baptised in the water, you're draining the well

First Nathan Fillion stole Zelda, then he stole Wil Wheaton's wife, Ann, then this happened, and the whole thing ended here.

It's not the first time Wheaton's been a meme, but it's the first one that dragged in guest appearances.

Twilight's been named the worst movie ever, which I think is slightly over the top--I mean, it's bad, don't get me wrong, but there are worse films out there. Like these, for instance. Or these. Or these. Or this list, which contains some even I haven't heard of.

I guess the main point is there's a lot of bad movies out there. Good for Rifftrax; bad for us.

CBS finally gets back to the Star Trek fan community in SL; their response is oddly reasonable. They have no objection to folks making items for their own, personal use; they simply object to those items (created with copyrighted material from Star Trek, by means of logos, insignia, uniforms, and prop items) for sale commercially. While that's a blow to the community--there are folks who make their living on mining IP for tasty financial gain--it's not as large a blow as everyone seemed to expect.

Love Portal? Have the freedom to paint your walls? How about a Portal-themed bedroom? At the very least, that provides a great leap-off point for decorating projects of your own.

[20:05] Axx Sxxxxxx: all the lindens in this chat be big fat faggits.
[20:05] Axx Sxxxxxx: i dont care.
[20:06] Sxxxxx Sxxxxx wonders wtf brought that outburst of rude on
[20:06] Axx Sxxxxxx: wonders wtf is has too do with you
[20:06] Axx Sxxxxxx: fagmatron

I do believe that's one of the strangest insults I've ever heard. What, exactly, is a "fagmatron"? The Urban Dictionary definition doesn't exactly help:

Being a real fag (no homo)

Uh...I don't get it. How can you simultaneously call someone gay but say you're not calling them gay? I don't understand.

Though oddly relevant to that...Viewer controversy? Viewer controversy. And while that's an upsetting turn of events--mainly, because I find it bizarre that Ms. Kirsten would pull something this underhanded--that's not what I want to discuss.

Quoting this bit from the CoolVL forums detailing this event:

I of course tried to contact Kirsten for explanations, but if you visit his BLOG, you will find no email or any way to contact him: I did let a comment on the BLOG entry for S19, but it was never published. I also IMed him in SL (and I know, thanks to a script, that he did connect after I sent him those IMs, so he certainly got them), and again, never got any reply during the past two weeks.

"His"? KirstenLee didn't give the gender away, Henri? But, annoyingly, he didn't stop there. "Tillie" is the first responder to his post:

I am not sure if this is really a post by Kirsten... didn't she announce to no more work on the client? If she came back to work, wouldn't she release some statement like that, not just "this is S19!"? Looks weird, somehow.

Henri responds:

This is his(1) blog, no doubt on that, and the code repository does contain all the other S* releases (that were not Cool VL Viewer clones).

     (1) the person behind the "KistrenLee Cinquetti" avatar is a male.

And my response is...why does this matter?

Seriously, people. Second Life's nearly ten years old. Ten years of gender fluidity, exploration, avatar inspiration, and virtual life. Why is this not simple for people? If they're female in world, they're female. If they're male in world, they're male. If they're neither, keep the pronouns gender-neutral.

If they TELL you otherwise, then you can react otherwise, but seriously--if they don't make a point of it, IN WORLD, then lay the hell off the gender, okay? That's called outing, it's rude, and whether you're the injured party or not, it just makes you sound like a clueless bully.

Notwithstanding the fact that, unless you--the person behind the screen--have an interest in moving in with/sleeping with/partnering with in RL the person behind their screen...it's none of your business in the first place. Be more tolerant, for the love of all gods, or if you can't do that, then shut the hell up. You're not helping anyone by making someone's "real" gender known; all you'll end up doing is hurting them, angering them, or depressing them. Nobody wins with tactics that underhanded.

Finally...SL is celebrating ten years of operation, later this month. To...erm...share? In the festivities? They're offering a bear. But not just any bear--this year, they're offering an avatar-sized rabid animal. Ready to tear out throats in a single swipe, it's a bird, it's a plane, no, it's--*gurgle gurgle death*...

Okay, maybe it's not actually scripted to kill people, but...seriously. It just looks hostile.

(from the bizarre album)

Still think I'm kidding? That's just creepy.

when you only make it better, and it better be tonight

The Every Second Man blog purports to have an interview with the person behind the flatterbot ruse currently plaguing Second Life. She claims to make L$40,000 per day with this gimmick, and to that I say: more people on the grid need to be more observant.

Apparently, there are games now where the player can take a picture of whatever's in front of their webcam, and use it as the face of their character. If that sounds scary to you, then...you're likely right. For an example, one player made his in-game character his dog. And Penny Arcade did a comic on the most-commonly seen Tiger Woods game scan back in 2007. (Though any actual nudity is pixelated out, as it does deal with adult topics--sorta--I'll warn that it's NSFW.)

Speaking of NSFW things, this lass explaining the workings of her necklace to a studio audience and her fellow commentators--none of whom can keep a straight face. For those who don't speak French, the Reddit article on this tells me she's saying "Happy. Not happy" when she's pulling the chain that activates the...err...well, just don't watch it at work.

Over in France, apparently, the next big thing is blow-up lamps. Well--they're not actually balloons, they just look like balloon animals. I'd say it's a fun idea, I'm just not entirely convinced it's a fun idea worth over two hundred Euros each.

And in other design news, the spork has been reinvented! With a larger bowl, and actual tines instead of pointy bits. Thing is, though, does it really improve that much over the design of the original spork? Well, maybe if you eat a lot of ramen.

Let me also introduce you to the Cycloptopus by Nemo Gould. He makes sculpture that moves, with a sort of steampunk-futuristic edge. Very fascinating stuph.

To that same end, Greg Petchkovsky's blending of real and digital art is nothing less than astounding. Using high-resolution photographs, digital imaging, and 3D printers, he is changing the physical world around him, one small object at a time. Deeply impressive.

Over on i09, Christopher Salmon's posted the initial animatic--with Neil Gaiman narration--of one of Gaiman's short stories, "The Price". It's fifteen minutes long, and both inspiring and heartbreaking. Go watch. Make a cup of tea and open your heart to wonder. It's well worth the time. And quite possibly, it will be a feature film soon.

Other depression for the day that's worth your time: Amanda Palmer blogging about Amanda Todd, and the phenomenon of internet bullying, and how it really is that much worse than "traditional" bullying. For one, the fights tend to be both longer and more vicious, and for two, the entire world has a chance to jump on the bandwagon--out of boredom, out of misdirected anger, out of their own hurt and resentment--and join in.

But that's not why I'm tossing it up for your perusal. I'm tossing it up because of the comments she's getting. Just as bullying can work as an online mob-mentality gathering of ill will, so can support. And while Amanda Todd will never receive this outpouring of endurance, encouragement and faceless love--in the end, she took her own life, unable to face both her stalker and fellow students who told her, repeatedly, she "needed" to just kill herself because "nobody" liked her--maybe other teens will see it. Maybe other adults thinking of taking their own lives will see it. That's why I think it's worthwhile.

Spinning from that in a 'we are the internet, we need to be better to each other' kind of way, here's a tale about Star Trek fans coming together to help one of their own. In this case, this particular one happens to be dying of an incredibly virulent form of cancer--to the point that he's not entirely sure he's going to be alive by the time the next Star Trek film opens.

The request: friends of his wanted those involved with the film to send the ten-minute special preview to his local theatre. The solution: JJ Abrams brought the entire film to screen for this guy. Marvelous.

Massoud Hassani, meanwhile, has come up with an absolutely brilliant idea: a low-cost, low-powered mine detonator that can be released over minefields to detonate land mines that have been forgotten. While his main goal (and a worthy one) is the Middle East, I can also see these being used in Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos, where there are still mines in place from the early 1960s that have never been found. There are eleven days left on the Kickstarter; help if you can.

I wish I knew where this came from--other than "somewhere on Tumblr"--but it's good advice, nonetheless. Plus, whoever came up with bundling WD-40 and duct tape together is a GENIUS.

And will someone please tell me if Kyary Pamyu Pamyu is a corporate spokesperson, or a band? Either way, her videos are getting very strange.