you guys, I shall spread the love. But, I hope you the readers follow these new recommend tweets, they're all great individuals that bring their special spark onto the net and your life. Until next time, stay safe.
It's become very apparent that Facebook has become a great source of Social Status for today's Internet users. That is, Facebook has become society.
I noticed one day a friend's relationship status had gone from "in a relationship" to "single" and several of her friends commented on the change, and I knew then society had changed. No longer do we wait to hear something direct from a friend or relative, we just need to log on to Facebook and it's all there in the News Feed. Whether it's a couple breaking up, a couple getting together, or someone becoming friends with someone else. As for couples getting together, it's become very clear in today's Internet society that you're not REALLY together, unless it says so on Facebook. But as soon as that status changes people jump all over it to comment, whether good or bad.
If you are looking to join a group for something, you look on Facebook. If you're interested in a sport or sports team, you go to Facebook. Events are all planned on Facebook with people getting invites. And if you didn't get an invite, you feel hurt. And Birthdays, well, I only happen to remember so many because of the little convienent reminder which takes me directly to their wall to post Happy Birthday!
And if you don't have Facebook, well, you're pretty much shunned. What do you mean you're not on there? How will you ever know that Beth is attending the store's grand opening, or if Michelle and Paul break up? We've given up calling friends, and moved on to texting with our cell phones, and now, we don't even bother with that most of the time. Wanna know what your friend is up to tonight? Well, just check her Facebook status and see, or look at what events she's said she is attending. Simple as that. Why even bother talking to people at all?
I have been part of events where the people involved had no clue what was going on, because they weren't on Facebook, and the others running it couldn't be bothered to even just email people the details. It was posted on Facebook and if you didn't see it or didn't have Facebook, oh well.
It was bad enough when Facebook first came out, when everyone was trying to out do each other with the number of friends they had. Now, that's no longer where it ends. Mad at your friend and want her to know she upset you? Well, just remove her from your friends list. Did you dump your dirtbag of a boyfriend and want people to know? Well, just change your relationship status to single. Easy. Hell, you don't even need to directly break up with someone, you can just change your status to single and let them firgure it out.
I admit, I'm guilty of having a Facebook account and checking it a few times a day, but I also don't post every detail of my life to the point that people know when I leave for work in the morning. And I don't use it as a weapon in the social war with friends. I think that's where we lose touch with the REAL society.
People need to actually talk to eachother, to find out info. Or at least, go back to texting and emailing directly.
As of last week, three Google executives were found guilty of violating privacy lawsin Milan, Italy. The case hasn't gotten too much attention, but it might shape the way international and Internet laws are handled in the near future.
Apparently, a video of Italian students bullying an autistic child ended up on Google in 2006. Italian police let Google know, and the company removed the content. Google also says that it did what it could to help police identify those who were shown in the video as well as the individual who uploaded it. The result? The uploader and other students were sentenced to 10 months of community service.
The Italian courts then indicted four executives from Google for defamation and violation of privacy laws. Three of the four were found guilty of violation of privacy, and all four were found not guilty of defamation.
Obviously, it's the viral videos. It all started about four years ago, when the made their first YouTube music video in the back yard. The song is called A Million Ways:
Of course, they didn't really go viral until the utterly famous treadmill dance for Here it Goes Again:
What made that the one that got everyone talking and sharing the video? Well, it was something we hadn't seen before, obviously done on the cheap, but still very impressive. It was a real conversation piece. I got this video sent to me from maiden aunts I didn't even know had computers. It got the word out, in a big way. This was not what made them beloved of Geeks, though.
See, Geeks appreciate flash and all that, but what we love more than anything is seeing someone do something amazing with something ordinary. We love the 3D virtual goggles made from Wii controllers, we love Diet Coke/Mentos rockets and we love seeing regular guys do unusual things well, and with great confidence. Perhaps it is also that their bland expressions and concentration remind of us of how we would look doing such things. I mean, we can't all be Adam Lambert or Lady Gaga. It's proof that folks who look like engineers can still be cool.
In the wake of their amazing internet success, they have made many videos. None have really gone way viral like Here it Goes Again, but mostly we were paying attention. Then came This Too Shall Pass. Their first go was a hoot:
There is much to love in this. The catchy song, the high levels of visual interest and complexity. The scope and spectacle. But this isn't the one that went viral (that being a relative term).
Still, for some reason they made another video for the same song. A video of such Geektastic destructive complexity that the internet has once again exploded. I have seen this video in no less than twelve places in the last 24 hours, not including the half a dozen posts by personal friends and emails from maiden aunts.
I could go into why this is The One, but I think it's pretty obvious. Even though you've probably seen this by now, here it is. (And yes, I know I'm a sheep. Baaaa!)
Here we are at the heart of the true Geek spirit, the Internet. What tends to distinguish geeks from the rest of the general population is our desire to learn things and know stuff when no one is forcing us to do so. But how that spirit finds expression in the vastness of the Internet is another matter entirely.
It is often, as they say in 'net vernacular, kind of wack. Odd. I'm always excited to find new bits of engaging entertainment on the 'net that are also subversively informative. No one is forcing anyone to learn about the things they really need to know to make their way in the world, but it's out there, if you can find it, and a lot of the stuff produced by geeksmanages to be both smart and fun.
So, in that spirit, here is the awesome, relatively new video from EconStories on Youtube (via BoingBoing):
If you knew me in Real Life, you'd probably already know that I'm dangerously addicted to TED Talks. If you are reading this and have no idea what TED is, here's an explanation from the TED website:
TED is a small nonprofit devoted to Ideas Worth Spreading. It started out (in 1984) as a conference bringing together people from three worlds: Technology, Entertainment, Design. Since then its scope has become ever broader. Along with the annual TED Conference in Long Beach, California, and the TEDGlobal conference in Oxford UK, TED includes the award-winning TEDTalks video site, the Open Translation Program, the new TEDx community program, this year's TEDIndia Conference and the annual TED Prize.
The TED Talks are video recordings of people giving talks at these TED conferences. The smartest, most accomplished people in the world, telling me about their work, their ideas, their cutting edge gadgets. Right there on the web, for free.
I could lose DAYS on this stuff. I'm not the only one. Last year, my husband and brother-in-law (with total family involvement from our excited children) hacked their Wii remote to create a digital whiteboard, a touchscreen and a head-mounted 3-D viewer after watching this TED Talk by Johnny Lee:
I ask you, where else could you find information that would make a whole family excited about disassembling part of an expensive video game system instead of just, you know, using it to play games. (Of course, later that summer we created a low-tech air conditioner with a a box fan, a length of copper tubing and a bucket of ice water, so maybe we're not the best examples.)
Still there is a lot of information to be had there. I can trace the fact that my sons are now home schooled back to this talk by Sir Ken Robinson, about how schools kill creativity (fair warning- it's 20 minutes long, but quite amusing):
Now, for the tech-lovers among us, take a look at this jaw-droppingly awesome augmented reality mapping technology from Microsoft:
They have now added a "Best of the Web" feature which allows them to share extraordinary and inspiring talks that were not recorded at TED conferences. Like the Harvard commencement speech given by J.K. Rowling that has so recently moved and inspired me, The Fringe Benefits of Failure.
Many of the shorter, more entertaining videos have made their way onto YouTube. The best of these give us insight into our world and ourselves, or else give detailed instructions on how to turn household appliances into doomsday devices.
Well, okay. Not really. But TED Talks are like the best bits of the best lectures you might ever have heard in college, and they are totally free. What's not to love about that?
I am going to leave you with one I found to be quite fun, though perhaps not earth-shatteringly revolutionary. Micheal Shermer: Why People Believe Strange Things.
If you're not up to date on the Macmillan/Amazon kerfuffle, go read John Scalzi's hilarious rant on the subject. It summarizes what happened pretty well.
I spent my software career working in electronic publishing, which gives me some perspective on this situation. I've been out of the industry for a while, so much of my knowledge is out of date. However, I have a good overall sense of the business. This kerfuffle has led me to think some more about the future of the publishing industry, and what role companies like Macmillan (traditional publishers) are likely to play in it.
Question #1, What is a publisher's value-add?
Before I look at that, I have to answer question #2, Why do we care about a publisher's value-add?
We, and by we I mean readers, care because we pay for that value-add. When I buy a traditionally published book, I am paying 3 different entities, not counting middlemen. A percentage of my money goes to the retailer (e.g., Amazon.com, Barnes & Noble), another percentage goes to the publisher (e.g. Macmillan, Random House), and another percentage goes to the author. While I don't know exact numbers, my impression is that the retailer gets the largest share, followed by the publisher, followed by the author.
Here I have to bring in self-publishing, because it's my belief that self-publishing and the growing ebook market are very closely related, in that as ebooks replace paper, self-publishing will become more viable, and it represents a threat to traditional publishing. When people self-publish, they cut out the publisher's percentage of the take, because there is no publisher. The take is split between the retailer and the author. The author has a choice of pricing his book the same as a traditionally published book and taking a larger cut for himself, or using the savings to undercut the market and price his book lower.
Given the financial advantages of self-publishing, why do most authors opt not to do it? Because having a traditional publisher is well worth it. The publisher provides value-add.
Here at GC, we're never happier than when our readers engage us in conversation. No, really. I have always enjoyed being challenged. If no one bothers to question our assumptions, how can we grow? When I went through the "Why is the sky blue?" phase, my family actively encouraged me to ask more questions. (I'm a parent now, and I've got to tell you, I have more respect for my folks every day.) So, I find it actively enjoyable to discuss points of interest in the articles I write. (This is a different thing entirely from trollishness, which amounts to "[insert noun/pronoun] sucks" or the YouTube version, "shut up and show your boobies." Those, while amusing in their own way (Ha, HA! Inarticulate boy is inarticulate!) are not really engaging.)
So it was with great delight that I sorted through the mailbag to find the following letter from Mark Warren, a Whedon fan and writer of fanfiction, who had a few bones to pick with my recent article, Dollhouse: Did I Fall Asleep? Mr. Warren was kind enough to let me share his letter with GeekaChicas readers. It is presented here with some serious formatting issues I could not fix, though I tried. (Our site software has some issues with the text, though it looks fine when we go in to our WYSIWYG editor.)
There are more spoilers than in my original article beyond this point.
Most of you probably don't know that my day job used to be copy editing. Basically, people paid me to make sure their important documents didn't accidentally make them look like morons to people with a decent grasp of grammar and punctuation. I worked on a contract basis, and I found it rather surprising how much my skills were worth on the open market, considering that anyone who halfway paid attention in English class should know what I know. This was both encouraging (Woot! I can has Monies!) and depressing. (The the high-powered business people who could pay me $30.00 an hour to toss their jargon-filled corporate word salad into something recognizable as English obviously didn't need to know they shouldn't use an apostrophe to pluralize to be, well, high-powered business people. I console myself that this basic life skill could have saved them a lot of money. Money I was happy to take from them. Chumps.)
I soon discovered that online communications had new and exciting ways for people to violently misunderstand each other. Ways that could, perhaps, be helped by good punctuation, but never completely eradicated. In online written communication, we only get words. Things like inflection, tone and facial expression are lost entirely. Which is to say, it becomes much harder to express the concept of sarcasm elegantly.
Inventive netizens found ways around this in this in annotations used to make their meanings clearer, such as [/sarcasm] or [j/k], and let us not forget the wide array of emoticons and smileys with which we are now quite familiar. (Such as )
Still, netizens of note would occasionally remark on the lack of a clear way to denote sarcasm in writing. (Most recently by Neil Gaiman, who was told by his readers that such a mark existed in Ethiopian - an interesting side note, if not terribly useful to those of us unfamiliar with the language.)
Well, my friends, our prayers have been answered! The US firm Sarcasm, Inc. stepped up to fill the void by inventing the SarcMark, a downloadable punctuation mark you can install on your computer or texting device for the low, low price of $1.99. It currently supports most Microsoft platforms and many popular devices, and they are working on expanding to Mac as well. Right now it is available in graphic as well as in font formats, but the font version (which can be re-sized or appear in different colors) can only be seen by another device that has the SarcMark installed.
"That's a great idea," you say, "but will it catch on?" It's too soon to tell, but early sales are promising. The inventors are also reporting that they have been approached by several software companies and social networking sites who have an interest in incorporating the mark into their applications.
They even have a commercial on YouTube:
Only time will tell whether this will catch on, but I hope it does. I've always been proud of the inventiveness and can-do spirit of the Internet, and this underscores the way 'net culture inspires people to do things for themselves. Feel the lack of a sarcasm mark? Invent one!
That's what the Internet is all about!*
*Well, okay. What the internet is all about in a social evolution sort of way. In terms of commerce, it's still largely about the porn. But that's a topic for another day.
I'm quite new to the twitterverse, which is why you should forgive me if you've thought of/read all of what I'm about to say. I always read people's tweets on Facebook and I saw evidence of Twitter's rise to social networking dominance all over the internet. It wasn't until I got a shiny new phone with internet access that I finally decided that the rest of the world needed to receive up to the minute notifications about what song I'm listening to at any given moment.
And then I discovered something: for an entertainment news junky like me, it's much more fun to be a follower on Twitter. It's like standing at a crowded party full of all the people you want to hear from. You hear snatches of the conversation, pass along anecdotes of your own, and come away with plenty of gossip for later. If you can't stand what someone is saying - *Click* - they're out of the party! I love that it's instant, I love that it's banal, and I love that the URLs are tiny.
The coolest thing about Twitter though has to be that, as geeks, we positively own the place. Geeks were the first to start using it (except for latecomers like me, obviously) and geeks are the ones who cry foul when Twitter tries to 'improve' the service (i.e. that irritating retweet function that doesn't allow the user to add comments). If we add # to the front and 'fail' to the end, you'd best hope that your name/product/show/company is not hanging out in between. The power that the internet gave us in the 90s seems to have increased exponentially, and Twitter is a huge part of that.
But I love being a geek because, for the most part, we use the power for good and for fun. We're a breed that likes to share information and support something that we think is valuable and wonderful. We hang on to things, even if they haven't become popular quite yet. And, we laugh like crazy when afterelton.com pits Captain Jack Harkness against the delicious Dr. Horrible for Gay Man of the Decade in an online poll. The ensuing and completely delightful Big Gay Battle was one example of how the word 'viral' has taken on a brand new meaning since the advent of Twitter. Movements and news spread so fast, and I love that.
Of course, everyone wants a piece of what all this free advertising can do. The little band of Communityfans to which I belong is currently using Twitter to show support for the show and spread the word around in hopes we can keep it on the air amidst the huge NBCfail. (@community_tv if you're interested!) I know similar movements are always occurring and that many of them have actually succeeded. Entrepreneurs are able to generate exposure and buzz in a completely free and painless way. 'Free' makes everything better in my opinion.
If you're getting started on Twitter, or you want to increase your geek exposure, Wired just posted their list of 150 Geeky Media People You Should Be Following on Twitter. This list is a veritable gold mine of geek royalty. It was exciting to see that I was already following some of them but, needless to say, I found plenty of new folks to add to my pool. Grant Imahara? I am so there. Simon Pegg? How did I not think of that before?
But I think what makes me the proudest, the most secure in my own geekiness, is the fact that I saw this list tweeted by someone I was already following: Al Yankovic. He's definitely at the top of my geek list. Who's at the top of yours?
You can put US at the top of your Geeky Twitter List if you feel so inclined. Follow us at @GeekaChicas.
Blizzard has made a simple but profound change to dungeon running in World of Warcraft. In many ways, it's a good change. It makes the game more accessible and more fun. But it has a downside. It's having a negative impact on game culture.
To explain the change, I will need to give you a brief explanation of dungeon running. Don't worry, it will only take me a paragraph. Dungeons are areas in WOW where a group of 5 people work together to kill 2-5 "boss" monsters, each of which drops loot. Each piece of loot that drops can be picked up by only one player in the group. To determine who gets it, WOW brings up a little box where you select "Need" or "Greed." Generally, you select "Need" if the item is something your character can use (e.g. cloth armor for mages, plate armor for paladins) and is better than what you already have. If you don't need the item, you select "Greed" with the intention of selling it. Once everyone has made their selection, WOW rolls the dice. If anyone chose Need, WOW will roll the dice for them first. The highest Need roll wins the item. If nobody chose Need, WOW rolls the dice for those who selected Greed, and the highest Greed roll wins.
So, key point: If you select Need, you automatically win the roll over anyone who selected Greed. Got that? Okay.
In the olden days (by which I mean a year ago), you had to assemble your 5 people for the dungeon manually. Someone would sit in a major city and use the chat channel to recruit people for a group. It was tedious. You could spend more time recruiting your group than running the dungeon. Blizzard improved on this by adding a "looking for group" list you could add yourself to, and this helped a lot, but group assembly was still a slow, manual process.
Then, last month, they added the Dungeon Finder. The Dungeon Finder is revolutionary in the MMO world. No more manual assembly of groups! You bring up the Dungeon Finder, select the role you are qualified to play (tank, healer, or damage-dealer), and select a dungeon. Wait about 60 seconds, and WOW builds a group for you and teleports you directly into the dungeon. No more sitting in town spamming the chat channels! No more tedious travel to reach the dungeon! Pick your dungeon, wait a minute, and bam, you're there and playing.
Today, the writing community across the blogosphere gathers in celebration of the No-Kiss by sharing scenes from their works-in-progress of that moment when you think the leading character and his or her love interest are finally going to lock lips... but they don't.
In honor of this UST blogging-palooza, I thought I'd share the most excellent no-kiss and kiss moments in existence-- those shared between Princess Leia and Han Solo.
My fellow Geeks, I present to you an awesome selection of Han and Leia scenes, brought to us by the power of youtube and one tangerineclem.
Personally, my favorite is in the cockpit of the Millennium Falcon, when Leia falls in Han's lap, followed closely by their exchange in the South Passage where Leia utters the most fabulous line "I'd just as soon kiss a wookie!". Which Han and Leia moment do you love the most?
For more No-Kiss moments be sure to head over to Frankie Writes for a complete listing of blogs taking part in today's event! (My own original contribution from my WIP is here.)
Aside from the Rifftrax guys' ubiquitous Christmas carol version of "Pokerface," there is an entire album you must purchase for great lulz this holiday season.
Okay, I love Aqua Teen Hunger Force, but even if you don't (and there are plenty of people who don't), there's a good chance you'll find this album hilarious. Especially those who've had just a little too much stress to handle. They have some pretty fantastic, if not family-friendly lyrics.
The tracks and my favorite lines are as follows (be warned that by clicking "Read more," you will likely be amused, scandalized, and/or insulted):
With the new Nightmare on Elm Street movie comes new memorabilia. I personally LOVE this doll because I love dolls. And even though it’s only available for pre-order right now, I think it’s totally worth the wait. How awesome is a little Freddy doll? I mean, does it get any better?
As a zombie lover who enjoys a good book, Pride and Prejudice and Zombies is a winning combination. This book takes a classic and adds a zombie twist. Zombies can make anything better.
Any Resident Evil fan would really enjoy this Umbrella Corp. umbrella. Keep the ran off and show everyone how much they enjoy the whole Resident Evil franchise. And an Umbrella Corp umbrella is such a winning idea.
One very special unique gift for the zombie lover in your life is to give them their own personal zombie portrait. You submit a photo of them and it gets turned into a very cool zombie portrait by a talented artist. This is really something you can be sure they will love and will definitely leave an impression.
A great item for any fan of horror movies and zombies, is a skull hoodie from Total Skull, a company run by Rob Zombie’s wife and actress, Sheri Moon Zombie. There are many cool clothing items to choose from, but this basic skull hoodie is a fave of mine
Friends, readers, "haterz" (to quote Chris Brown), and other denizens of the Internet, we have a problem. And it's a very annoying problem for those of us who do put time and thought into what we write here.
If you have an issue with something we've written, say so. If you want to challenge facts or sources or movie reviews or overall attitudes, do it! That's why we have a comments section! You're not going to hurt our little feelings, and most of us would very much appreciate seeing some actual discussion regarding our pieces.
So here's my message to all of you: BRING IT.
Don't talk to other members of the site via messaging programs or social networking sites. Don't send private e-mails. Challenge us here. In (Internet) public. At the site of the actual article! And if you're not comfortable making your thoughts public, you should probably re-evaluate your complaint or position.
UberWench's Note: Since Pearce has become GC's de facto marketing queen (by virtue of her large Twitter and Facebook following) it seems unfair to stick her with the Complaint Department as well. I occasionally catch some flak for what is published here (which is fine, because what goes public is my call), and I do listen to the cogent and thoughtful responses of our readers. But Pearce is right -- writers here would rather have dialogue with their readers, even if they have a bone to pick. However, you should know that I will delete rude, obscene, profane or unintelligible comments that offer nothing toward civilized discussion. Because that is also my call.
Well, 2012 has hit theaters, and by now I'm sure half the world is spazzing out over whether or not John Cusack and everyone else is going to die when the Mayan calendar runs out.
Because "THE MAYANS WARNED US!"
Okay, the Mayans did caution us about something (maybe), but fiery apocalypse of doom bears absolutely no resemblance to that something.
The Mayan Long Count calendar (they kept more than one) ends on 12/21/12.For some reason, everyone assumes that the reason the Mayans stopped there is because the world will also end, so there's really no point in continuing a calendar after that date.After all, they'd spent all that time mapping out the days until this arbitrary number, and clearly they didn't just get bored with this project and decide to all go sacrifice some hearts on pyramids instead.
Here's what the Mayans actually thought, as far as we can figure out:
Last night I babysat a friend's 10-year-old daughter at my house. I have two sons, no daughters, so my house is full of boy stuff. And kids get hard to entertain when they reach the tween years. She was kind of bored. She listened to her MP3 player, noodled around on my piano, pulled out some of my old toys and played with them.
I finished my evening chores and booted up World of Warcraft. She came over to watch. I was playing my shaman, doing a quest where I had to identify traitors in a keep. I have this orb I can use to find the traitors. Wouldn't it be nice to have an orb like that in real life? After I find a traitor, guess what I do? KILL him, of course!
The friend's daughter watched with mild interest as I executed my McCarthyist mission. Then I shifted my character into wolf form, and she perked up. "Whoa! How did you do that?" she asked. I showed her the ability. She asked if the class you choose to play affects what things you can change into. I said yes and told her the druid was the ultimate shapeshifting class. I logged in my druid and showed her how I could turn into a bear, a lion, or a bird that can actually fly. Then I showed her my shaman's ability to summon spirit wolves, and my priest's rideable white dragon.
Well, that was it. She wanted to play herself. I let her create a new character on my account. Originally, she wanted to make a druid, but there are only two races available for druids, tauren and night elves, and neither appealed to her much. Then she clicked on the blood elf and gasped, "She's so pretty!" Forget the druid--she wanted to be a blood elf! I steered her towards the hunter class because clearly she liked animals, and a hunter gets to choose any animal in the game to be her pet. "Do they use bows?" she asked. I said yes, they did, and apparently that was a selling point, because she decided on the hunter.
While the the WOW population is mostly male, the game has been very successful at luring in women gamers. A lot of the reason for that is that the game is social and cooperative. But Blizzard also gets a lot of mileage out of other details, like companion animal fantasy. I enjoy many aspects of the game, but there are two things in particular that really lift my spirits. One is summoning my shaman's wolves:
Cynthia- ( twitter.com/ zoogirltoo )
Josh- ( 
Karen Walton - ( 
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