Toy Tuesday 40: A Toy Odyssey

Happy New Year! It's the last Toy Tuesday of the year!

Toy Tuesday #40: A Toy Odyssey

http://youtu.be/2GpwZq5hNkI

The Night Before Khan

Happy Holidays and Merry Christmas from KHAAAAAAN!

Toy Tuesday #38: Childish Things

Donate toys or funds for children in need, or request a toy for your child here: http://www.toysfortots.org/

Toy Tuesday #37: Mjolnir

You may find this week's #ToyTuesday... shocking. #couldnotresist http://youtu.be/VFCRJoWBBuo

Toy Tuesday #36 - The Epic Split feat. Buzz Lightyear (Volvo Van Damme P...

To infinity... and beyond. #ToyTuesday

Toy Tuesday #35: Turkey

Easiest holiday turkey recipe ever! Happy Thanksgiving! #ToyTuesday

Toy Tuesday #34: Miniatures

It's a small world after all.

Toy Tuesday #33: Mustache (Happy Movember!)

It's Toy Tuesday and also Happy Movember!

http://www.youtube.com/v/2igmMGWbDhE?version=3&autohide=1&showinfo=1&attribution_tag=e1lZXAnaoMabrx_DCqYeww&autoplay=1&autohide=1&feature=share

What I Did Last Week, #2122: Halloween!

Last week was Halloween, so naturally everything was centered around that, what with it being the best holiday ever. The day of, I put on my Mermaid Parade costume and headed to Bikram Yoga LES for one of their costume classes. Lots of fun, most everyone came in costumes - one girl had put on a full Cats: The Musical costume, complete with make-up and wig. No small feat in a 105 degree room! They even had a costume contest - Elvis in a bathrobe won for both kitsch factor awesomeness and the fact that he wore a terrycloth robe for the entire class.

Then I headed down to the apartment and to some shops for last minute shopping supplies before meeting up with friends to walk the Village Halloween Parade, a long time annual tradition of ours which was interrupted last year by Hurricane Sandy. I was finally going to get a chance to wear my Khan Noonien Singh costume for Halloween, which was almost a bit anti-climactic after it's warm reception at New York Comic Con. Still, I had ordered a custom tailored Star Trek: TOS red uniform dress for my gal so that she could play Khan's love interest, Lt. Marla McGivers from the original series episode Space Seed.

I also made her a tricorder purse with a window for her iPhone 5!

Parade was fun as always, found some Chinese food afterwards.

The one plus of Halloween falling on a Thursday is that the following weekend is ALSO full of costume parties! Friday night saw the return of the Samurai from Superfriends, and the Happy House Hoedown Halloween Party we went to, and I managed to win both "Most Wow" and tie for Grand Prize in their costume contest!

And then Saturday night we redid Khan, but this time with a Tribble wielding-young Vulcan in tow :)

Sunday I began principal photography on an independent film written/directed/produced/starring an old college chum, Brad Raider, called "Kensho at the Bedfellow."

Then, Sunday afternoon and evening was spent raiding the after-Halloween sales at various Halloween pop-up stores! The SECOND best holiday ever!

Toy Tuesday #31: Cow (Happy Halloween!)

You might find this week's #ToyTuesday to be somewhat... mooving.

What I Did Last Week, #2121: Pumpkin Carving Contest

Sometimes I realize that, while I'm busy avoiding addressing the simply steps I could take to live the rest of my life in security and happiness, I manage to do one or two interesting things along the way. Every decade or so I take to journaling these activities, but I always fall off that wagon.

So, I think I'll just start keeping a laundry list of such things in a weekly post here in the magical, under-utilized, less-than-fashionable world of Blogspot. And then, maybe, if my memory or motivation proves solid enough, I'll start back-filling in - for my own sake and that of no one else's posterity.

I know, everyone's on the Tumblr, Instagram or Pinterest these days, but Blogger/Blogspot, I'll never let you go.

What I did for my 2,121st week:

Tuesday: Completed my 30th Toy Tuesday video.
Sunday: Went apple and pumpkin picking at Fishkill Farms Organic Orchard.

Sunday: Won the pumpkin carving contest at said apple-picking expedition!

My entry: Godzilla

I won a box of apple cider donuts and a $50 gift certificate!

Toy Tuesday #30: Mudman

#ToyTuesday. Because you're worth it.

Toy Tuesday #29: After Comic Con

A #ToyTuesday video actually was shot yesterday, but due to technical issues, wasn't posted untilblah, blah, blah, blah, blah... Enjoy!

2013 New York Comic KHAAAAAAN!

For the 2013 New York Comic Con, I dressed up as Khan Noonien Singh from Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan. This ensued.

Toy Tuesday #28: Slave I

Fortunately, I'm no good to him dead.

Toy Tuesday #27: Statue of Liberty

This video has been brought to you by... Republicans! And the letter "T."

http://youtu.be/RrKa2SqVJBg

Toy Tuesday #26: AT-ST

I feel a disturbance in my beverage...

Toy Tuesday #25: George Foreman Grill

Adults have toys, too. And sometimes those toys come from late-night infomercials.

Toy Tuesday #24: iPhone

The new iPhone 5s and 5c came out today...

Toy Tuesday #23: The Impossible Bunny

Well, I think it's still Tuesday in Hawaii... #ToyTuesday

Toy Tuesday #19: Monkey

Picked up this beauty in a vintage novelty shop in L.A. #ToyTuesday

Toy Tuesday #8: Gingerbread Man

The things I'll do for a cookie.

Toy Tuesday #17: Carousel

Last minute #ToyTuesday. Because I almost died. DIED I tell you!

Exclusive Pic of Royal Baby Being Born!

I've gotten access to an exclusive picture of the royal baby being born!



(I... couldn't... resist...)

Toy Tuesday #16: Magic Garden

All snark aside... these Magic Garden things are AWESOME! Science is fantastic... no, wait, it actually is the opposite of fantastic... but it IS spectacular!

http://youtu.be/AUy0fp3BM9I

Toy Tuesday #15: Bike

Problems with my new, used bike...

In honor of my friend Rosemary appearing in this awesome photo on the cover of last Saturday's New York Times, I declare this meme... OPEN!

Toy Tuesday XIV - Superman: The Toy

Strange video from another planet. It's Toy Tuesday XIV - Superman: The Toy!

http://youtu.be/uGG0STMsRL8

Yay for the overturn of DOMA! Nay for the sexualization of puppets.

While I'm thrilled about the overturn of the bigoted and unconstitutional Defense of Marriage Act, or DOMA, by 5/9ths of the Supreme Court this week, I am NOT down with The New Yorker's "Moment of Joy" cover featuring the characters Bert and Ernie from Sesame Street snuggling on the couch. I agree with Sesame Street's own stance that the characters should not be sexualized in any way whatsoever.

Bert and Ernie are best friends.  They were created to teach preschoolers that people can be good friends with those who are very different from themselves.

Even though they are identified as male characters and possess many human traits and characteristics (as most Sesame Street Muppets™ do), they remain puppets, and do not have a sexual orientation.

http://straightfromthea.com/2011/08/12/sesame-street-officially-addresses-age-old-ernie-bert-gay-question/

Yeah, yeah, yeah, parody, satire... but in reality, I find the insistence by many that they MUST be gay to be, ironically, slightly homophobic and stereotyping. 

"Oh, they're guys and they've lived together for years, they're snappy dressers, etc... they MUST be gay."

No.


Our patriarchal society's inability to accept a platonic friendship between two men speaks to a basic insecurity that's prevalent throughout. I remember a heart touching scene from the Fellowship of the Ring where Frodo and Sam express their love for one another; it was well-filmed, well-acted and was, of course, met with puerile titters from every audience I saw the movie with.

And while other Muppets have exhibited adult relationships and proclivities, Animal's Harpo-like pursuit of gals, Gonzo and his bevy of chickens and, famously, Kermit and Miss Piggy's long-time courtship, these are all Muppets who aren't characters on Sesame Street, with the exception, of course, of Kermit, who appears on Sesame Street as a journalist and does not discuss his personal life there for the most part.


I'm fine with there being gay characters on the show, but I personally think they should be HUMAN adults, or at least older teens. The Muppets on Sesame Street are generally stand-ins for the the POV of the pre-school aged children that the show targets, and should remain without sexual orientation, gay or straight.

Mad Men - Season Six Summary

Everything you need to know about season 6 of Mad Men.

Toy Tuesday #13: 88 Problems

I got 88 problems and a lack of toys ain't one. New Toy Tuesday for you!

Asian Heritage Month or "Fun with Hollywood White-Washing!"

WAIT, did you Hollywood F*cK3rs just cast a white guy as The Shredder, a Japanese ninja master, in the new Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie?! What did I JUST say about that? PAY ATTENTION!!


http://io9.com/william-fichtner-is-our-new-shredder-in-teenage-mutant-540754368

Toy Tuesday #12: Bunny

On today's menu we have... Toy Tuesday #12!

Iron Man 3 (in 60 Seconds)

Before you see Man of Steel, catch up on your summer superhero movies with my handy video, "Iron Man 3 (in 60 seconds)!"

Also, don't see Man of Steel.




Note: For those of you who watched my Asian Heritage Month video, you will recognize a lot of this. Such is life ;)

Toy Tuesday #11: Therapy

Sometimes a Toy Tuesday is just a Toy Tuesday.

Toy Tuesday #10: Swimming Pool

It's Toy Tuesday again! Oh these Littlest Pet Shop critters.. always getting themselves into hot water!

Click through to YouTube to watch, comment and subscribe!

Asian Heritage Month or "Fun with Hollywood White-Washing!"

How was your Asian Heritage Month this year? Mine was KHAAAAAAAAN!!!!!

Thanks to Iron Man 3 and Star Trek: Into Darkness, the British occupation of India lives on!

Toy Tuesday: Episode IX - The Yoda Strikes Back

It's Toy Tuesday again! This week... size matters not.

My Internet Icon Rejection

My reaction to being eliminated in the third round of auditions for Internet Icon, Season 2.

Toy Tuesday #8: Pigs

It's Toy Tuesday again! Not sure what happened, but I don't even drink!

EPIC LENS FLARE BATTLE: J.J. Abrams vs. Zack Snyder

Witness this epic battle of  lens flares between directors J.J. Abrams (Star Trek) and Zack Snyder (Man of Steel)!

Toy Tuesday #7: Einstein's Yo-yo

Einstein's theory of general relativity describes space as curved. This does not even remotely illustrate that principle.

Toy Tuesday #6: Godzilla Grill

It's time for Toy Tuesday! This week's guest came "up from the depths..."

Toy Tuesday #5: Gnomes vs Monsters

Behold! A new Toy Tuesday video... on a TUESDAY! Enjoy the continuing ancient conflict the ancient battle between stuffed animals and ceramic garden figurines.

Toy Tuesday #4: Perfection

It's Toy Tuesday! (on the West Coast, at least, for a few more hours...)

It's Perfection!

100 Days without Mom

This week marks the 100 day memorial of my mother's passing, and I thought I'd sing her a song.

Off to a Running Stumble

Well, here we are, day two of BEDA/VEDA, and already I've missed my first day's deadline for my video log due to lack of an internet connection and the iPhone's inexplicable tendency to import footage upside down in Final Cut Pro. Oh well, it's not as though the same company makes both those productsHEY WHAT THE HELL APPLE?!

At least the internet cafe I've been stranded in all morning has a nice view of the San Francisco countryside and the bay. Foggy, but nice.

I've spent most of the day shooting, editing, waiting for video to render, and editing some more, in an attempt to get my stone a rolling. Because right now I am covered with moss. (But it's soooo cozy!)

Last Day in L.A., San Francisco Bound & B.E.D.A.

So it's my last day in Los Angeles before I head off to San Francisco for a week of seeing friends and being a tourist.

For those of you who don't know (which, really, should be most anyone happening across this blog), I came out to Los Angeles to participate in YouTube's Internet Icon, a video-making competition web series now shooting it's second season. I sent in my audition video in January while still in Thailand and was selected for the Top 100 by the producers of the show. It was then our job to fly out to LA (on our own dime) to screen our videos for and be interviewed by the show's panel of judges. Ryan Higa (NigaHiga on YouTube), Christine Lakin (actress and screenwriter) and new judge Timothy De La Ghetto (TimothyDeLaGhetto2 on YouTube).

I am, unfortunately, bound to multiple confidentiality agreements and cannot further discuss the matter in any public forum until the show airs in May/June, but that's why I'm out here on the West Coast.

However, it was also a good excuse to visit with the many friends I have out here and have a few adventures. Several other friends from the Eastern seaboard happened to be out here at the time as well, so I spent time going to Griffith Observatory, The Getty Center, Santa Monica Pier, the La Brea Tar Pits and other fun places. Got to go to Holi on the Beach - a Hindu color festival and dance party celebrating the defeat of evil with colored powders, water fights, music and over a thousand smiling people, and a good internet friend of mine who works for Dark Horse comics got me into WonderCon down in Anaheim, so one of my closest friends and I took a little road trip to the land of Disney. Had tons of good food, and another friend was having a tasting for investors for a new restaurant in the area up in the posh Hollywood Hills, and I took my hosts, who kindly put me up for two weeks, to a brand new vegan fine-dining restaurant, the first of it's kind in the area, Crossroads Kitchen. (For the record, I am not vegan - I had an In-and-Out burger earlier...)

And there was a very entertaining evening called Bawdy Storytelling, sort of like The Moth's kinky friend, where there were three featured speakers (including the Sex with Emily podcast's Emily and porn legend Nina Hartley), followed by the Bawdy story slam, where people from the audience tossed their names in a hat and told their stories on the night's theme (theoretically), of Unexpected Places. I considered going up myself, but couldn't think of any stories until well into the presentations, when the hat was already full up. Oh well, tales of naughty rafting down the Ichetucknee River or joining the Mile High Club will have to wait for another time.

So it's BEDA: Blog Every Day in April, so I'll attempt to be consistent in blogging this month. I'm considering doing VEDA: Vlog Every Day in April, but we'll see how that works. Maybe I'll just recite what I write here. Who knows?

Easter Egg Hunt

This is how I hunt Easter eggs.

Support Marriage Epongity.

The Supreme Court is apparently beginning hearings on Marriage Equality, specifically California's idiotic Proposition 8. Hope they get it right, and quickly, so that conservative politicians, Fox News and their corporate sponsors will stop being able to use it as a distraction from things like corporate personhood, health care, education and national security.

http://newsfeed.time.com/2013/03/26/what-is-the-red-equal-sign-all-over-facebook-and-twitter/

Dan Wohl Wants to Make the Asian Guy Gay - How Original.

In his essay entitled "STAR TREK NEEDS A GAY CHARACTER AND HERE’S HOW TO DO IT: ONE TREKKIE’S PROPOSAL" over on The Mary Sue, sports writer and self-proclaimed Trekkie Dan Wohl argues that the best, and really only, choice, for integrating a gay character into the rebooted J.J. Abrams Star Trek Franchise is to make Sulu homosexual.

Yeah, make the Asian guy gay. That's the EASY fix, isn't it Mr. Wohl? Amazing how having a gay Asian character is so easily palatable to the average American viewer. Not even a thought as to making McCoy or Scotty gay/pansexual - way too "manly," right?

"I thought you'd like the ears, Hikaru..."

Or perhaps Spock even - now that there are only 10,000 Vulcans left in the universe in Abrahm's broken timeline, maybe the ratio of males to females is no longer even. When the libido rager of Pun'far rolls around, it'd only be logical to consider pansexual relations if New Vulcan ends up being a sausage fest.

As for Wohl's argument that, because all other six characters had hetero relations in the original series, it falls to Sulu to take up the mantel? He later points out, in the same article, that Sulu having a daughter on the bridge of the Enterprise B doesn't imply his heterosexuality. So why doesn't that standard apply to the other six characters? Is it because no gay man has ever slept with a woman, nor no lesbian ever lost her gold star? Convenient how he once again ignored the possibility of pansexuality amongst any of the other characters.

He also ignores or dismisses dozens of episodes from the various Star Trek series that DO contain queer characters or themes, never mind the books and other licensed materials, so that he can cling to a faulty initial premise that Star Trek is lacking on the subject of LGBT issues. Devoting a half-dozen paragraphs to multiple citations of LGBT behavior and characters across the entire franchise doesn't exactly support the hypothesis that Star Trek hasn't done a good job of addressing those aspects of our culture. 

And I'm curious what exactly Wohl thinks is wrong with "The Outcast" as a morality tale on the evils of a sexuality conformist culture? Because all he did in his mention of it was to say it was a poorly chosen allegory and then proceed to completely misrepresent the actual premise and message of the episode. Also, nice to ignore the fact that this episode now aired over TWENTY years ago - I realize that as Star Trek fans all the episodes exist in a very present to us, but please recognize that this bit of writing was pretty ahead of the curve back in 1992.

The fact is, I'd personally be fine if they made Sulu gay or pansexual. But I would be fine if they did that with ANY of the characters. Make them all pansexual, even paragon of fratboy heterosexuality Captain Kirk. As long as it had some relevance to either the story itself, or made us somehow care about the characters more, thus heightening the stakes for the story.

No, the problem I have with Dan Wohl's suggestion that Sulu be gay is that his REASONS why it HAS to be Sulu SUUUUUCCCK! Ultimately, they're simply more of the thinly veiled stereotypes of the Asian male that have been floating around the American media landscape since the U.S. got involved in three consecutive wars in Asia in the 20th Century. 

Anyway, the biggest challenge the Star Trek franchise has ever faced isn't having a gay character... it's having a good villain. 2 for 11? Come on, guys...

Papal Draft 2013

Did you miss yesterday's announcement of the new Pope? Relive the climactic moment here!

Harlem Shake (Toy Edition)

'


If everyone did the Harlem Shake off a bridge, would I do it too?

Apparently, yes. Yes, I would.