Anime Day #7: Is Anime Cosplay by "Westerners" Racist?

~Nauri @DeviantArtIf a white man put on black face and started dancing around singing "Mr. Bones," it would be racist. We can all agree that Minstrel shows are racist. Some Japanese Cosplayers are now arguing that Westerners who don Cosplay costumes are being racist in the same way. The internet isn't buying it.This Youtube account makes that claim: "Cosplay Are Not for Fun.""We Asians create Cosplay which now have become as one of the world's...

Read More

Ellipses...

I used to have a major problem with ellipses in my prose fiction. The following infographic is an illustration of my own internal battle every time I type, "....

Read More

My Favorite Things: Yellow

Once- a week for the past few weeks, I've posted a list of my favorite things, sorted by color theme. This week it's my FAVORITE color, yellow. Check it out below the jump or click the color blocks to see previous weeks.Key:A. Black-Eyed SusansB. "I'm a Hufflepuff" (Honeybadger just takes what it wants).C. CHEESE!D. CoralineE. Savannah College of Art and DesignF. Neil Gaiman's The Day I Swapped My Dad for Two GoldfishG....

Read More

Around the Web

Web Sites Currently Linking Olympia HeightsStuck in Books: The Cover RevealBookish Brunette: In My Mailbox (Vid...

Read More

Book 2 Information Revealed!

Most teenagers just think they’re immortal. Six months ago fourteen students at Olympia Heights Senior High found out that they really are. Now summer vacation has begun and everyone has far too much free time on their hands.Hormones, tempers, and the temptation of godly power get stirred up by a suspicious new gossip blog about their little slice of the Miami Dade County. Soon this blog, called Discordia, has the members of The Pantheon...

Read More

Anime Day #6: Speed Grapher

As we approach AWA, my work gets more urgent and my costumes come together. Watching Anime at night has also become more urgent. I have to watch as much as I can so I can understand as much of the con as possible. Every year that I absorb anime, the experience becomes much more fun.One Anime I just finished Tuesday night was a suggestion from a friend's wife. It's fairly new, but it's a great show with only a few minor flaws.Speed Grapher is a contemporary...

Read More

Music Spotlight: Indrid Cold

A couple months back a friend, Randy Webb, referred me to a local band for their music video. Webb is a talented artist and musician who does sound at Gip's Place blues shack (it's literally a BYOB tin shack in the woods where amazing musicians come to play) and makes his own guitars. I knew that the band, being linked to Randy, had to be good. And so I met Indrid Cold...Alan, their drummer, sent me an unmastered preview of the track, Somniphobic....

Read More

My Favorite Things: Orange

Last week we started the rainbow of favorite things with the color red. You can click on the red swatch below to see that post, or continue below the jump to see ORANGE!Key:A. SunsetsB. Harry Potter and the Deathly HallowsC. Orange Juice!D. Monarch Butterflies (also the Monarch on Venture Bros)E. Nos Energy Drink (also good in Orange Juice!)F. AutumnG. Weasleys!H. Fa...

Read More

Anime Day #5: Gurren Lagann

"Yours is the drill that will pierce the heavens!"My sister-in-law, Carly Strickland, pitched the show to my husband and I, like this: There are robot shows like Gundam that rely on some common perception of laws like science. It may not be perfect. Someone who knows anything about computers or biology might say "now wait a minute", but the basis is a twist on the laws of nature that we know. That is a robot show. Then we have Gurren Lagann,...

Read More

Book Review: Vs. Reality

by Blake Northcott★★★★★Available for 99¢ on Amazon KindleVs. Reality is a quick and engaging read that will keep you pressing that [Next Page] button until there's nothing left to read. The first volume is short, but creates an entertaining introduction to a series that promises longer future volumes. It's an amazing debut from a first-time author, blogger Blake Northcott.I bought Vs. Reality on the reputation that Northcott had...

Read More

My Favorite Things: Red

I've decided, after seeing how a certain children's book coordinated with my purse at work the other day, that I want to do a whole series of my favorite things going through the colors (like a crayon box!)Let's start in RAINBOW order with Red. See the key below the image.KEYA. Gryffindor house, Harry Potter. (Ravenclaw takes a close second)B. Spider-Man and Marvel ComicsC. Netflix!D. Lobstah (Lobster)E. ApplesF. Target and my Target Debit card that...

Read More

Anime Day #4: Planetes

Anime has a reputation for being about pointy-haired action heros cutting people in half, flashing underaged panties, ranting in shrill harpy-thing voices, transforming into robots, and narrating their special power-up moves in long monologues. Planetes is a different kind of anime.Planetes takes place in space, but unlike Gurren Lagan or Galaxy Express, things like physics and science not only matter, they inspire the plot. Planetes is about a future...

Read More

Music Review- The Wombats Proudly Present: This Modern Glitch

Fans of the Wombats may remember their first album- Tales of Girls, Boys, & Marsupials. It was raw and the lyrics seemed to tell the story of a train-wreck man falling in love with the wrong women (his doctor, a stripper, the bride at a wedding). It was one of those albums that goes on loop in your car without a single track that you dislike enough to press "skip."This Modern Glitch repeats that success. Sure, I have favorites,...

Read More

AWA DOs and DON'Ts

Over the past few years I've joined the con scene. I've done AWA (Anime Weekend Atlanta) 3 years now and did Dragon*Con last year. I've journeyed with some more seasoned con-goers and, if I was financially able, would love to attend more.Left to right- My husband (Kyle Strickland as Tuxedo Mask), Anna Heim (as Sailor Moon), Myself (as Sailor Mercury), Awesome T-Shirt Vendor (as Sailor Jupiter) and Ryan Brown (as Melvin)Unfortunately, I'm now a Grad...

Read More

Anime Day #3: FLCL

I'm still not quite sure what Furi Kuri (Fooly Kooly, for those Americans trying to say it) is, but whatever FLCL is-- is amazing. I was really luke-warm about the series at first. The first few episodes left me more confused than entertained. I have now come to see it as a brilliant piece of absurdist art.FLCL is by the genius responsible for Neon Genesis: Evangelion. That said, it is a lot like Neon Genesis and at the same time not at all like...

Read More

Torching the Network

Amanda HockingA recent blog post by Beth Elisa Harris has me pretty upset. In this post, which you should read, she outlines a shameful incident on Smashwords that lowers the trust of an otherwise supportive Indie writing community. Though my publishing company does not utilize Smashwords, I still network with people who do and the incident still effects Indie publishers because it will have a ripple effect.To sum it up for people who are allergic...

Read More