Kung Fu Nuns

Submitted by darksaturn7 on 11/28/12 8:20am
Buddhist nuns practicing martial arts.

Kung Fu. The stuff of '70s film legend. Where various peoples of the Asian persuasion (not to say there weren’t non Asian actors and actresses – see American Kung Fu movies of the '80s) can leap through the sky, punch clear through an enemy’s chest and simply look awesome. Usually in impractical, but awesome outfits. Why show up in a Kevlar vest with a gun? You can show up in a jumpsuit with long samurai swords and do just fine!

But I always though Kung Fu was a made up martial arts move set that sold well, Kung Fu movies. It seem so over the top, so outrageously fake. Like wrestling – the one with fake chairs and head dives. But I found an article that was remarkable due to not only implying that Kung Fu is an actual school of martial arts, but that Buddhist nuns practice it. Yes, I said nuns.
 
In certain sects of Buddhism, women are allowed to be more than simply nuns. They are allowed to fight and learn the martial arts like the monks. One sect was invited to meet with some CERN scientists in a meeting about energies between the sun and the moon and between men and women.
 
Despite the strange meeting between the deeply spiritual group and the science minded one, the more interesting part of the visit was of the group of women (headed by 49-year-old leader Gyalwang Drukpa) showing Kung Fu prowess. To see their determined faces doing moves that for centuries was denied them is just awesome. 
 
 

The Egyptian Popeye

Submitted by darksaturn7 on 11/28/12 8:20am
Where's his spinach?

Aye, I’m Popeye the sailor man! Where’s me spinach?!

I grew up watching this strangely heavy armed guy, getting on over on big bully Bluto and nabbing that strangely rope-skinny damsel in distress, Olive Oyl. Ignoring the strange romance, I loved the cartoons due to the fact that the little guy always won against the big bully even if it came at a cost of Popeye needing the healthiest drug ever, spinach, to do it. As a side note, I love spinach. 
 
 
I watched those cartoons along with the old school Warner Bros. and assorted other cartoons as a kid. I even endured that weirdly off-putting live action movie that showed that Popeye characters do not translate well in reality. You’d think, after the world realized that a woman the shape of a silly string and a guy with exploded arms looked terrible in 1980 that people would avoid this. Especially the exploded arms part.
 
But when you can search on YouTube and see a film called ‘The man whose arms exploded’…well. People didn’t apparently learn from that insanity either. After a guy was teased at a function for being overweight, he let those hateful teases work his body into something I’ll bet gets him just as unpleasant stares. At least you can explain overweight. You can try and conceivably work off extra weight, but these arms are unreal. The guy claims they are all natural. I have my doubts. My doubts scream steroids. Steroids seem to be harder to fix than natural fat. 
 

Very irritating video game character voices

Submitted by darksaturn7 on 11/28/12 8:20am
Have the mute button handy.

Video games have, as a medium, grown leaps and bounds over what was once pixels floating aimlessly on a screen. Video games eventually evolved into actual figures on the screen. Even text was added showing what these characters were saying. And then music – not chip tunes but music – was added. 

It wasn't long before games added in voices. Like the first dubbed anime, voices were terrible. Ear gratingly terrible. Like you can tell the actors were phoning it in. Mind you, the plots of games and anime weren’t the best anyway. But as games currently boast movie-quality graphics and near-literature level plots, the voice acting also improved. Some actors are so good that they have their own followers. 
 
 
But despite the amounts of money being spent, some bad voices slip through the cracks. Think Resident Evil acting bad.  House of the Dead bad. I mean, I recall Final Fantasy X. You know, that scene with Tidus and Yuna laughing. We know why they were laughing weird plot wise, but the voice actors didn’t translate that sad awkward moment well in Japanese or English. That scene will be the time in the game every player will press mute forever. 
 

50 Worst Video Game Voice Acting Lines

 
Mind you, some of the voices were intentionally bad (as in Resident Evil’s case) but a lot of them…are just bad. So bad you’d rather just put the thing on mute and just guess at the story. Thankfully most games have subtitles. But the fact is that game companies you’d think would have a screening process on their voice talent. 
 

Odd jobs

Submitted by darksaturn7 on 11/28/12 8:19am
Very odd, yet lucrative.

I have done my share of odd jobs. Posting flyers. Aim chat mod. Selling other people’s old stuff. Video game tip giver. All paid tasks. But never have I’ve been paid for such strange tasks as these. For example, there is a woman who is paid to hug people in her bed. That’s it. Paid haggles and cuddles.

I guess lonely men and women (or just people wanting a daily hug) come into this lady’s home by the hour and paid this woman to hug them. Note she has friends in the next room to keep her safe as most sex workers do. Wait, does this even count as no sex happens? There are cafes in Japan that do this as well for busy salary men. 

 
Another odd job is a thing called smooshing. In an extreme take on face sitting, people (usually men) with a fetish for large women AND being crushed pay upwards of $400 an hour to have a big lady sit on them. So…getting paid to sit on a guy. That seems like the easiest way to do about nothing for cash!
 
And who can forget the job from Craigslist that had a woman slapping a man whenever he went off task. No really. Paid face-slapper is now a thing. The man paid this woman to do this so his work productivity would go up. According to him, it did. In a sense, this is a tamer version of having a Dominatrix spanking you in a S&M scene but instead of whips and chains, the good old hand keeps you in line. 
 
 
 

Cho Aniki

Submitted by darksaturn7 on 11/28/12 8:19am
Oh, Japan 2

Games can be weird. Some are odd, but cute. Some are odd, but disconcerting. And some are odd to just be odd. One of the most infamously weird games out there is the over-the-top homoerotic shooter, Cho Aniki. The plot…what plot? The game is filled with nonsensical enemies flying about filling the screen with so much penile innuendo you are not sure if the game itself is a huge penis joke.

 
But this game’s popularity also stems from the fact that despite the screen full of naked men, and odd fantastical things, it is very, very hard. You don’t have a heath bar. You can and do one shot. Boss moves are near unavoidable. In fact, some of them give the impression that they are simply broken or are cheating the player. Many a player has gone through their lives having to start all over again. The game tends to lag, depending on what system you are on. 
 

WTF Japan Let's Play Cho Aniki (Part 3) Here comes the tongue

 
Also, Cho Aniki has many sequels. So many in fact that you wonder who is buying this? Despite the social aversion to overtly homoerotic things, the game is almost a badge of pride to those that play it, gay or straight (and those in-between). I mean how can you get angry at it? It’s so unabashedly weird with men in moon shaped ship boards fighting a boss whose appendices telescope out in rather intentionally phallic ways. Not many games can claim this. Because of this comical oddness mixed with supreme difficulty, this game has a cult following.
 

Entropy

Submitted by darksaturn7 on 11/28/12 8:19am
A game where you master lava, electricity and even time.

When I first saw this game, I went "is this Portal?" This game looks and feels like that game, except that you don’t have one-sided conversations with murderous yet snarky AI or murderous yet stupid AI.  

The world is large and beautiful yet abandoned. You wake up from a deep sleep in the middle of everything, trapped within. Again, there are no murderous AIs giving you questionable advice. No gun to open portals anywhere. Nothing but a good grasp of physics. 

 
In Entropy, a whole world of puzzles are set in your way. All obstacles work within the realm of physics. But, you do have one thing: the creature that woke you up in this place. It seems to know the way out. As you follow it, you acquire the power to control the elements.
 
These elements are controllable in unusual ways. If Portal was a brain teaser on where holes should go, Entropy is a brain teaser on how things are used, combined (yes you can combine elements) and moved around. Not just moved, but used based on their elemental properties and gravity.
 

Entropy PC/XBLIG Trailer

 
And whenever something goes wrong – and it will – you can rewind time back to where you can try a different tack at things. This is great because I’m pretty sure you get one life and one life only. Entropy is a 25-level game full of puzzles that will keep you hooked. No talking AI though. In this game’s case, it’s forgivable. 
 
Entropy can be purchased from XBLiG for 80 Microsoft Points.
 

Peanut butter cup cookies

Submitted by jenvanbaren on 11/28/12 8:09am
Try these cookies for the holidays.

If you love the combination of chocolate and peanut butter, Peanut Butter Cups are the cookies you may want to try. These cookies are great all year round, but they are especially good around Christmas. If you are thinking of trying some new cookie recipes this year, add this one to your list.

The ingredients you will need are:

  • 1 ¾ c. flour
  • ½ tsp. salt
  • 1 tsp. baking soda
  • ½ c. butter, softened
  • ½ c. white sugar
  • ½ c. peanut butter
  • ½ c. brown sugar, packed
  • 1 egg, beaten
  • 1 tsp. vanilla
  • 2 T. milk
  • 40 miniature peanut butter cups, unwrapped

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees before you begin. Take out a medium sized bowl and mix the flour, salt and baking soda in it. Set this bowl aside and grab another bowl. Cream the butter, white sugar, peanut butter and brown sugar together until it is light and fluffy. Beat the egg in next, as well as the milk and vanilla.

Add the flour mixture to the second mixture and combine well. Shape the dough into 40 balls and place one ball in each opening in an ungreased mini muffin pan. Bake the cookies for approximately 8 minutes and once you remove them, press a peanut butter cup in the top of each one.

Cool these completely before removing from the pan and store in an airtight container. Your family will love these cookies and they also look great. You can bring them to parties and functions and everyone will enjoy them.

Pop Culture Happenings: Goonies/Hobbit Trailer Mash-Up

Submitted by brodiemanthe1st on 11/28/12 7:48am

We all know the Internet loves a good mash-up, so here is a combination of the footage from the classic film "The Goonies" overdubbed with the dialog from "The Hobbit" trailer. Personally it's the Gollum choice that made me happy.

Do not judge by looks alone

Submitted by twrites80 on 11/28/12 5:19am
A dating tip to live by.

Yes the girl I am with in the photo is beautiful.   But I if I suddenly swooned over her and said “I love you” I would be making a huge mistake that would only leave me humiliated and embarrassed. Here’s why.

 

Like most men, I have often fallen all over myself in the premature pursuit of a woman just because of how she looks. This was not smart for two reasons:

-I wound up chasing a fantasy born of an idealized image of what her personality must be like without taking the time to determine if mine was compatible with hers.

-My “va-voom” reaction to her looks made me ignore all the signs that she was not interested in me from the get-go.

Such lopsided pursuits never end well.

"Ain't she an angel?" we sigh when we see a pretty girl. Well, the response to that is "Not so fast, bub." Because if a man judges a woman on her looks alone, thinks she's heavenly ... and then discovers that, say, she has a shallow, petty personality, he has gotten himself in a jam.

The same logic applies in reverse when it comes to us single guys, girls, especially since men are known to be even more shallow and petty than women. Don't judge a guy by how handsome he is, or, worse, how much money he has in the bank. If he doesn't have good qualities, or claims he has them but soon tips his hand that he does not which in turn reveals he is a hopeless liar, get away from the dude!

So the next time you meet someone single who is attractive, approach with confidence but also caution. Your emotional health will thank you by not judging a book by its cover and paying a steep price when you discover that beneath it is not what you expected at all.

When inital success blinds

Submitted by twrites80 on 11/28/12 4:46am
The thing in dating that trips up singles worse than abject failure.

So far I've met two women I had great initial success with but then blew it. Why? Simple: I was blinded by my success.

Let’s call them Jill and Tilly. I met both of them almost a year apart at the health club I go to routinely.

 

I met Jill first. Our eyes met, smiles were exchanged and she played with her hair as we talked during our initial meeting. When we parted, I felt bedazzled by her and astounded by how well I had done.

Fast forward to our second meeting several weeks later where she gave me a wave when she saw me and we wound up talking some more. Then I suggested meeting up at the club a few days later to hang out a little.

She was receptive but hesitant, saying she needed to check her schedule. Nevertheless, we parted with contact information swapped.

After several missed connections, Jill told me she couldn't make it on the day I suggested. I closed with a friendly "see you around the club" ... but alas, we never met again.

I suspect Jill's interest cooled off after I suggested hanging out. Why? Because for some reason my eagerness turned her off; an eagerness born of being success blind on my part.

Fast forward to Tilly several months later; again when we first met we exchanged eye contact and smiles, followed by a great conversation. And when I asked Tilly if she'd like to have smoothies at the juice bar, she accepted!

Boy was I nervous waiting to meet her in the hall outside the locker rooms. And how she smiled at me again as she rounded the corner out of the women's! More great conversation followed over smoothies and a stroll outside afterward.

Alas, I made one key mistake that night: just exchanging e-mails with her, not our telephone numbers as well. Result: even though she'd e-mailed me first, I didn't hear back after I e-mailed her in reply a day or so later.

Worse, I made another rookie mistake when I tried to get in touch with her via a colleague of hers a couple weeks later whom I had at first been corresponding with on purely business matters (her colleague was a freelance writer, same as me). Result: Both Tilly and her colleague became irritated and nervous because I was acting way too familiar when I barely knew either of them.

If I had remembered to swap telephone numbers as well as e-mails with Tilly, things might have gone better. For one thing, I would not have made the gauche error of dragging personal business into my correspondence with her colleague because I would have had another way of keeping in touch with her.

I cannot begin to express how embarrassing such social mistakes are, especially when you yourself have had a hand in the banal outcome. It is like you have been confronted with an insurmountable obstacle for so long that whenever it gives way you are so used to failure you have no idea how to capitalize on such a breakthrough and so waste your chance out of sheer inexperience. You get so brought up short it is like an irresistible force getting channeled into too narrow a space and repulsed by a smaller counter surge of energy that repairs the momentarily broken immovable object.

Moral of the story: beware of dating success! It can blind you far worse than a whole slew of failures.

 

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