#either through youtube (especially the alien planet series)

[duhragonball]

Dragon Ball GT 08

✨GT Stands for Grope Tolerance.✨

All right, let’s just get this over with.  So they took the Oolong story from Dragon Ball Episode 4 and extended it to two parts. This episode sees the heroes’ plan put into practice.  Zoonama buys into Trunks’ disguise and takes him back to his lair, which is somehow a cave near a volcano that can only be accessed by a lake.  Trunks’ wig falls off, but Zoonama doesn’t care, because he thinks its just a different girl instead.  Trunks plays into this by introducing himself as “Tolerance”.  Why not just use your real name?  Even if “Trunks” was especially masculine, we’re on an alien planet, so how would he know?

So Trunks moves on to the next phase of the plan: getting Zoonama blotto’ed on sake.  Why is is red, though?  Because it’s alien sake, I guess.  The problem is that Zoonama is Straight Edge so he won’t drink it.  So Trunks distracts him and splashes it all over their dinner instead.  Wouldn’t he taste the sake on all the food?  I mean, I don’t drink either but I’m pretty sure if you soaked a dinner roll in whiskey, I would notice something wasn’t right.

While I’m on the topic, there’s this whole elaborate feast laid out on Zoonama’s table, and I’m pretty sure that’s supposed to be the food the villagers were cooking up in the previous episode, while Trunks was getting fitted for his bridal gown.  But Zoonama never received the food, and even if he had, he never would have been able to take it home, since he’d have to carry it through the underwater tunnel.   So did he prepare all of this by himself?  No, that’s impossible, because he was shaking down the villagers for free food before this.  I’m pretty sure that was all he ever asked for until he decided he wanted a bride.

Yeah, here’s a flashback shot from Episode 7.  They’re giving this asshole all kinds of stuff, but how’s he supposed to get it into his house without soaking it through?  Is that a treasure chest?  Why does he need money?  Maybe those are actually scalloped potatoes instead of gold coins.

Never mind that shit, here’s Goku’s dick!  They’ve followed Trunks and Zunama to the lake connected to the cave, and Goku plans to swim around for clues, but Pan is aghast at him taking off all his clothes in front of her.  Look, Pan, it’s Dragon Ball, Goku’s gonna strut around nude.  You wanted to go along on this mission, so I don’t know what else to tell you. 

I like how she’s threatening to tell Chi-Chi about this, like she can do anything about it.  “Yeah, that’ll happen,” Chi-Chi will say when Pan gets back to Earth. 

All right, so the final step in Pan’s strategy is to link up with Trunks, then cut off Zunama’s whiskers, which is what he uses to start earthquakes.  They snip off one, but he wakes up before they can do the other, because they take their sweet-ass time about it.  Seriously, this whole series has been one rest-hold after another.  I recommend checking out a YouTube channel I found where this guy had edited every episode of GT down to under two minutes.  I watched them all in about half an hour’s time, and it still felt tedious.

So Zunama wakes up and the first thing he asks is why his bride is wearing that stupid outfit, so Trunks has to explicitly state that he’s a man.  It’d be funny if Zunama said “No, I figured that part out.   What I’m asking is: why are you wearing a beige sportscoat and khaki shorts?  You look like an idiot.”

Zunama finally figures out he’s been tricked, and tries to start an earthquake with his remaining whisker.  This time he threatens to cause the volcano to explode, which... wouldn’t that kill him along with everyone else?   They‘re right next to the damn thing, and just because he can cause earthquakes doesn’t mean he can survive their effects.

It doesn’t matter, because the quake stops even though his whisker is still wiggling.  Pan then deduces the truth: Zunama can’t cause earthquakes and never could.  Instead, he has the ability to predict earthquakes, and he’s been using it to fool people into thinking he could control them.

Then, as Zunama tearfully admits the truth, another earthquake happens, and the volcano begins to erupt.  See, in the last episode, it was established that Zunama’s visits had been getting more and more frequent, and that was because the seismic activity in the region was getting worse, and he had to put in an appearance each time in order to maintain his scam.  This has all been building up to this damn volcano erupting, which will likely destroy Zunama and the village, so it would have been smarter for Zunama to warn the others about the danger instead of threatening them for free shit. 

Anyway, they all head for the underwater tunnel, and Goku uses a Kamehameha to blast out of the lake, sort of like how he and Vegeta escaped Majin Buu’s head. 

But that doesn’t end the threat of the volcano itself...

So Goku fires another Kamehameha...

And destroys the entire volcano.  Would that stop the eruption, though?  Fuck it, who cares.  The point is Goku could have just done this from the start, or he could have whipped Zoonama’s ass and cut off his whiskers, and then when the earthquakes kept happening anyway, everyone would have realized the truth, and Goku could have taken out the volcano. 

Anyway, the villagers accept Zunama’s apology and decide to let him live with them, provided that he warns them if he senses anymore earthquakes.   Will his other whisker grow back? 

The gang receives the Dragon Ball as a reward, but then it floats out of Pan’s hands...

And over to this guy.

Who turns into this guy.

And he flies away. 

✨ “Good” “Ideas”, Poorly Executed✨

Why would an alien infiltrate this planet and steal a Black Star Dragon Ball?  That’s the big question we’re supposed to be left with, but I’m still stuck on the bigger question: How would an alien even know about the Black Star Dragon Balls in the first place?  Every Dragon Ball hunt in the original series involves a rival organization, whether it’s the Pilaf gang, Red Ribbon Army, Frieza Force, or whatever.  So this isn’t a new thing, and it probably makes sense to use it here, except the premise of the Black Star Dragon Balls makes it unworkable. 

Remember, these Dragon Balls were created centuries ago by the Nameless Namekian before he split into Kami and Piccolo.  They became ordinary stones in the meantime, reactivating only when Kami and Piccolo fused together to fight Cell. Since the Earth is still in one piece, it’s safe to assume the Black Star Dragon Balls were never used before Emperor Pilaf made his ill-fated wish in Episode 1.  Then they scattered across the universe. 

So even though the BS Dragon Balls have been around for a long time, they’re also very obscure.  Most beings in the universe don’t know about the regular Dragon Balls, and those actually get used for things.  The BS set has lain hidden in a closet on Earth for hundreds of years.  Even if a rival band of Dragon Ball hunters had a way to track them down, how would they even know to start looking?

Okay, it just occurred to me that it would be kind of neat if this was how Pilaf got tipped off about the BS Dragon Balls in the first place.  A space bad guy knew about them, but didn’t want to risk a trip to Earth, so he manipulated Pilaf into making the wish, because he knew the Balls would scatter and make it easier for him to get.  Except that still doesn’t explain how a space bad guy would know to do all of this.  Maybe an evil Namekian?  I don’t know, and this show damn sure isn’t going to provide any explanations.

Also, why didn’t any of these idiots do anything to stop this?  Goku just blew up a volcano for Pete’s sake.

✨Positivity Page✨

The one saving grace of this development is that it more or less ends the “Grand Tour” concept dead in its tracks.  The original idea was for Goku, Trunks, and Pan to roam the universe in search of these “ultimate” Dragon Balls that are scattered across seven different planets.  You can read this interview from 2005 with GT producer Kozo Morishita, where he explains more about how the show came to be, but the really telling line here is the following:

“Initially we made about 26 episodes worth of rough plot outlines. But around when the final script for episode 3 was finished, we thought “these travel episodes aren’t going to be interesting no matter how long we keep doing them, are they?” and so we stopped (laughs). That’s why Gill and the spaceship stopped appearing midway through, even though we had sensei go through all the trouble of drawing them for us (laughs).”  --Kozo Morishita

In other words, the people making Dragon Ball GT knew it was a bad idea by the third episode.  Going into the show, they had all these big plans involving spaceships and “the next generation” and a de-aged Goku, and they even got Akira Toriyama to design the ship and some of the characters.  But then they finished the script for Imecka and realized it wasn’t going to work, so they started pumping the brakes. 

I’m guessing Episodes 6, 7, and 8 were finished just to give them time to correct their course, and then Episodes 9-14 deal with the gang chasing after the bad guys who stole the Six-Star Dragon Ball seen in this episode. By episode 24, the story shifts back to Earth, and stays there for the rest of the series.  I suppose Episodes 15-23 pay lip service to the “Grand Tour” concept, but it’s mostly an extended conflict on one planet, so it’s pretty clear that the premise has already been abandoned. 

And that is a good thing, because I don’t think I could take another twenty episodes like the six we’ve just gone over.  That’s not to say GT gets good from here on.  The rest of the show is a garbage dump too, but it’s worth noting that it could have been much, much worse. 

Speaking of worse...

✨Is This Episode Worse than “The Roaming Lake”?✨

Yes, it is. 

Look, I’m sorry for not having more to say here, but... this series really sucks the life out of a person, you know? 

✨The Blade Braxton Memorial Haiku*✨

Ka...me...ha...me...ha!

What took you so long, Goku?

Ka...me...ha...me...ha!

[whatudottu]

Today, let’s talk about Kinecelerans and their lives on Earth.

Y’all have probably noticed that these lads get a bit sick due to Earth’s slower rotation and I wanna talk about why, as well as how one can adapt and actually live in this slower world.

Starting off, I’ll talk about how Humans live on Earth for the sake of context. Or, more accurately, how we sleep. Humans have a sleep-wake cycle that matches up with the rotation of the Earth, mainly because our brains produce melatonin in the absence of light, and we have long evolved to adapt to this schedule. This is a circadian rhythm, named for being a cycle that’s approximately a day.

Approximately, you ask? Yes, our sleep-wake cycle isn’t exactly 24 hours, it’s a little more like a 24-25 hour cycle. It’s the reason why flying west gives us less jetlag than going east, because it’s better for us to lengthen or days than to cut it short. I’ve also heard at some point that it’s the reason why a shifting work schedule is better for your rhythm, but I can’t go into more detail on that front.

BUT! Kinecelerans don’t have a 24-25 hour circadian rhythm, they have whatever hour rhythm their planet rotates at. Sure, assumably they have a little leniency for a longer day, but ultimately Earth’s rotation speed is significantly slower than Kinet to the point of sickness. I may not have any numbers to talk about their specific sleep-wake cycle needs, but I will detail how it DOES make them sick instead.

If a Kineceleran were to actually try to stay awake for the Earth day, they would be awake for at least a few Kinet days. This would definitely be sleep deprivation, and if I know the internet, everyone’s had at least one day of it. The longer sleep deprivation goes on, the more side effects one has.

Referring back to Humans, this involves a lot of perceptual and cognitive distortions, with hallucinations and delusions coming in at the 4-5 day mark respectively. In terms of physical harm, lack of sleep does indeed cause a weaker immune system, because you’re not having any restorative sleep in between your bouts of wakefulness.

Not to say that Human symptoms translate exactly to Kinecelerans, but that right there is the key to this talk.

Hypothetically, though probably unrealistic, a Kinet day could very well last 1-2 hours. Though this most likely isn’t the case, a Kineceleran trying to stay awake for a full Earth day would be sleep deprived for 12-24 days in a row. This is at maximum, and sure it’s a definite stretch, but this is the primary reason why most Kinecelerans get sick from the slower rotation.

It’s not motion sickness, it’s sleep deprivation sickness.

Of course, a Kineceleran can clock off for their sleep every so often, but another problem arises. What about the production of melatonin, or some other sleep chemical that Kinecelerans may instead possess. While it could be possible that they don’t need an absence of light to activate sleep chemical production, let’s turn to the next common natural light source on Kinet.

Lightning.

Sleeping during a lightning storm, especially without a roof over one’s head, would not be evolutionary that great. Maybe instead of the light itself preventing sleep chemicals, it can be the presence of adrenaline (or, again, some equivalent) that keeps Kinecelerans awake. Naturally they’d be full of the stuff, being rather active, so typically stormy nights are troublesome for the many home grown Kinecelerans.

On Earth, after a certain time of morning, there’s a lot of activity outside. Noises and a whole heaping of lights may cause a Kineceleran to associate the hustle and bustle of Earth to the likeness of lightning storms, and their body acts as such by producing stress hormones. So even if they do catch their ‘z’s during the day, they can end up being partially sleep deprived if they didn’t catch enough of their recommended hours (and maybe minutes)

But that doesn’t mean Kinecelerans can’t overcome these issues.

Being born on Earth may help.

Helen Wheels, who we all know is a hybrid get back in your corner rooters, may still have half an inclination to sleep more often than a Human would, but she’s probably sleeping less than a Kineceleran should. Full Kinecelerans born on Earth may also adapt their sleep-wake cycle, maybe power nap when they would typically be asleep and fully clock out at night, sorta like the difference between weekdays and weekends.

Visitors and immigrants especially may also adapt too, but less in changing their cycles. No, what happens here is architecturally. Surely, no doubt, Kinecelerans would have their own ‘block-out-blinds’ over on Kinet for the especially excitable, advertised to block out the flashes of light and significant noise of the storms.

Earth may not be as bright as a flash of lighting, but the light is consistent and lasts for many Kinet days. The hustle and bustle of Earth however, is a lot quieter than a lightning bolt. Soundproof rooms with no windows (or some super intense block-out-blinds) are a Kinecelerans perfect bedroom, and allows for them to clock out whenever they need to.

Maybe occasionally they spend too long outdoors, meaning their adrenaline is still running even when they’re super tired, but isn’t it the equivalent thing for Humans and our screens?

Haha, anyway, I hope you enjoyed these thoughts.

And get your sleep too.

[oceanbaby888]

IT JUST CAME OUT OF NOWHERE!! 🤯👀⚡️😵‍💫URANUS THROUGH THE HOUSES (PT 1)

NOTE: WHILE I AM NOT A PROFESSIONAL ASTROLOGER, I LOVE ASTROLOGY & ITS ASPECTS. PLEASE DO NOT REPOST OR STEAL MY WORK!!

-Hey yall!

-I know it's been awhile since I did a series, but honestly I have been doing multiple things (doing readings, studying astro, YouTube, life lol). Yet, we are back with another series about Uranus through the houses! 🔥

-Now, as always, you know I give yall a pre-face to everything. So what is the planet Uranus in astrology [western, tropical astrology]?

-Uranus is the planet that talks about where we may have independent thoughts that may be opposite of what society views. It also represents detachment, the unexpected [or where unexpected things may happen], flashes of genius, or where we may have progressive ideas! It also represents separation. This planet is where we want liberation as well. So in this post we will talk about this planet in 1H-6H So I hope you enjoy it! Thanks for always supporting the content!! 🔥✨😁💛

-Announcements: Tarot readings are still open for free until 1/31! They are scheduled on the weekends as I am a busy individual! Yet, still here and still free until 1/31! Code: newbeg! Link to my site is in the pinned post of this blog.

-Uranus in the 1st house:

May be detached from how people may think of them, as the 1st house is about how people may view us or how we even view ourselves. Y'all may be the ones who literally may not care what others think of yall [hence detachment]. The way you move in life shocks others but then again you don't even give a fuck??? 😂😂😂 Because why are you checking for me???

^It is also possible that this native may feel like they are "different" from the rest, and they can either be very happy about that or very uncomfortable with that. Very possible [esp if Mercury is in aspect to this 1H Uranus], that people could have told this native, "you are odd, we can never understand you. What is it about you that we can't figure out?" 🤔🤨

Outlook on life could be based on how much they can liberate themselves. Uranus values freedom alot. This also means they may not align with traditional ideas or values, and your views can be rather genius [much to society's criticism]. This planet [and placement] does not like for others to try to tell them who they are [as you shouldn't]. Uranus is Uranus. Fuck yo projections. 🖕🏾

Since Uranus is about different and "alien" in this placement this native could have very "alien-like" looks. Alien I mean as it you have this very odd, unusual style or physical appearance. It can even be weird to others just for them to copy that same style, as I noted that "trends" are also ruled by Uranus [per the Rulership Book]. Okay Uranus in the 1st with yall trendy selves! 🥰🤩

Unexpected things can happen to you. This doesn't have to be a bad thing [or it could, but just so you can be aware and also depends on how Uranus is aspected in your chart]. 🤷🏾‍♀️💀😵‍💫

Uranus in the 2H:

This native may have an odd way of making money. Very possible yall can make money without even having jobs, especially if Jupiter is well-aspected to this placement. Let me know in the comments if you have this placement. 🤔💸

^It is also be possible that income could be rather unstable. One day yall could be making good money then the next something happens to where you gotta fight to make money. Very frustrating energy, but that is Uranus energy for you. 🤦🏾‍♀️ Luckily you can be more aware of this and make sure you are stable & have all your ducks in a row.

May be a minimalist. I say this because again Uranus is about being independent and free, and yall may not like alot of material things [2nd house] tied to you.

^On the flip side, may like to collect but may be items that others may not even think to collect. Also since Uranus is also related to tech, astrology, physics, or topics that are considered "high-leveled and eccentric" you may like to collect items related to these topics. 🧙🏾‍♀️👩🏾‍💻👩🏾‍🔬

This native may have a detached relationship with money and again, material items. You know how some people in this life beg to be rich and want this and that? Yeah no. That may not be yall [of course this depends on the sign and other aspects to Uranus]. Yall may be the type that like money for what is can do for you, but not really give a damn about finances like that. Unless this money is actually helping your community and the people around you, otherwise nah. 🙅🏾‍♀️

Uranus in the 3H:

This placement is so funny to me! [Maybe since Aquarius in over my 3H as well]. Since the third house is about speaking and communications, you all are the placement that is definitely the independent thinker. You may also shock others with your ideas. 😳 Yet, do you care? Probably not LMAO

Since Uranus also represents "genius" you all are quick, intelligent thinkers and may have some "advanced" ideas that others aren't ready to listen to until later. This can be frustrating for some of yall when people speak an idea you said three weeks ago. 😖😒

Sometimes this placement may think for the greater good rather than themselves. This native could be quite popular [another Uranian trait] in their neighborhood for being able to get along with just about everyone.

Yet, this placement could [unfortunately] feel disconnected with their siblings at times. They could feel disconnected to the environment that they live in. They could even feel disconnected and different from their immediate family members. This makes them wonder sometimes if they were born in the wrong era or wrong family. But you are right where you need to be! You're just meant to be different. 🥺

Uranus in the 4H:

This native may like to move frequently. Or may bounce from home to home, esp if Mercury is in aspect to this placement.

This native may have family members that are rather disconnected with each other [as in not as lovey dovey], or the native could feel disconnected with their family and their roots [their home life, country of origin, etc].

This native could also find their own comfort [4th house:IC] in being alone & knowing they are independent of others around them. Sometimes feeling like they are going along with the pack may feel like they are not being true to their most subconscious selves.

This native may like to do humanitarian work in their own home. They may want to see progression in their own home country, city, town, etc. Not necessarily on a wide-scale.

Family could be involved in the tech field, astrology, physics, or astronomy. Family could have been seen as "weird" to the outside world.

May separate themselves from their home land to find themselves and actually grow into who they want to be.

Uranus in the 5H:

This native may have a detached viewpoint about children. 👶🏾 May not even want to have kids [esp if Saturn is also involved in this placement]. Yet, remember Uranus is the planet of the unexpected, so you know where I am going with this.

This native may enjoy hobbies that are Uranus-related. Ex: Mark Zuckerberg [based on his chart being set at 2:39pm: credit: AstroTheme] has his 5H mostly containing Aquarius even though it starts in 23 degrees [also Aqua degree] in Capricorn. In his bio I read some of his hobbies he enjoyed were software programming when he was in middle school. The native may also study astronomy/ology as a hobby. Or you may enjoy programming video games. 💻🎮

This native may be famous [5H] for their humanitarian or social goals in this world or anything Uranus-related.

This is a personal observation: Since the 5H does represent the entertainment industry, this native may be in a place in this industry that looks like it doesn't quite fit them. 🤩😎🤨

This native may not like being famous at all. They may not like what it requires [people wanting to be so entitled to their time, going to certain venues for publicity, etc]. They may think if they are gonna be famous, then their fame actually needs to make a substantial impact. Also did I mention Uranus likes freedom anyway lol.

Uranus in the 6H:

This placement definitely may jump from job to job. Possible that they may get either fired out of nowhere or they may get promoted out of nowhere. 😬

This native may want to be more diligent about their health thanks to Uranus' unexpected energy. Don't want to incur unexpected medical bills. Also very possible that these health issues can be cured out the blue as well. Why Uranus just why? 🤨🤦🏾‍♀️😖😒

May want alot of independence and freedom in the workplace. A micromanaging boss may not be yall style lol. Also if a job is not stimulating to yall, then you all may leave the job anyway to look for better. 😂😂😂😂😂

May like to freeflow their organizational skills. The 6H is about how we go about daily life [since it is ruled by Mercury: daily life], and since Uranus is unexpected you may never know what you're gonna get day to day with this kind of placement. So, this native may like to just see what the day is like for them.

This placement may do well with self-employment in my opinion.

That is all for this part of the series! Feel free to tip me at $DellyRelly for all this knowledge! Natal readings are off site right now [we're figuring that out]! Tune in next time for the 2nd half of this series and have a happy holidays to the people who celebrate!!

-Claude

..

[theastrophilearchitect]

March TBR/W.

Every book, audiobook, tv show and movie I want to consume in March 2021.

-Hence ‘TBR/W’ - to-be-read/watched.

I’m not usually a fan of pre-planning my media for the month - I plan out all my media obsessively, but doing it by month seems a little too much like setting deadlines for my taste, and I’m sure I’ll somehow manage to turn watching tv into a chore. Regardless, it’s worth a shot, so this is going to be a rough guide - I’m going to pick four of each category, one per week, because I’d rather underestimate and surpass than overestimate and have to defer things to the next month. So let’s go.

Books

1. Skyward and 2. Starsight by Brandon Sanderson

Skyward is set in a future where the human race is on the verge of extinction, trapped on a planet constantly attacked by alien warriors. Spensa, a teenage girl stuck on the planet, wants to be a pilot, but it seems far-off. Then, she finds the wreckage of a ship that appears to have a soul, and she must figure out how to repair it, and persuade it to help her navigate flight school.

In truth, I mainly want to read this because of how highly it’s been praised by Hailey in Bookland on YouTube. I actually tried reading Sanderson’s Mistborn series a couple years ago, and just didn’t click with it. I love fantasy, but I can pretty confidently say epic fantasy just isn’t for me. However, Sanderson’s work is adored by many, and Skyward and its sequel Starsight appeal so much more to me, and I can’t wait to get to them.

3. House of Earth and Blood by Sarah J Maas

This is Maas’s first technically-adult book; Throne of Glass is young adult, ACOTAR being classed either as young or new adult. I’ve been a fan of Maas for a long time, and, though I enjoy her books less now than I have in the past due to how seriously they tend to take themselves, I’d still love to read this one. Where her previous series were both fantasies, this sits somewhere between that and a sci-fi, but I can’t say as-of-yet what I think, because I haven’t read it yet.

Bryce Quinlan finds herself investigating her friends’ deaths in an attempt to avenge them after they were taken from her by a demon. Hunt Athalar is a Fallen angel, enslaved by Archangels, forced to assassinate their enemies, when he’s offered a deal to assist Bryce in exchange for his freedom.

4. Scythe by Neal Shusterman

I listened to this as an audiobook in 2019 as part of BookTuber Book Roast’s Magical Readathon, and didn’t hugely get along with it in truth. The audiobook was excellent as an audiobook, but the story Ian’s I just didn’t really vibe. I think I just want to like this book, so I think it’s worth a reread to see if my opinion changes.

This follows Citra and Rowan, a reluctant pair of apprentice Scythes - in a utopian future where humanity has the means to live forever, it is the job of the Scythes to control the population by essentially reaping the souls of those they choose to die. Neither Citra or Rowan want it, but I don’t remember enough about this book to say any more.

Audiobooks

1. Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins

This is the last book in the Hunger Games trilogy, and you either already know what this series is about, or you’ve been living under a rock for the last thirteen years. I read this book for the first time nearly seven years ago, and it’s stuck with me. It sent me into a phase of only reading dystopian books (The Darkest Minds by Alexandra Bracken was part of this, and was the series that really got me into reading), but this was the main one that stuck with me. 

It contains a powerful message about capitalism and discrimination, and this is the second time I’ve listened to the audiobooks, though the god-only-knows-what time I’ve read the series. I listened to The Hunger Games and Catching Fire in February, which automatically puts this on my to-listen for March.

2. Ghosts of the Shadow Market by Cassandra Clare, Sarah Rees Brennan, Maureen Johnson, Kelly Link and Robin Wasserman

This is a novella bind-up set in the Shadowhunters world, that I would imagine has quite a bit to do with the Shadow Market, an aspect of the Downworld introduced in The Dark Artifices, which I finished in January.

In truth, I’m mainly planning to listen to this audiobook because it’s the only Shadowhunters novella bind-up with an audiobook, and I’d just rather read additions to the main Shadowhunters series in this format rather than physically.

3. The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes by Suzanne Collins

This is a Hunger Games prequel that was released early last year, and I just wasn’t going to read it. I heard several reviews, the general consensus of which was basically that it’s not as good as the trilogy and is somewhat unnecessary, but, in truth, my curiosity’s got the better of me, especially since I started listening to the trilogy’s audiobooks again.

This prequel follows Coriolanus Snow as a mentor in the Games before he became President of Panem and the wonderful villain of the original trilogy.

4. Eliza and Her Monsters by Francesca Zappia

I mentioned this in my physical TBR post a couple weeks ago, but have decided to listen to the audiobook instead. A few weeks ago, I’d started to run out of audiobooks I wanted to listen to, and didn’t want to read anything on my regular TBR in this format, including this book. But, I went through a load of audiobook recommendations, and this was one of them, so it joined my to-listen.

I’m not hugely into contemporary books, but I’ve wanted to get more into the genre for a while, and this was the first one to join my TBR.

This novel follows Eliza Mirk, your typical high school outcast, who publishes a hugely popular web comic under the pseudonym LadyConstellation. Then Wallace Warland, the biggest fanfic writer of her comic transfers to her school and begins to draw her out of her shell.

TV Shows

Before I go into my list, I’d like to mention that I am currently watching WandaVision and am definitely planning to watch Falcon and the Winter Soldier on Disney+, but both come out on a weekly basis, so aren’t being included on this list. Also, I’ve been watching way too much YouTube recently, so I’m not sure I’ll get through all of these this month, especially since I’m watching the Arrowverse shows, which have such long seasons.

1. Love, Victor Season 1

This Love, Simon spin-off follows a character named Victor at Creekwood (I think that’s the name?) High School. I saw Love, Simon twice in cinemas when it was released, and, miraculously, it made me cry. I love that movie.

This series was released last year on Hulu, which is only available in the US, but as of February 23rd, it’s one of the shows that came to Disney+ as part of Star.

2. The Flash Season 1

As mentioned, I’ve started watching the DC Arrowverse shows. I watch tv shows through alternating seasons - as in, I watch season 1 of show A, then season 1 of show B, then 2 of A, etc., then when I finish one, I start watching show C - but I’m treating the Arrowverse as one show (even though it isn’t) so it’s not the only thing I’m watching. So this is technically Arrowverse S3, preceded by Arrow S1+2 (though I haven’t actually started S2 as of writing this because of how much YouTube I’ve been watching, so I’ll be finishing that first).

I genuinely don’t know that much about most DC superheroes, Flash included, but I’m going into this having been assured it takes itself less goddamn seriously than Arrow. It’s my sister’s favourite Arrowverse show, and I can’t wait.

3. Dare Me Season 1

I added this Netflix show to my watchlist when it came out, and my basic understanding is that it focuses on the cheerleaders at a high school, and begins when a new coach arrives. It focuses on the psychological damage behind competitive cheerleading, and I’m not convinced I’m going to love it, but I think it’s worth a shot.

4. Arrow Season 3

I’m so confused by this poster. This is specifically the season 3 poster, and I’m so confused, but I’m sure it’ll make more sense when I watch the season.

I explained the weird way I’m watching Arrowverse (named as such because Arrow was the first show in it) already, but Arrow follows Oliver Queen, the son of one of the billionaires of Starling City upon his return after being stuck for five years on an island when a cruise ship carrying him and his father sunk. His father left him with a list of names of the people ‘corrupting’ the city, and Oliver takes it upon himself to assume a vigilante identity and take them down.

Movies

I’m not a huge movie-watcher, but I end up compiling so many to watch that, to ensure I get round to them, I watch a movie every time I finish a tv show season. I’m also currently re-watching the MCU movies in chronological order.

1. Instant Family

This is just something that came onto Netflix recently and I thought might be entertaining, and so it joined my list.

This follows a couple who decide to adopt a teenager, only to find out she has two more siblings.

2. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 

This is just a continuation of my MCU re-watch - I love this movie. I love Guardians of the Galaxy, full stop (on another note, I just generally don’t understand why British people call it a full stop and Americans call it a period. Neither name makes particular sense). 

3. Avengers: Age of Ultron

And here we have another continuation of my MCU rewatch. I honestly think this is my favourite Avengers movie, because the whole teams actually together, and Wanda, Scarlet Witch, is introduced - I love her. I really didn’t like Vision until WandaVision came out, though.

4. Behind The Try: A Try Guys Documentary

Not technically a movie, but still. (Are documentaries movies? I tend to think of them as separate categories, but I guess they’re both movies. Hm.) I’ve been watching the Try Guys for years, which means I need to convince my sister to give me her Google password so I don’t have to pay for this.

I’m probably not going to stick to this list, and even if I do, I’m either going to also consume things not on it, or just not finish it. But, you’ll have to wait for my March wrap-up to find out.

[omg-puddingpie]

GET TO KNOW ME -

Thanks to @klauseconfessions for this lovely tag! :D I love feeling a part of these things whenever you include me! Like my idol has noticed me!

You have to make a simself and put whatever you wish on there. traits, about you stuff so we can get to know you lovely, beautiful people better! Please feel free to do it without the tag as well because I’m horrible with tagging and hate leaving anyone out. :3

questions

1. What is your full name? Chad

2. What is your nickname? Pinky, douchebag, Beaver, Pie

3. Birthday? January

4. What is your favorite book series? I don’t read very often. (I’m more into comic books) but I’ve always enjoyed John Gardner’s book ‘Grendel’, even before I knew how much this monster was cool and I’d even include in my drawings OR Sims game. XD

5. Do you believe in aliens or ghosts? All of the. There has to be more in this world and there are evidence of both, so who knows?

6. Who is your favorite author? I honestly don’t have one but I love reading fanfictions. 

7. What is your favorite radio station? Hardrock, sometimes country and even the ‘oldies’ station. (70′s, 80′s, 90′s)

8. What is your favorite flavor of anything? Banana

9. What word would you use often to describe something great or wonderful? Cool beans

10. What is your current favorite song? Weezer’s take on ‘Africa’ by Toto. I’m in LOOOOOOVVVVEEEE with this song. (Even made it one of my sims’ dedicated love song to their significant other. XD XD)

11. What is your favorite word? Dipshit

12. What was the last song you listened to? Rob Zombie ‘Dragula’

13. What TV show would you recommend for everybody to watch? Castlevania, Breaking Bad, Supernatural

14. What is your favorite movie to watch when you’re feeling down? Wizard of Oz and I’ll tell you why: Long story short, this is my mom’s favorite movie and when my siblings and I were kids, she always played this on Friday nights; we had popcorn, sodas, and a pizza while watching the movie. Now, as an adult, I watch it for the memories and it makes me happy. :3

15. Do you play video games? It’s an addiction really. XD

16. What is your biggest fear? Spiders. Bastards....

17. What is your best quality, in your opinion? My drawing abilities, tbh.

18. What is your worst quality, in your opinion? I’m too ‘real’ but if you want my honest opinion, you’re going to get it. I don’t see this world through rose colored glasses.

19. Do you like cats or dogs better? Cats

20. What is your favorite season? Winter

21. Are you in a relationship? Yes. Married and have children together, too.

22. What is something you miss from your childhood? Saturday morning cartoons, cereal and not having to worry about bills.

23. Who is your best friend? From the Sims community, @emmypess then there is my wife, kids and siblings.

24. What is your eye color? Natural is brown but I have these bluish gray contacts in at the moment. Goes good with the pink. XD

25. What is your hair color? Naturally brown, now it’s pink.

26. Who is someone you love? My wife and kids

27. Who is someone you trust? My wife, my family

28. Who is someone you think about often? Wife and kids and dinner for that night. XD XD

29. Are you currently excited about/for something? Christmas, my upcoming birthday and what the New Year will bring. (Hoping for another baby!!)

30. What is your biggest obsession? Grendel and anything Supernatural

31. What was your favorite TV show as a child? Gargoyles. No lie

32. Who of the opposite gender can you tell anything to, if anyone? My wife

33. Are you superstitious? Ooooooh yes!!

34. Do you have any unusual phobias? Not really

35. Do you prefer to be in front of the camera or behind it? Behind. I’m stupid shy of photos. XD

36. What is your favorite hobby? Drawing, skateboarding and doing crafts with the kids.

37. What was the last book you read? ......Do comic books count? XD

38. What was the last movie you watched? The new Halloween movie. :3

39. What musical instruments do you play, if any? .......My answer is a bit, ahem, adult but to be ‘serious’ I use to play the Violin as a kid.

40. What is your favorite animal? Capybaras

41. What are your top 5 favorite Tumblr blogs that you follow? I can not pick. I love seeing a diverse screen of all kinds of sims. You guys are awesome! :D

42. What superpower do you wish you had? Oh man, flying would be nice. 

43. When and where do you feel most at peace? At home with my wife and kids. I just love being around them. 

44. What makes you smile? My family, my addiction to games, drawings and my sims.

45. What sports do you play, if any? I skateboard, play Basketball and use to play Football in highschool.

46. What is your favorite drink? Dr. Pepper

47. When was the last time you wrote a hand-written letter or note to somebody? Psssssssh! I don’t know! XD

48. Are you afraid of heights? Yes

49. What is your biggest pet peeve? People who talk with their mouth full. I don’t need to see the Casserole you made last night, Susan. Fuck....

50. Have you ever been to a concert? Hell yes!

51. Are you vegan/vegetarian? Nope

52. When you were little, what did you want to be when you grew up? A Veterinarian.

53. What fictional world would you like to live in? Shit, I’d love to hang out in Fabletown at the Trip Trap bar with my boi Gren and throw back a few. XD

54. What is something you worry about? I worry 100%. HARD not to when you have anxiety and constantly overthinking EVERYTHING! XD

55. Are you scared of the dark? Nope

56. Do you like to sing? Horribly but yes!

57. Have you ever skipped school? In high school, I ditched all the time. I’m STILL shocked I graduated on time. XD

58. What is your favorite place on the planet? Oregon or LA

59. Where would you like to live? Away from Cali (which is literally on fire right now) and move to Oregon or even Alaska. No lie.

60. Do you have any pets? Yes! 3 Cats, a Dog and a Beta fish

61. Are you more of an early bird or a night owl? Early bird. Up at 3am! 0.O

62. Do you like sunrises or sunsets better? Sunrise

63. Do you know how to drive? Yup

64. Do you prefer earbuds or headphones? Earbuds

65. Have you ever had braces? No

66. What is your favorite genre of music? Rock

67. Who is your hero? My mom. She’s been such a strong individual and struggled for years to raise my siblings and I. I still don’t know how she did it but I’m forever in debt to her. She’s amazing.

68. Do you read comic books? Yes, yes, yes!!

69. What makes you the most angry? People who drive...so....slow. I’m not a speed demon but if you’re LOST, move the fuck over! XD

70. Do you prefer to read on an electronic device or with a real book? None? XD

71. What is your favorite subject in school? History or anything art related

72. Do you have any siblings? Yes! 4 sisters and one brother

73. What was the last thing you bought? The new Spyro Reignited game!!!!! My childhood!!! :D :D

74. How tall are you? 6′1″

75. Can you cook? I try but....it’s best if this dude stays OUT of the kitchen! XD

76. What are three things that you love? My family, my Sims, my life

77. What are three things that you hate? People who chew with food in their mouth, people who drive stupid slow or people who feel the need to advertise their business on Social media. No one cares that your period is heavy or you and your significant other are fighting. TMI.

78. Do you have more female friends or more male friends? Guys

79. What is your sexual orientation? Bi

80. Where do you currently live? California

81. Who was the last person you texted? One of my coworkers regarding Thanksgiving. We have a 4 day weekend!!! :D

82. When was the last time you cried? Laughing cry last night at my wife’s family’s house for an early Thanksgiving meal. I love her family. 

83. Who is your favorite YouTuber? THINK his name is IamKevin. He plays a lot of the Sims games and the things he says....XD

84. Do you like to take selfies? NO! XD

85. What is your favorite app? This app fro my local grocery store, where I can scan coupons and what not! (I’m such an adult/daddy sometimes. XD)

86. What is your relationship with your parent(s) like? My mom is wonderful but I’ve been estranged from my father for 7 years now. My choice and it’s been the best thing I could have ever done.

87. What is your favorite foreign accent? Portuguese, English, Spanish

88. What is a place that you’ve never been to, but you want to visit? Ireland

89. What is your favorite number? 69. :P

90. Can you juggle? No

91. Are you religious? Yes

92. Do you find outer space of the deep ocean to be more interesting? Outer Space

93. Do you consider yourself to be a daredevil? In high school, yes. Not so much now.

94. Are you allergic to anything? This poor air quality lingering over California! XD

95. Can you curl your tongue? Yes

96. Can you wiggle your ears? No

97. How often do you admit that you were wrong about something? Almost never but then it ends up biting me in the ass.

98. Do you prefer the forest or the beach? Forest

99. What is your favorite piece of advice that anyone has ever given you? Life is too short for drama. If it causes you stress, perhaps it’s time to either cut ties or fix it. Your health and mentality is never worth it, especially when you have others who depend on you. 

100. Are you a good liar? Nope

101. What is your Hogwarts House? I’m not much for Harry Potter, tbh.

102. Do you talk to yourself? Sometimes! XD

103. Are you an introvert or an extrovert? introvert

104. Do you keep a journal/diary? No

105. Do you believe in second chances? It depends

106. If you found a wallet full of money on the ground, what would you do? that’s hard, tbh. We ALL wanna say we’d turn it in but I’ve seen those people turn in the wallet but keep the money sooooo....it’s hard to say. 

107. Do you believe that people are capable of change? Depends

108. Are you ticklish? Kind of

109. Have you ever been on a plane? Yes

110. Do you have any piercings? Yes

111. What fictional character do you wish was real? Grendel from The Wolf Among Us. I’d LOVE to drink with this guy! XD XD

112. Do you have any tattoos? Yup

113. What is the best decision that you’ve made in your life so far? Making my life much better.

114. Do you believe in karma? Yup

115. Do you wear glasses or contacts? contacts

116. Do you want children? I’d like more!

117. Who is the smartest person you know? My sister

118. What is your most embarrassing memory? Too many! XD

119. Have you ever pulled an all-nighter? Yup

120. What color are most of you clothes? Red, Black and brown

121. Do you like adventures? YES!!!

122. Have you ever been on TV? No

123. How old are you? Going to be 30

124. What is your favorite quote? Never have regrets because at one time, it was exactly what you wanted. 

125. Do you prefer sweet or savory foods? Salty!!

[booksareawayoflife]

Zenith by Sasha Alsberg And Lindsay Cummings

‘WHEN THE UNIVERSE NEEDS SAVING.

THERE’S ONLY ONE GIRL FOR THE JOB.

Most know Androma as a powerful mercenary whose reign of terror stretches across the Mirabell Galaxy. To those aboard her glass starship; Marauder, however, she’s just Andi, their friend and fearless leader.

But when a routine mission goes awry, the Marauder’s all-girl crew is tested as they find themselves in a treacherous situation – and at the mercy of a sadistic bounty hunter from Andi’s past.

As the Marauder hurtles towards the unknown, and Mirabel hangs in the balance, the only certainty is that in a galaxy run on lies and illusion, no one can be trusted.’

Book Review: *Minor spoilers*

Watch My YouTube Video Review of Zenith if you want to see me go into more depth! https://youtu.be/2yCefcQoriM

I finally finished this book! I wasn't sure if I wasn't sure if I was going to make it! This is going to be predominantly a negative review, but there were some things that I liked about this book and I will probably continue on with the series because THAT ENDING THOUGH. I wasn't sure if I was going to continue but the ending made me want to read the next book to see what happens next so there are some redeeming aspects to this book. I want to say two things before I start going into my review of the book. 1) I am a fan of Sasha Alsberg. I bought this book to support her, and if she hadn't have written this book I don't think I would have bought it. Or if I did buy it, I probably would have DNF-ed it. 2) I did the terrible mistake of reading Mass Effect: Redemption before I picked up Zenith. If you don't know about Mass Effect, it's a video game universe that's set in space. It's one of the best games I've ever played and there's graphic novels/books as well that's set in this sci-fi universe. So I was subconsciously comparing Zenith to the perfection that is the Mass Effect Universe. Let's get into it! THE PLOT  Zenith is the perfect example of how not to write multiple points of views [POVs]. Six of Crows is the perfect example of how to use multiple POVs. Six of Crows uses POVs to build suspense, create tension, add to the story line (especially when characters are separated from one another), without sacrificing on fluidity or pacing. Zenith... the multiple POVs in Zenith disrupt the pace, the plot, the tension, and they are so short/repetitive that sometimes I asked myself, "What was the point in that?" I think Zenith could have been better served just being from Andi's POV because she is the main narrator anyways, or have far LESS POVs. In the beginning of the novel, you literally don't know who anyone is, and yet there are so many POVs... and flashbacks. It wasn't until the last flashback that I thought that it was ideally placed in the outline of the plot. All the other flashbacks you have no idea what the significance they play until the very end. And by very end I mean 98% completed. And I get it, you want the plot to be mysterious and in the end you want the puzzle to be completed, but I felt like it could have been organised far better because sometimes these flashbacks would occur in the middle action/fighting POVs when you're worried about people dying. The plot does get better throughout the book, and I think that it had a good ending. But there are so many other problems with this book. THE WRITING  The writing of the first 100 pages was tragic. I can completely understand why people would DNF around that mark because honestly the writing was so bad. You can't help but notice the writing style, which draws attention away from the actual story. The similes were virtually on every page, and some of the similes you can't even imagine because they're implausible or give no context. 'Vengeance will be mine," is said 4/6 times that I counted within those 100 pages, and the writing is so inconsistent. The writing is inconsistent throughout the novel but you particularly notice it in the beginning. I'll give you a list of the inconsistencies: - Andi is a killer, who kills pretty much without second though vs. the Andi that writes notches on her swords of all the people she's killed (that sword better be infinitely long because in the beginning she kills two ship fulls of people), and dances with the dead. And is so guilt ridden that in almost every POV she brings up her guilt 😑 -The Marauder (the ship that Andi captains) is unbreakable vs. breaks down twice. -Lira says that hate is not a strong enough word to describe Dex vs. pretty much the second person to like him, and tries to convince Andi to forgive him. -Gilly is a 13 year old child that is too young to say ass vs. the girl that can shoot/blow up people without a second thought. Those were just a few that I could think of right now. I'm sure if I went through all my Zenith notes then this list would be longer. This could be because there are two authors so they might not mesh well? I don't know. All I know is that this book should have been edited a few more times to be consistent. The world building was also incredibly weak. I would not be able to describe the universe that Zenith creates. Other than the fact that the Mirabell galaxy only seems to be made of 5 systems, and maybe 4 different inhabitable planets/species? With Mass Effect I could name LOADS of different alien species, and give some physical/character traits of the species. With Zenith I got Arcadians and Adhirans mixed up, and all the aliens were humanoid. Andi actually says "humanly" on p. 23 of my edition, and I don't even think humans exist in this universe... or if they do they aren't explained in the lore. Because humans is an Earth term, and if Earth doesn't exist you can't use Earth descriptions. The language is also not explained. There is a 'Great Universal Dictionary', but we have no idea if the language is universal or if they have translators... THE CHARACTERS  -Andi - I didn't like Andi. I didn't hate her, but there was nothing about her character that I like or related to. A part of this is because her characterisation is inconsistent, but also because if she is not talking about her guilt of being a killer, she's hating/pining on Dex... I also felt like there was no growth in her characterisation, and she made bad decisions.

-Dex - I liked Dex... at some points. He becomes more likeable through the course of the book, but there is no depth to him. He just says some cool stuff sometimes, but also kisses Andi without her consent. -Lira - I didn't like Lira either. Her species characterised like a mix of Vulcan/Amity from Divergent, but in the worst ways. She also keeps on telling Andi, 'As your second in command'. It's like we get it you're important. Also underdeveloped. -Valen - Probably my favourite character, not going to lie... I'm going to be rooting for him 😂 -Alfie - An AI that can detect emotions, but also acts like a typical Robot. Underdeveloped massively. -Everyone else - I didn't care about them because we didn't get to know them in the course of this 500+ page book. Breck/Gilly were barely explored and I doubt they will be after their positions in the ending. The bad guys also just felt like bad guys with no substance. Just being bad for the sake of being bad. I prefer morally grey bad guys that I can relate too. THE INFLUENCES  Zenith is influenced by so many popular YA books, and if you have read them then you'll feel the similarities. This book felt like an amalgamation of all these books: Divergent Six of Crows, Cinder, Throne of Glass, Red Queen, Illuminae, and maybe A Court of Thorns and Roses... this one is probably the weakest influence, but I could feel the others quite strongly. Conclusion  Would I recommend this book? No Will I buy the next book? Yes Will I reread this book? No Before I started this book, I was worried that perhaps booktube was being too harsh on Zenith because it was published by a booktuber. But I think the criticism that most people talk about is valid. Yet, I don't think that this criticism is meant to be hurtful in anyway. I was so critical of this book because I wanted it to be a masterpiece. I wanted this book to prove the doubters that booktubers/youtubers can write good books, but Zenith ended up proving the opposite. I do think that people could get some enjoyment value from it, but they would have to be very naive about YA books, and reading in general. I could imagine perhaps younger readers really enjoying this book, because the younger you are the less critical you read. But then I wouldn't want people too young to read this because there are some intense kissing scenes/hints at sex. So I don't know.

Overall, I gave Zenith 2.5/5 or 5/10.

Love Lou xx

[mst3kproject]

Phantom from Space

I fear nobody in this movie was ever on MST3K.  In fact, nobody in this movie ever appears to have been in anything, period – Ted Cooper, who plays the hero, spent most of his career doing game shows, and Noreen Nash's greatest accomplishment in life was being 1942's Miss Apple Blossom.  Director W. Lee Wilder did do Killers from Space, which was almost an MST3K movie, and The Snow Creature, a crummy Yeti movie that I'll probably review someday.  Rather than any of the cast or crew, what drew me to this film was that it features an invisible alien.  In the words of Joel, they were too cheap to hire villains.

Opening narration tells us about an incoming UFO.  The government sends people out to find the crash site.  Meanwhile, the police begin investigating a series of odd incidents, including two murders and an explosion – but all the witnesses keep describing a man in a diving helmet, with no head visible through the faceplate!  Before long the two investigations come together, as everybody realizes they're tracking a homocidal invisible alien.  This creature is plenty difficult enough to find as long as he has his indestructible spacesuit on.  Once he takes it off, however, they may never see him again, and he'll be free to kill.

Wow, that sounds like a way more exciting movie than the one I just watched.  Phantom from Space is difficult to sit through, but easy to come up with sketches and riffs about.  The antenna on top of the tracking vehicle looks like a Christmas tree, a scientist suggests that the reason the alien is invisible is because it's made of glass, and I can see Mike and the bots having a great time with the fact that the titular Phantom is naked for half the movie.  “Oh my god, his invisible butt cheeks are all over their leather seats!”  “Augh!  I'm staring right into his invisible area!”  Maybe Tom and Crow would become paranoid that there's an invisible man on the satellite and try to find a way to flush him out... possibly literally.  I can also see them urging the cast looking for the alien to “just follow the theremin!”, since that's the sound that we hear every time it's implicitly onscreen.

The beginning of the movie is just a mess.  First we have the narration and the inevitable accompanying stock footage, which seems to go on far too long.  Then, instead of getting to the action, we have the police investigation – this comes complete with suspects, annoying reporters, and so forth, and also takes way too long. Then there's the old guy with the malfunctioning TV set. Then there's the night watchman at the oil company!  These events are all supposed to establish patterns and make us worried about the alien but the whole segment needed to be cut down to about half its length, especially as very few of the characters we meet here are remotely relevant to the plot when it finally arrives, twenty-two minutes into a seventy-five minute film!

The plot of Phantom from Space sure takes its sweet time getting started, and even once it finds its feet it's really not a taut thriller, but it does give us plenty to think about.  With the exception of Wakeman the reporter, the characters we meet are pretty reasonable people: there's Dr. Wyatt the vaguely German astronomer, his assistant Barbara Randall, her husband Bill, their dog Venus, and a couple of cops and secret agents... and of course, there's the alien.  This being, which the human characters refer to as 'the Phantom', is never quite a character in its own right – but once we actually meet it, it also ceases to be a monster.

It's a real shame the opening sequences are so elongated and dull, because an audience who's falling asleep isn't going to pay attention to what's really the smartest thing in the movie.  The various witnesses who have seen the Phantom up to this point speak of it as a huge, intimidating thing that inspired great fear.  The first time we get a look at it for ourselves, however, it is scrambling back and forth on a rooftop, terrified and confused and desperate to escape from the humans who are closing in on it like a pack of wolves.  It's so frightened that it's forced to take a deep breath and take off its spacesuit so it cannot be seen.  This is more or less an act of suicide.  Events that follow will demonstrate that the Phantom cannot survive more than a few hours without the suit – taking it off ensures the wearer's short-term survival by sacrificing the long-term variety.

Up until this moment, the human characters have been speculating about the possible motives of their unknown visitor.  Is the Phantom a Soviet saboteur?  A thrill killer?  The vanguard of an invading army?  A few seconds in the creature's company show the audience that it has no plan.  It's not thinking ahead to more than the next couple of minutes, and its fear leads it to make mistakes.  Removing the suit ensured that the humans couldn't find it at the beach, but the Phantom must then accompany them to Griffith Observatory and try to get its stuff back, not an easy task with the police still looking for it.

Once they've actually made contact with the alien, the human characters quickly come to the same conclusion, but once the spacesuit disintegrates, there's really no hope for the Phantom to make it off our planet alive.  Instead, it begins trying to communicate in some kind of numerical code, but nobody can understand what it's trying to say.  In the end, Earth's toxic atmosphere overwhelms the Phantom, and it briefly becomes visible before disintegrating, leaving the humans with no idea what to do next.

The movie doesn't have much by way of special effects, but the evaporating alien isn't awful.  We see his body, which is made up and lit in such a way that it looks like its made of stone rather than flesh (tying in with Dr. Wyatt's earlier suggestion that the creature's biology is based on silicon rather than carbon), and then we see subtle hints of the skeleton as the whole thing seems to boil away into mist.  It's not fancy, but it's also not corny, and for a movie with such an obvious low budget, this is a very nice moment indeed.

The script is also quite respectful of its main female character, Barbara Randall.  As soon as she's introduced we are immediately told she will be something other than a useless love interest, because she is Mrs Randall, thank you very much.  She is the first to attempt any sort of contact with the Phantom and she behaves in a very sensible fashion.  Although she's terrified and does do some screaming and fainting, for the most part she keeps her wits about her and seizes the opportunity to learn something.  Locked in a room with the creature, she tells Bill to go for help rather than trying to break her out himself.  She recognizes that the Phantom is trying to communicate and writes down the sequence of numbers he taps out, hoping somebody more familiar with mathematics will understand it. And she is the first to notice that the dog is aware of the alien, and tries to take advantage of this fact.

Make no mistake, Phantom from Space is a very bad movie – it would be much better if somebody cut down the first third or so, but it still wouldn't be great.  It does, however, seem to be a story with a lot of thought put into it.  It never really resolves the situation it sets up, since we never find out what the Phantom was trying to tell us or whether we can expect to see more of him, but that doesn't feel like a disappointment.  The main arc of the movie, from the opening with the flying saucer sightings, was the humans simply trying to figure out what the hell is going on, and at the end they know.  Future consequences of the night's events simply aren't important at this point.

It's a story with no villain.  As audience and cast quickly realizes, the Phantom is only trying to survive on an alien world, with few resources and hopelessly lost, outnumbered, and outgunned. The humans themselves, from the scientists to the cops to the annoying reporter, all are just trying to do their jobs as best they can with the available information.  It's also a story with no hero. There's no single main character, and it's the group working together who manage to collectively learn something about the nature of the universe.  Like First Spaceship on Venus, this is a movie about ideas rather than people, though it's far clumsier about it.

The big idea writer Myles Wilder wants to explore is that of alien contact.  In most movies of the fifties, and frankly even a lot of movies of today, aliens either come in firing lasers at us, or else just speak English from the get-go.  Wilder tries to do something different by showing us an alien who is as unprepared for us as we are for it.  How do you communicate with something when you don't even know if you have common ground with it, let alone what that might be?  Scientists from the beginning of SETI have suggested that mathematics is a universal language, but what kind of mathematics?  Dr. Wyatt points out that the Phantom's message may be couched in a form of math we haven't discovered yet.  In the end, the alien's pleas for help – if that's indeed what they were – fall on deaf ears, not because the humans don't want to help it, but because we simply cannot understand what it is trying to say. That's a pretty neat idea to make a movie about, and could have made for a far better one than Phantom from Space.

If you're interested in the idea of using math to communicate with extraterrestrials, and the pitfalls we might experience along the way, there's a couple of really interesting SETI Talks lectures about it available on YouTube.  Dr. Kevin Devlin argues that math is a product of the human brain and may not be as universal as we think, and Dr. John Stillwell demonstrates some rather obscure ways of thinking about numbers that may be more natural to aliens than they are to us.

[aion-rsa]

Why Todd McFarlane is Bringing Spawn Back To The Big Screen

https://ift.tt/2LWP0D3

In an exclusive interview, Todd McFarlane tells us what it’s like to bring Spawn from the page to the big screen... again.

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Todd McFarlane is one of the most influential comics creators of the last 30 years. As a vital part of the team that founded Image Comics in 1992, he changed the shape of the industry forever. The creator-owned publisher also became the home of McFarlane's flagship creation, Spawn, and now almost three decades later, the writer and artist is trying his hand at directing with an R-rated Spawn movie from Blumhouse Productions. We spoke with McFarlane about creating, directing, and why the time is right for a new Spawn movie.

DEN OF GEEK: Looking back 27 years to when you created Al Simmons, did you ever think that there'd be a time when you'd be directing a Spawn movie?

TODD MCFARLANE: Well, even back in the '90s, we had the Tim Burton Batman movie and the Superman movies with Christopher Reeve, so the possibilities were there. Obviously, it was a long shot, but for me when we started Image Comics there were four pillars that I was aiming for. One was to do Spawn toys, one was to do video games, one was to do television, and then one was to do a movie. I got lucky that I was able to touch all four of those, although the toy one I ended up doing on my own. But I felt that if you could touch those four areas and put those pillars on a strong foundation of a solid storyline and character, then just like in real architecture, you could build a skyscraper on one foundation.

further reading: The Legacy of Burton's Batman

There were always goals, but you have to be somewhat realistic. I got lucky because when Spawn first came out it went to the top of the charts. And whenever you have anything that gets to the top of any chart—I don't care what business you're in—then people start paying attention, asking questions, and inquiring about  opportunities. When people saw Image and Spawn were at the top, then the phone starts to ring and people go, "Oh my gosh, it's outselling X-Men and Superman and Batman." So they just made some leaps in logic. "Oh, Spawn's selling more than Batman, it must be better than Batman." Which wasn't true obviously, but it was good fortune for me that the phone was ringing in the first place.

Why is the time right for a gritty, horror-drenched Spawn movie?

Enough time has passed since the first movie that came out in 1997, so at that point you could either do a retelling of it or you could do a reinvention of it. Either way, anybody who is 20 years old wasn't even on the planet then when the last movie came out. So there's a gap there where people wouldn't necessarily be comparing it directly.

I'm 30 years older now, and so the things that appeal to me as a 50-year-old are not necessarily the same things that appealed to me when I was 20 years old. Given that I'm still driving this character called Spawn, for my own entertainment I can't go back and do something that essentially the first movie did. It was a PG-13 comic book action movie, and it hit all the marks. So if people want that version, go watch that movie. I'm acknowledging that the vast majority of the people who are still following Spawn are now much older because they started a decade or two decades ago. Now they're adults, so give them an adult movie.

When people ask, "Why are you still evolving Spawn?" it's because Todd McFarlane is still the guy writing the stories, and I would've gone creatively insane if I was still writing the same stories that essentially felt like issues one through five.

In the current superhero movie landscape, what are some of the challenges of bringing Spawn to the big screen?

If you take a step back and you look at the success of the Venom movie and Aquaman--and to some degree even Captain Marvel--when you see the number of dollars that are being brought in overseas, that's the key to the success of these films. When I see that Aquaman is doing $700-800 million overseas, the reality is that there aren't a lot of stores overseas that sell American comic books. So that means that the vast majority of viewers in Aquaman's case have probably never ever had an Aquaman comic book in their hands. So what they were going for was, "Ah, that looked like a cool trailer, and it looks like it might be a fun ride, I'm going to go for it." I have to do the same thing.

Ultimately, once we get into production and we make a movie, the trailer is going to do all the talking for us. Globally, people are going to either go to YouTube, watch the trailer, and make a quick decision on whether it's something that they think they will enjoy for their $10 or not. They'll go, "Oh, I don't know what Spawn is, but that looks pretty wicked." Or they're going to go, "Eh, I watched it. Not my thing."

I have to make sure that I'm acknowledging the average moviegoer because if you get too geeky, then to me, you can potentially alienate a certain group if you don't have 10 years of films behind you like the MCU. They've now built that geek [recognition] and people will go for the ride. You say "Marvel" and everybody jumps on board. I'm not going to have that luxury, so I need to just go into a standalone single movie and answer "is this worth your $10 today?"

further reading: The Best Horror Movies on Netflix

For you personally, what's the biggest drive to make the Spawn movie?

Just getting it out of my body so that I don't go to the top of the mountains and just scream naked and become a serial killer if I don't. I have to get it out in some form at some point, and then once you do that, just stepping back and seeing whether it was self-serving or whether there's an audience that will go for the ride with you. I've been very fortunate in my career that, almost at the very beginning of nearly everything I do, I'm trying to entertain myself first. Part of that is because, especially in comic books, it can be a very lonely occupation. You sit in a room for 10 hours by yourself [with] your thoughts, and if you're not doing stuff that excites you, then I think it shows on the page.

So I'm hoping that the same sort of attitude happens with Spawn where I just say, "I'm a little bit older, I'm a little bit more mature. I'm looking for something a little more sophisticated." I'm not saying that PG-13 superhero movies are bad, and quite the contrary, they're awesome. I think there's enough diet there for people to feast off. Why would I add another one to that smorgasbord?

You're about to hit a milestone with Spawn #301, which will make it the longest running independent comic book series. How does that feel?

I've got a panel at San Diego Comic-Con this year and the message is, "Forget Todd, forget Image, forget Spawn, even to some extent forget comic books." What Spawn #301 represents to me is just that you can come up with an idea, you can start the idea, and 30 years later you could still be in control of that idea. On any level, I don't care what medium or what business or what industry. That's the idea that I'm hoping to get up on that stage and inspire in people. 

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Interview

Books

Rosie Knight

Jul 17, 2019

Spawn

SDCC

SDCC 2019

from Books https://ift.tt/32swSHf

[sky-bluepinksunset]

All of them ya Jobbie

DELETED THIS HALFWAY THROUGH SO TAKE II BITCHES 1: My name? Bryce! 2: Do I have any nicknames? B, Kennedy when I'm in trouble, BK, babe3: Zodiac sign? Aries4: Video game I play to chill, not to win? Grand Theft Auto V5: Book/series I reread? Harry Potter but Goblet of Fire especially 6: Aliens or ghosts? Leaning more towards ghosts?? 7: Writer I trust enough to read whatever they write? Not sure? Don't really follow authors well8: Favourite radio station? 104.5, not that it means a lot to you, but it's called "The Beat of Knoxville" and plays mostly rap and hip hop 9: Favourite flavour of anything? Cinnamon 10: The word that I use all the time to describe something great? Insane lmaooo11: Favourite song? Of all time?? Either 12: The question you ask new friends to get to know them better? Favorite song usually!! 13: Favourite word? Probably 14: The last person who hurt me, did I forgive them? Yeah, you're going to be miserable if you're bitter. 15: Last song I listened to? Praying by Kesha16: TV show I always recommend? B99 as of super recent 17: Pirates or ninjas? Pirates 18: Movie I watch when I'm feeling down? I normally binge tv series I've seen before 19: Song that I always start my shuffle with/wake-up song/always-on-a-loop song? Issues by Julia Michaels because it's a BOP Also Home by Edward Sharpe20: Favourite video games? GTA, Literally NEVER ashamed to admit to Mario Super Bros, Life is Strange is pretty good! Also quite like Subnautica sue me 21: What am I most afraid of? Failure I think22: A good quality of mine? I help people?? Idk lmao 23: A bad quality of mine? Losing discipline when trying to do something 24: Cats or dogs? BOTH25: Actor/actress you trust enough to watch whatever they're in? Evelyne Brochu 26: Favourite season? Fall 27: Am I in a relationship? Nope 28: Something I miss? Band a lot29: My best friend? Ur gay ass30: Eye colour? Blue! 31: Hair colour? Currently a silver blonde 32: Someone I love? Cameron33: Someone I trust? You34: Someone I always think about? Chekov and Sulu 🙄🙄35: Am I excited about anything? Yep! 36: My current obsession? Buzzfeedblue37: Favourite TV shows as a child? Wizards of Waverly Place, iCarly, either of the Zach and Cody shows 38: Do I have someone of the opposite sex that I can tell everything to? Yeah! 39: Am I superstitious? About some things like salt over your shoulder and sweeping your feet40: What do I think about most? Again Chulu or college 41: Do I have any strange phobias? Mm I have a fear of dying or disappearing and my room being a mess 42: Do I prefer to be in front of the camera or behind it? Behind 43: Favourite hobbies? Writing 44: Last book I read? People's History of the US45: Last film I watched? Not sure? 46: Do I play any instruments? Flute, piccolo and alto flute! 47: Favourite animal? Otter, shark, pit bulls48: Top 5 blog on Tumblr that I follow?49: Superpower I wish I could have? Teleporting could be cool50: How do I destress? Watch shit or exercise 51: Do I like confrontation? NOPE52: When do I feel most at peace? Not really sure53: What makes me smile? Silly conversations 54: Do I sleep with the lights on or off? Off I'm not an ANIMAL 55: Play any sports? Nope, used to play softball and basketball 56: What is my song of the week? The Louvre57: Favourite drink? Coffee 58: When did I last send a handwritten letter to somebody? I have no idea 59: Afraid of heights? Healthily 60: Pet peeve? Oppression I guess?? 61: What was the last concert I went to see? Mary Lambert 62: Am I vegetarian/vegan/pescatarian? I want to go back vegetarian or vegan!! 63: What occupation did I want to do when I was younger? A veterinarian 64: Have I ever had a friend turn enemy? Yeah one but I just hold a grudge over nothing 65: What fictional universe would I like to be a part of? Star Trek or HP66: Something I worry about? Making wrong decisions 67: Scared of the dark? Sorta 68: Who are my best friends? U and Nicole69: What do I admire most about others? Their talents!! 70: Can I sing? Nope 71: Something I wish I could do? Lose weight easier lmao 72: If I won the lottery, what would I do? Travel! 73: Have I ever skipped school? Once74: Favourite place on the planet? Haven't found it yet 75: Where do I want to live? Scotland right now76: Do I have any pets? Yeah a bunch 77: What is my current desktop picture? Currently it's Nomi and Anaminita78: Early bird or night owl? Night owl 79: Sunsets or sunrise? Sunsets I think 80: Can I drive? Yeah! Love it 81: Story behind my last kiss? Don't wanna talk about it lmao 82: Earphones or headphones? Earphones 83: Have I ever had braces? Nope 84: Story behind one of my scars? I got rock stuck in my elbow from a bike fall 85: Favourite genre of music? Indie86: Who is my hero? I have no idea 87: Favourite comic book character? Wonder Woman atm 88: What makes me really angry? Oppression again 89: Kindle or real book? Real book but I don't mind kindles at all 90: Favourite sporty activity? Band??? Dk if that counts 91: What is one thing that isn’t tight in schools that should be? "Isn't tight" But the whole phone situation 92: What was my favourite subject at school? English 93: Siblings? 2 brothers and 3 sisters 94: What was the last thing I bought? I bought gas and dinner for the fam 95: How tall am I? 5'11 I think 96: Can I cook? Not extremely complicated 97: Can I bake? Yeah really well!98: 3 things I love? Trips, the sky, great plots 99: 3 things I hate? Shopping, restlessness trying to sleep, work atm100: Do I have more girl friends or boy friends? More girl friends 101: Who do I get on with better, girls or boys? Both equally well102: Where was I born? Maryville, TN103: Sexual orientation? Bi104: Where do I currently live? Maryville lmao 105: Last person I texted? You 106: Last time I cried? I think earlier over a video 107: Guilty pleasure? conspiracy theories 108: Favourite Youtuber? Buzzfeedblue at the moment KILL ME 109: A photo of myself. 110: Do I like selfies? Sometimes!111: Favourite game app? Don't really know 112: My relationship with my parents? Yeah could be worse 113: Favourite accents? French, Indian and Kenyan I think 114: A place I have not been but wish to visit? Anywhere in Europe 115: Favourite number? 24116: Can I juggle? Nope and don't have any desire to 117: Am I religious? Sorta 118: Do I like space? Yeah 119: Do I like the deep ocean? Yes! 120: Am I much of a daredevil? No not remotely 121: Am I allergic to anything? Nope 122: Can I curl my tongue? Yes123: Can I wiggle my ears? Nope124: Do I like clowns? I don't hate them 125: The Beatles or Elvis? Actually can't stand Elvis 126: My current project? Getting myself better in different ways 127: Am I a bad loser? Yeaaaaah128: Do I admit when I wrong? Sometimes129: Forest or beach? Forest 130: Favourite piece of advice? Breathe 131: Am I a good liar I think so? Don't love to do it 132: Hogwarts house / Divergent faction / Hunger Games district? Ravenclaw/ Amity or Erudite / No clue 133: Do I talk to myself? Yeah 134: Am I very social? Nope 135: Do I like gossip? Nope 136: Do I keep a journal/diary? I wish I had! I need to start 137: Have I ever hopelessly failed a test? Yeah lmao138: Do I believe in second chances? Yes 139: If I found a wallet full of cash on the ground, what would I do? Leave it, like I wouldn't turn it in because I don't want to be put on one of those shifty videos yk140: Do I believe people are capable of change? Always 141: Have I ever been underweight? Nope 142: Am I ticklish? Yeah I HATE it 143: Have I ever been in a submarine? Nope144: Have I ever been on a plane? Twice 145: In a film about my life, who would I cast as myself, friends and family? A bunch of my faves that don't have to look anything alike 146: Have I ever been overweight? YUP147: Do I have any piercings? Currently just the one ear hole, let the others close up 148: Which fictional character do I wish was real? Suluuuuu149: Do I have any tattoos? Not yet150: What is the best decision I have made in life so far? Not sure! Possibly college choice soon 151: Do I believe in Karma? Yes152: Do I wear glasses or contacts? Glasses but they're broken atm 153: What was my first car? Pontiac G6 2005 154: Do I want children? Yup 155: Who is the most intelligent person I know? The Spirko family 156: My most embarrassing memory? 157: What makes me nostalgic? Pictures of band 158: Have I ever pulled an all-nighter? Yeah I hate it 159: Which do I value more in others, brains or beauty? Brains 160: What colour mostly dominates my wardrobe? Teal 161: Have I ever had a paranormal experience? Yep 162: What do I hate most about myself? How I look 163: What do I love most about myself? My thought process 164: Do I like adventure? Yeah who doesn't 165: Do I believe in fate? Skeptical but yeah 166: Favourite animal? Answered above but otters and sharks and pits 167: Have I ever been on radio? Nope 168: Have I ever been on TV? Yeah 169: How old am I? 17 170: One of my favourite quotes? The stars would be proud to know they made someone like you 171: Do I hold grudges? Yeahhh172: Do I trust easily? Kinda 173: Have I learnt from my mistakes? I hope 174: Best gift I’ve ever received? Not really sure but probably Kenya 175: Do I dream? Yeah 176: Have I ever had a night terror? Yep177: Do I remember my dreams, and what is one that comes to mind? When I was 8, I had a dream my family was trying to kill me and I woke up screaming 178: An experience that has made me stronger? Taking care of Cam from a young age 179: If I were immortal, what would I do? Fuckin LIVE 180: Do I like shopping? Absolutely not 181: If I could get away with a crime, what would I choose to do? Rob a bank I need some money 182: What does “family” mean to me? Anyone who makes you feel loved183: What is my spirit animal? Probably a sloth or elephant or smth lmao 184: How do I want to be remembered? Hopeful 185: If I could master one skill, what would I choose? Cooking 186: What is my greatest failure? Not sure 187: What is my greatest achievement? Again not sure 188: Love or money? Love 189: Love or career? At the sacrifice of another, it seems pointless 190: If I could time travel, where and when would I want to go? Probably back to grandpa 191: What makes me the happiest? Being out with friends I think 192: What is “home” to me? Hard to describe but definitely where you're relaxed and motivated and I think it's more an idea?? Like you're with certain people maybe 193: What motivates me? Not wanting to be embarrassed 194: If I could choose my last words, what would they be? Probably try to quote a shit book 195: Would I ever want to encounter aliens? Absolutely BEAM ME UP 196: A movie that scared me as a child? Sweeney Todd197: Something I hated as a child that I like now? Naps 198: Zombies or vampires? Vampires probably 199: Live in the city or suburbs? City right now! Currently in the country so it'll be an experience 200: Dragons or wizards? Wizards 201: A nightmare that has stayed with me? Again the family murdering me thing 202: How do I define love? Home 203: Do I judge a book by its cover? Yeah too often 204: Have I ever had my heart broken? Yes205: Do I like my handwriting? Oddly enough, yeah? 206: Sweet or savoury? Savory 207: Worst job I’ve had? Taco Bell by default 208: Do I collect anything? Shells! 209: Item of clothing or jewellery you’ll never see me without? I wear my Kati bag because I keep my cigarettes in it 210: What is on my bucket list? Stealing yours but defo northern lights 211: How do I handle anger? Snapping and apologizing, or ignoring everyone 212: Was I named after anyone? Bryce was after a Bengals football player, and my mom and dad argue between Kennedy being after a DJ in Cincinnati or the president 213: Do I use sarcasm a lot? NOPE 214: What TV character am I most like? Mix of Gina and Rosa and Amy off b99 215: What is the weirdest talent I have? Guessing tv plots 216: Favourite fictional character? Nomi or Sulu That took a full 45 minutes

[annakie]

Thoughts on Andromeda, Part Eleven

We’re starting to head into the endgame, but I’ve got at least two more posts planned after this one.

All the planets are done.  Let’s finish up a loyalty mission and try to figure out what happened to the Salarians.

And then uh, the end of this post I ended up diverging into talking about... not specifically the ending but the enemies, both the specific main villain and the species overall.  So really, this post has spoilers if you haven’t finished the game.

One of the things I love about Andromeda is how, more than any other game, I think family is emphasized.  We know about, and get to meet, a family member or close friend of nearly every squadmate, and some of the crew.  Kallo and Suvi could definitely use some development in this area, but even Kallo has his friend we hear about.

And like, in SWTOR (mild spoilers if you haven’t played the last two expansions) my biggest complaint about the overall storyline in KotFE / KotET is that it’s all about someone else’s family but like... where are your personal stakes in this family aside from getting dragged into it and, I mean the fate of the galaxy but.... it’s like you’re the fifth wheel in the entire story and the entire last fight in KotET reminded me of being a teenager at your friend’s house and witnessing their family drama.

In ME:A yeah you’ve got some Ryder Family stuff going on but it’s not the center of the story. There’s enough family in it to feel like family is important to your character, unlike with Shepard who, even a Spacer Shepard’s family felt like an afterthought.  

And Drack’s connection with Kesh was one of my favorite “other family” bits in the game.  Especially when you learn the story of why he raised her.

Speaking of Drack... haha.  

Not just Drack but I really, really loved all the hangout post-loyalty quests with all the companions.  I may have said this already but I thought both the loyalty and post-loyalty hangouts were some of the best moments of the series.

PeeBee’s quest!

My Ryder was like, really forgiving of her companions so even this Annwyl was like “Whatevs, Peebs.  Let’s hope we don’t die.  My super poofy armor will protect me anyway.”

I shot.  Look, I know a toxic person who will continue to be a threat when I see one.  I had to do what was best for my buddy.

Annwyl is definitely the type who will forgive you for harming her, but don’t you dare mess with my friend’s heart, mind and stuff.

I loved the entire aesthetic of this place, I wish the mission would have lasted longer.

The post-mission confession of friendship was so, so great too.  

My one quibble with it, which wasn’t really a quibble but... don’t take Liam and Peebee out together for the first time after this mission because Liam questioning why she’s there and if she’s realy a part of the team goes from kinda “I can see his point” to “super dickish, Liam.  She’s already SAID she’s in for the team and she cares about you all and what’s going on!” 

I just love this pic of the rest of the team.  I also thought this was just a great “team bonding / really feeling like a found family” moment, too, with everyone skipping out on helping Peebee clean up her mess.

So, at this point I checked my game progress.  I’d done every quest I could find on all of the planets.  All of the loyalty missions.  Game completion: 70%.  So basically I think it takes into account story & loyalty missions as completion more than the amount of stuff done as a whole.  

But hey speaking of the little missions, I wanted to talk about the worst kind of mission in ME:A -- the “drive to like five random spawn points of enemies on the map, and hope to find something to click on” quests.  Like, you know “Hey I found a datapad here, now SAM is telling me I need to find four more datapads but there’s no map locations to find them.”  I think I ranted about these before.  They’re so annoying.  And also, some of them are broken.  

I’ve completed the game and have like six things left in my quest log.  One is a known broken quest given by an Angara in the Cultural center.  THREE are these drive-around quests.  For all of them, I’m pretty sure either I completed them or at least the drive-around part, and they’re still in my questlog. I wasted 2 or 3 hours one day doing nothing but following youtube playthroughs where people showed where they found the spawnpoints for these items, and checked every one of them, sometimes twice.  Nope, nothing there.  Can’t turn the quest in anywhere.   I really wanted to get 100% and I don’t think I can on this save file now. =\

Often when you DO find the 5 spawnpoints the ending quest is kinda neat, but its really not worth it, it feels like, for many of them.

I think these are the quests that are getting ignored in future playthroughs, unless they fix them and make the stuff less annoying to find.

Another dynamic thing that I liked was little things like stopping by to see who’s in prison.  There were several different people with interesting reasons for being there.

I was really happy to find the Salarains again, and another thing I liked is that... all of the species, except for how some people treated the Krogan, felt like a community in this game.  The cultural center was clearly overblown with talking about how peaceful and well everyone got along in the Milky Way, but at the same time it did feel like things were somewhat less segmented in this game.  Everyone’s relief at finding the other species was nice.  

Game bugged and my helmet stayed on through this entire sequence. That was annoying.  

So yeah let’s talk about the Archon.

*yawn*

What? Oh.  Right.

Look, I don’t know if I need another playthrough of the game to “get” the Archon or what.  What I understand is that he’s part of a larger empire of Kett.  But then he went and got obsessed with Remnant tech and now some of the other Kett are mad at him for not doing his job and getting sidetracked with Remnant stuff? Is that right?  

I just really thought that the Archon and the Kett were the weakest part of the game.  At the end of ME1 we had some clear adversaries with some fairly clear motivations.  And I’m jumping ahead here a bit but I figure if you’re reading this far you’re at or near done. But you had Saren and the Geth, indoctrinated and working for The Reapers, who were ancient machines hellbent on tearing down civilization because That’s Just What They Do.  We weren’t sure if they were evil or just machine-like.  No idea where they came from, but we understood them and their overall motivations, and a lot of details were missing, but we got the general gist.  

Okay here’s a good way to explain it.  The first time I played through ME1 I didn’t understand really who Saren was or what he was doing for a long time, and that was fine, it was a mystery to be solved!  But by the end of the game I understood him.  Still didn’t LIKE him, you weren’t supposed to, but I got him.  The second time through ME1 seeing things like him ordering to blow up the beacon on Eden Prime, his whole conversation and freakout with Benezia, lying to the council and making fun of your “dreams”, I got it.  Everything Saren did had a clear motivation that was easily understandable and easy to piece together that came together by the time he died, and unlocked many little “OH!” moments your second time through.

I didn’t feel like that at all with the Archon.   I don’t expect there to be many of those “Oh!” moments as I continue playing through ME:A a second time.  

And when Saren dies, still, you don’t like him, but you can have empathy there.  I didn’t feel any of that with the Archon.

Maybe I missed something.  Maybe I missed a lot, but... I don’t have that same feeling of “getting it” with the Kett, nor the Remnant.  I’m way more ok with not getting the Remnant at this point.  Obviously, this is the first game in what would hopefully be a trilogy, so we’re not going to get all the answers, there’s a lot of setup involved, but I just think that the Kett’s motivations and overall story should be a lot more clear than they are.  

The Archon felt like a shitty villain.  He didn’t feel like a Saren, or a Soverign... just some generic dude messing with our shit for unknown reasons beyond “I like Remnant stuff, and I was here first.”  

Way back in post three in this series, I wrote:

When I was watching this scene (the first time you see the Kett at the end of Habitat Seven) I thought “Someday, I’m going to play through the game a second or tenth time and finally care about this scene and understand its motivations.”  Right now it felt like a generic baddie reveal, there to put forth even more questions.

I mean, yep to that, and now I’ve re-played through that scene on my new game+ and I do understand it’s generic motivations now, but it didn’t give me that same sense of “Oh!” or “Oh man this is so cool knowing what I know now!” like I thought it would.

I mean, let’s be real.  Harbinger was a more well-developed and scary character than the Archon.  And that’s saying something.

This was the part that made me grit my teeth the most, though.

Oh, genetic experiments you say?  Mutating species to fit into your mold to exploit against us you say? Wow, how original.  Nobody had ever thought of that before, especially not in the previous Mass Effect game.

Look, I could roll with it when we found out that the Kett actually were mutated Angara.  I just honestly couldn’t believe that like, literally ME2 was all about kidnapping people (like the Kett kidnap the Angara) to build your army.  We were shocked when the Collectors were the Protheans.  I wasn’t shocked much at all to learn the Kett = the Angarans.  I’d had the thought a couple of times before we found out, in fact.

So then, in ME3 most of what you fought was genetic mutations of yourself and your fellow alien species. And now the Kett are... kidnapping and genetically mutating the Milky Way species?  Did anyone who made this game like, play ME2 and ME3?  Did we travel 600 years into the future to live out basically the same war Shepard did in ME3?

I really, really hope that there’s some big... actual surprise waiting for us in Andromeda 2.  Because I mean... this was kind of bullshit?  I can see it being terrifying and now for Ryder and team.  But for us, the players?  C’mon.  Is the creative well so dry for new enemies that we’re going to just re-design the species we already have a second time?

We’ve got the mysterious ancient species who are no longer around (Prothean/Remnant) and the big threat to the galaxy who kidnaps sentient species to turn them against us. (Reapers/Kett).  I mean, if you think about it, so far there’s not even any reason to think reapers might actually be in Andromeda.  (I don’t think that’s true, but it’s kind of amusing to think that it’s plausible.)

We wanted to feel like we were in the same universe, not that we might be replaying the same games. :v

Eh.

Sorry to get all super negative here in this post, but one complaint kinda lead into the other.  And yeah, my biggest overall problems with Andromeda are here.  The Archon and the Kett feel very generic and just... kinda.. boring.  And re-hashing forced genetic mutations to make you fight your own former allies.

More positive stuff next time!

[selfship-sideblog]

Self insert

So I think it's time I make a proper self insert, or at least try to. I didn't want to make a post for her from the beginning because I hadn't settled on many things and changing stuff up constantly. But now I think I'm mostly decided on everything. I'll update this post if I feel like I want to change her appearance or story more, but that's unlikely to be anytime soon.

Now let's get into it!

🦄 In general about her:

Her clothes may change depending on the show (or my mood tbh lol) but again, it's unlikely. Her personality isn't really set in stone and depending on the source it will be a little different, but this is to get a feel for it.

She also usually has a shoulder bag with her, but I kind of forgot about it.

She’s very similar to me and that’s why sometimes I use “I” for her.

(Under the cut for details for each source because this got a little long lol)

🦄 For specific sources:

💜 Ninjago

She is a college student (18yr old) in Ninjago city and is also a fanfic writer. She mainly writes for the Starfarer comic series. There’s one reader that always likes and comments on her fics and so they’ve gotten rather close over the internet. They meet at a convention irl and then she finds out he's Lloyd Garmadon, the green ninja. Later the ninja get thrown out of the monestary by Sensei Wu to "get a feel for a normal life". With nowhere to stay Lloyd asks his new friend for help. She let's them crash at her place for a while until they manage to get an apartment and jobs.

Mostly funny shenanigans from there on, nothing much happening lol.

This takes place after season two with minor adjustments like their age (although there are no official ones and I always felt like they never grew, like they stayed teenagers throughout the years lol) making them all around 17 or 18. As much as I love the canon I can't properly fit Diana in there so it will mostly go through it's own path, although I may keep some things from canon. And I may or may not make her a ninja later (a non-elemental one).

I also have an AU for this and it’s completely different from canon. It’s sort of a Youtuber AU or something like that. Like a group of young adults living in the same house and may or may not share a channel where they post all kinds of silly videos and stuff. Idk it just sounds so fun!

It's mostly slowburn and oblivious mutual pining between Diana and Lloyd. My selfship with him is pretty simple, fluffy and fun all around, just doing stuff, geeks being geeks and all. I don't want to add angst here because this is more of a comfort ship because it all started with him and it just reminds me of happy times when I first started selfshipping.

💜 Voltron:

I wanted to make two s/is for Voltron, one human and one Galra, however I couldn't design Demira (the Galra one) and so for now it's just an insight about her personality and relationship with Keith and other characters. When I do manage to properly make her I'll update this post to add the image.

Keith:

Demira is a half-Galra, a member of the Blades of Marmora. She got recruited shortly after her younger brother's death. Her missions are usually infiltration. Keith is often partnered up with her at the beginning. Their interactions start of a little awkward but they both start getting interest in the other's culture and soon start getting along. Demira with some of the other blade members are like their own small family and Keith slowly starts feeling like he belongs with them.

Their meeting is in season 3 I believe, when Keith officially joined the Blades, and their relationship develops until Keith leaves for the mission to find Krolia. It gets kind of complicated after this because he was gone for a long while and then the journey back to Earth. (I don't know how anything played out during seasons 7 & 8 so until I understand that part will be overlooked).

This pairing is more angsty since both of them are dealing with personal demons but is still wholesome.

(Also if you couldn’t tell I love the Dads of Mamora trope in voltron fics so I had to include it lol).

Lotor:

Diana is a young adult (idk how old, idc at this point lol), who has a stable job as a software developer. Life’s pretty normal. Until a space shuttle drops from the sky in the forest near her house. Obviously she goes to check it out and what does she find? A crashed space ship. What comes out of the crashed space ship? A tall, drop dead gorgeous purple alien! Unfortunately he is injured so she decides to help him. The only thing she can do tho is watch as he patches himself up because he refused to let unknown substances touch him. But he has no other choice but to trust the girl who found him. He starts learning about Earth and tries to blend in with humans.

This is set in an au without Voltron. Lotor is still the Prince of the Galra, but nothing else of canon is here. I imagine him being a curious guy and wanting to explore which brings him to Earth. I’m kind of unsure how I’d want everything to go from there, but I just wanted a normal alien/human romance if that makes sense.

💜 Death Note:

Diana is a college dropout this time, but has quite a lot of knowledge about technology and coding. She tries a lot of things and goes in different places. For some time she was very interested in true crime stories and of course found out about L. Somehow she managed to hack into his computer and decides to mess with him by suddenly closing his programs, misplacing his documents, annoying but harmless stuff. Ofc if anything L has tape on his camera, so she still doesn't know how he looks like. One time she wants to talk to him and she does through the notepad program. Most of their pre-relationship interactions are through Notepad and talking about unimportant stuff. When a difficult case comes up involving a computer virus L decides that he needs to take precautionary measures, aka secure his computer. And who better is for a job like that than the person who managed to hack into it in the first place. He only reveals himself to her really late when he decides he can trust her.

That was a little long lol.

Honestly this probably doesn't even make sense, but I don't care. I'm not much for mysteries and the stuff, I just want a nonsensical plot and a good time with L.

I just see them as really opposite but in a way that they have the thing the other lacks. Diana is more carefree and energetic, bringing L with her for different activities she is trying out, trying to make him experience life differently. L on the other hand is more serious and secretive, making Diana grounded on the matter at hand and become more cautious. I just see them developing a little while having fun. Sure, that fun is sometimes late night car rider and sometimes running for their lives from the killer.

This is obviously pre-canon and once we get into the canon timeline things will get more serious and sad but we're not talking about that.

💜 Bungou Stary Dogs:

Diana is best friends with Chuuya. They got close during their time with the Sheep and when Diana refused to betray Chuuya the way the others did they've stuck with each other ever since. Ofc that means she also got in the Port Mafia because of her ties with Chuuya and having an ability didn't hurt either (even if it was a little weak compared to the rest). She has the ability to control light, but she has to have a source from where the light is coming from. However she can use the heat from certain sources like sunlight, fire, candles, but the more damadge she wants to do the more energy she uses up. She is with the Black Lizard and is somewhat an assassin like Gin, and is friends with them. Even though she knows of Dazai and Akutagawa she isn't friends with them, but instead knows of the former from Chuuya (they are partners after all) and the latter from Gin. After Dazai left, Akutagawa starts training under Chuuya. They become friends and from that Akutagawa becomes friends with Diana. They become a somewhat weird trio but they are very tight and wouldn't trade it for a thing.

Honestly I love thinking of this ship mostly during post Dark Era but pre-canon. It just has the time to develop better. Once the canon timeline starts it kind of becomes a mess with some complications and ofc angst, but it still works out in the end.

Something like Gin, Diana has a different outfit for when she’s on the job, darker colors and all, but otherwise she has a softer style (sometimes looking like a mom lol)

The reason for her non-Japanese name is that both her parents are from Europe, but live in Japan.

(Pls help, I still don't have a tag for this ship)

💜 Harry Potter:

I’m kind of all over the place with this one tbh lol. At first I wanted a sweet Hufflepuff girl, maybe a half-blood, but then I got an idea for a squib s/i and I haven’t been able lot go of it. So for now I’m not going to give any details (because frankly there aren’t any lol), but if I ever need to answer an ask or to explain things about this ship I’m going with whatever background I feel like atm.

💜 Bakugan Battle Planet:

Also kind of unsure about this one, especially since idk if Magnus is a platonic or romantic f/o (kind of leaning towards platonic as of now tho). I haven’t caught up with the show either so when I do, I’ll probably make an insert then.

[alienvirals]

Finally! CIA Releases ‘X-Files’ Docs, Details ‘How To Investigate’ UFOs

An odd thing happened this past week involving the real CIA, some fictional FBI agents and the oft-disputed truth about this country’s investigation into UFOs.

Just three days prior to the long-awaited return of “The X-Files,” the Central Intelligence Agency posted two rather extraordinary items on its official site.

Under the agency’s News & Information page, an article titled “Take A Peek Into Our ‘X-Files'” appeared. According to the description, hundreds of formerly secret documents were declassified in 1978, “detailing the agency’s investigations into Unidentified Flying Objects (UFOs). The documents date primarily from the late 1940s and 1950s.”

By latching on to the saga of Special Agents Mulder and Scully, the CIA is using the fictional FBI series in an unlikely bid for public goodwill, especially from the UFO community, a group that almost automatically accuses the government of conspiring to cover-up the truth. 

As the CIA says on its site:

To help navigate the vast amount of data contained in our FOIA [Freedom of Information Act] UFO collection, we’ve decided to highlight a few documents both skeptics and believers will find interesting. … You will find five documents we think ‘X-Files’ character Agent Mulder would love to use to try and persuade others of the existence of extraterrestrial activity. We also pulled five documents we think his skeptical partner, Agent Dana Scully, could use to prove there is a scientific explanation for UFO sightings.

The truth is out there; click on the links to find it.

Readers can then pour through a collection of documents running the gamut between flying saucer reports, official memos and advisory panel reports from the 1950s.

As if that weren’t enough, the CIA ends the page with “Do you want to believe? Then find out how to investigate a flying saucer.” Off you go to the next lengthy treatment that begins with a re-telling of a famous 1964 UFO close encounter, in which a New Mexico police officer reports seeing a football-shaped craft on the ground. 

In the report description, the CIA describes the account of officer Lonnie Zamora outside of Socorro, New Mexico. The CIA quotes Air Force Maj. Hector Quintanilla — the last chief officer of Project Blue Book, the Air Force’s long-term UFO investigation — who was in charge of the Socorro case. According to the new CIA X-File, Quintanilla said this was “the best documented case on record.” The CIA adds that the Zamora incident “remains unsolved.”

The introduction to the document doesn’t mention the most extraordinary part of the sighting: According to the initial report, “two persons in apparent white coveralls” appeared near the strange flying object and eventually disappeared, presumably entering the object before it rose up and sped away. See an image of the original FBI teletype below. 

FBI

In addition to the Socorro report, the CIA posts the following instructions:

10 Tips When Investigating A Flying Saucer:

1. Establish a Group To Investigate and Evaluate Sightings

2. Determine the Objectives of Your Investigation

3. Consult With Experts

4. Create a Reporting System To Organize Incoming Cases

5. Eliminate False Positives

6. Develop Methodology To Identify Common Aircraft and Other Aerial Phenomena Often Mistaken for UFOs

7. Examine Witness Documentation

8. Conduct Controlled Experiments

9. Gather and Test Physical and Forensic Evidence

10. Discourage False Reporting

In item #5 (above), the CIA cites a 1998 report that suggests how “some common explanations for UFO sightings…included misidentified aircrafts (the U-2, A-12 and SR-71 flights accounted for more than half of all UFO reports from the late 1950s and most of the 1960s).”

It’s not that we’re nit-picking the fact that the CIA referred (above) to more than one aircraft as “aircrafts” — but UFO researchers are questioning the accuracy of that 1998 assessment about UFO sightings mistaken for U-2 flights.

Bruce Maccabee, a retired Navy optical physicist, and UFO researcher, is one who questions the U-2’s role in the frequency of UFO sightings. 

“Their claim is straightforward, that, once the U-2 started flying, more than 50 percent of UFO sightings were actually of the high-flying U-2 (spy aircraft). But if you look at the actual statistics, the number of sightings reported per month, for three years before and after, you find there’s no big increase as a result of the U-2 flights,” Maccabee told The Huffington Post.

“Oddly enough, according to the official government’s Condon report statistics, there were 430 [UFO] sightings in 10 months before the U-2 started flying, and 430 during the 10 months after. That astonished me as much as anybody else. To claim that more than 50 percent of sightings [were reported] after the U-2 started flying, is a complete canard.”

The Condon report that Maccabee refers to was the University of Colorado UFO Project, funded by the Air Force in the late 1960s to evaluate UFOs. The director of the study, physicist Edward Condon, concluded that there was nothing of scientific interest to warrant any further examination of UFOs.

 The following video shows several top secret aircraft that may have been occasionally mistaken for UFOs:

During a four-decade Naval career, Maccabee, pictured below, worked on control systems as part of the Strategic Defense Initiative and Ballistic Missile Defense, using high power lasers. 

“My work for the Navy had nothing to do with UFOs. I wasn’t employed by the CIA or the FBI, and all of my UFO case analyses were carried out on my own time. Everything I did regarding UFO investigations, analyses, historical research, etc. was unclassified,” Maccabee said.

Jan Maccabee

Maccabee maintains that none of his Navy superiors ever suggested he tone down his UFO research. “They said they didn’t care what I did in my spare time, ‘but just leave the Navy lab out of it.’ From that point on, Maccabee relied on his skills in optical data processing when he was asked to analyze the visual components of UFO cases.

“There are things I did that a few other people could have done, I suppose, because of the required knowledge. Aside from having an ability to interview people — listening to what they say and deduce stuff from it — I had to be both a historian and a physicist.”  

UFOs? Maybe They’re Just…

UFOs? Maybe They’re Just…

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Sky Lanterns Mistaken For UFOs

Chinese or sky lanterns are often misidentified as UFOs. These three were part of a large group of lanterns that was the main event of the 2013 Pingxi Sky Lantern Festival in Taiwan on Feb. 24, 2013.

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Getty

Sky Lanterns Mistaken For UFOs

Chinese or sky lanterns are often misidentified as UFOs. These three were part of a large group of lanterns that was the main event of the 2013 Pingxi Sky Lantern Festival in Taiwan on Feb. 24, 2013.

Getty

image

More Chinese Lanterns, aka UFOs

These candle-lit Chinese lanterns can rise high into the sky and are often mistaken for UFOs.

China Photos / Getty Images

image

Kentucky UFO — Oct. 16, 2012

Amateur astronomer Allen Epling captured video and images of a cylindrical object in the sky above his Virgie, Ky., home on Oct. 16, 2012. This is one of the images he took, which led many to believe the object was a high-flying solar balloon.

Allen Epling / YouTube

image

Manufactured UFO — 2011

Pictured is a quad copter — a deliberately manufactured UFO created by special effects wizard Marc Dantonio for a National Geographic special, “The Truth Behind: UFOs,” which aired in December 2011. On the left is what the small device looks like resting on the ground, measuring 4 feet in circumference. At right, is how it appeared behind a tree in the night sky.

Marc Dantonio / FX Models / YouTube

image

Boomerang UFO composite images — 10-5-12

This is a composite of images shot by two eyewitnesses of a boomerang-shaped UFO they reported seeing over their Burbank, Calif., home on Oct. 5, 2012. Mutual UFO Network photo/video analyst Marc Dantonio concluded the object was likely “a balloon, floating on the wind that has collapsed in half.”

Mutual UFO Network

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Melbourne, Australia, Feb. 2013

This is a composite image of how three alleged UFOs maneuvered about in the sky over Melbourne, Australia, in early February, 2013. The final verdict isn’t in yet on whether they’re birds, aircraft, balloons, bugs or something truly unidentified.

FindingUFO / YouTube

image

Exploding Weather Balloons, Not UFOs

On Dec. 20, 2012, a bright, circular object (pictured at the top of this composite image) was videotaped exploding in the skies above Sacramento, Calif. It wasn’t immediately identified, resulting in speculation that it was either an alien spacecraft, military top secret weapon, runaway planet, North Korean satellite, among others. Within a short period of time, it became apparent that this was a weather balloon. The bottom part of this image shows such a balloon as it ascended over Tampa Bay, Fla., on July 2, 2012, and exploded in an identical manner as the Sacramento object, probably much to the dismay of all true ET believers out there.

CBSNews13 / Sutor 1000 / YouTube

image

Changing UFO Pattern — Warren, Mich. 1-10-13

This four-image series of lights in the sky was recorded over Warren, Mich., on Jan. 10, 2013. The lights were seen changing into several patterns. The most logical explanation for these types of UFOs is a series of balloons or lanterns.

LUFOS.net / YouTube

image

UFOs Over Earth

This composite image shows four different times that alleged UFO were photographed above Earth by either space shuttles or the International Space Station. The big question is whether or not they are truly unidentified objects or if they are more likely reflections from spacecraft windows, meteors or fast-moving spacecraft-generated debris.

danielofdoriaa / YouTube

image

Pink UFOs Or Lens Flares?

What appear to be pink-red UFOs are actually lens flares from the Google Earth street view camera as it snapped images in Texas (left) and New Mexico (right).

2012 Google

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Lens flares Arizona

These two flying saucer-shaped, pink-colored lens flares were created by the Google Maps camera as it drove through locations in Sedona, Ariz. (left) and Flagstaff, Ariz. (right). The images were snapped in April 2009. Submitted to HuffPost by trenna.

2012 Google

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Lens flare Whiteriver, Ariz.

This skybound lens flare was created by a Google Maps camera in June 2008 over Whiteriver, Ariz. Submitted to Huffington Post by Cheryl Weeks.

2012 Google

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Lens flare Gulfport, Miss.

This very Earthbound lens flare was created by a Google Maps camera in November 2007 at Gulfport, Miss. Submitted to Huffington Post by Jenni Parker.

2012 Google

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Lens flare Eureka Springs, Ark.

This seemingly grounded lens flare was created by a Google Maps camera in January 2008 at Eureka Springs, Ark. Submitted to Huffington Post by SE.

2012 Google

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Lens flare Escanaba, Mich.

This lens flare appears to be following a car. The Google Maps image was created in October 2008 at Escanaba, Mich. Submitted to Huffington Post by Mary Robinson.

2012 Google

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Cincinnati Skydivers NOT UFOs Sept. 28, 2012

On the night of Sept. 28, 2012, a group of strange-looking lights appeared in the sky near Cincinnati, Ohio. First there was one, then, two, then three lights, slowly descending. It turns out, however, that these lights were originating from a group of skydivers performing a pyrotechnics jump at the La Salle High School homecoming event.

Galuyasdi / YouTube

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Weather Phenomenon

Some UFO sightings may be due to a natural phenomenon known as sprites, like this one shown from 2006. “Lightning from [a] thunderstorm excites the electric field above, producing a flash of light called a sprite,” said geophysicist Colin Price.

ILAN Science Team / Space.com

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Clouds

Clouds: Saucer-shaped or “lenticular” clouds that form at high altitudes have been confused with UFOs.

Getty Images

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Blimps or Advertising Balloons

Blimps or advertising balloons: These can look like flying saucers from some angles, especially at night.

Lars Baron, Bongarts / Getty Images

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Sunken Ship in the Baltic Sea

On June 19th the Swedish-based diving company Ocean Explorer discovered something they’ve never quite seen before. They were exploring in the Baltic Sea between Sweden and Finland looking for sunken treasures when a very unusual image suddenly appeared on the sonar. A 197 feet diameter cylinder shaped object was discovered at the depth of approximately 275 feet which resembles the Millennium Falcon from the movie Star Wars.

www.oceanexplorer.se / Everett Collection

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Baltic Sea UFO 1

An image released on June 15, 2012, shows a close-up view of the unidentified object sitting on the bottom of the Baltic Sea.

Expressen.se / YouTube

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Baltic Sea UFO 2

Close-up of rock bed that forms the Baltic Sea UFO, which still mystifies researchers.

Expressen.se / YouTube

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Baltic Sea UFO 3

One of several odd stone circle formations, sitting on top of the unidentified object at the bottom of the Baltic Sea.

Expressen.se / YouTube

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Antarctic UFO — Aug. 10, 2012

A circular UFO hovers above the Neumayer-Station III research facility in Antarctica on Aug. 10, 2012. Theories ranging from a simple weather balloon to a more elaborate ship from another planet have run the Internet gamut. The next slide shows a closeup of the object.

myunhauzen74 / YouTube

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Antarctic UFO Closeup — Aug. 10, 2012

This is a closeup of the UFO from the previous slide. No official explanation has been offered about the object.

myunhauzen74 / YouTube

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Meteors

Meteors: Space debris can create a spectacular light show when it burns through the Earth’s atmosphere, and sometimes reported as UFOs.

Ethan Miller, Getty Images

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Civilian or Military Aircraft

Civilian or military aircraft: Planes can look mysterious at night or in certain light conditions, thus confusing an observer.

Sean Cole, US Navy / Getty Images

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Read more: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/

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from AlienVirals.com – Latest Alien & UFO News http://www.alienvirals.com/finally-cia-releases-x-files-docs-details-how-to-investigate-ufos-4/

[transssexualheart]

Do all, entertain me so I don't have to do hw

ah man i was actually doing hw for once

1- my name?rain

2- do i have any nicknames?my mom calls me rainbow, my brother calls me ron, my friends don’t really call me by any nicknames anymore

3- zodiac sign?leo, borderline virgo 

4- video game i play to chill, not to win?animal crossing

5- book/series i reread?harry potter

6- aliens or ghosts?uhhhh ghosts

7- writer i trust enough to read anything they write?idk if there’s any

8- favorite radio station?i don’t listen to the radio much

9- favorite flavor of anything?watermelon or blue raspberry

10- the word i use all the time to describe something great?idk, i say hell yeah a lot

11- favorite song?robbers by the 1975 probably (im listening to it now lol)

12- the question you ask new friends to get to know them better?i usually ask what they’re doing when we text and they tell and through this over time you hear about their family and intrests

13- favorite word?either “soft” or “gentle”

14- last person who hurt me, did i forgive them?not sure, i think i was the last person to hurt me, and i don’t really forgive myself for anything

15- last song i listened to?robbers by the 1975

16- tv show i always recommend?rick and morty

17- pirates or ninjas?see on one hand i have gay pirates and on the other i have nsp so idk

18- movie i watch when i’m feeling down?probably some pokemon movie lmao

19- song that i always start my shuffle with/wake up song/always on loop song?my alarm is nine in the afternoon by p!atd, i usually shuffle the fiddler on the roof soundtrack starting with the wedding dance song or now i have everything, on loop i usually have do i wanna know by arctic monkeys or sarah smiles by p!atd

20- favorite video games?any pokemon game

21- what am i most afraid of?the people i love secretly hating me or abandoning me or dying

22- a good quality of mine?uhhhhh,,, i guess um. my hair is dark? so it makes it easier to see facial hair and shit on me which is helpful for my trans ass

23- a bad quality of mine?i can’t shut up about anything i’m interested in bc i obsess myself with things that make me happy and always want to talk about them because they’re the the things that keep me alive but it gets annoying and i get a lot of “would you shut up about this subject”

24- cats or dogs?how could i CHOOSE

25- actor/actress you trust enough to watch whatever they’re in?i don’t pay a lot of attention to the actors for ppl in movies, i think the only actor i was willing to go see whatever they were in was u lmao

26- favorite season?spring/autumn

27- am i in a relationship?no

28- something i miss?the way things used to be sometimes

29- my best friend? i’ve considered u my best friend for a long time, if i didn’t delete messages u could probably find me talking to newer ppl (mainly chloe, who was that girl i asked out and rejected me) being like “yeah so she’s my best friend and she’s great”

30- eye color?brown

31- hair color?dark brown

32- someone i love?diakjgbjfgvldgjh

33- someone i trust?i trust u and zee the most

34- someone i always think about?Get Out Of This Home

35- am i excited about anything?dying

36- my current obsession?playing amazing grace on the piano

37- favorite tv shows as a child?i loved sesame street

38- do i have someone of the opposite sex i can tell everything to?not really

39- am i superstitious?idk

40- what do i think about most?what the fuck do you think 

41- do i have any strange phobias?i don’t think so

42- do i prefer to be in front of the camera or behind it?not sure

43- favorite hobbies?drawing, writing, playing piano

44- last book i read?the great american whatever, great book btw, read it if ur looking for more gay books. warning though for death (that’s not really a spoiler i promise)

45- last film i watched?blue is the warmest color, didn’t finish it tho

46- do i play any instruments?piano

47- favorite animals?cats and dogs

48- top 5 blogs on tumblr that i follow?@ dreamts@ maroonracoon@ hugables@ roswater@ fauning

49- superpower i wish i could have?to pause time

50- how do i destress?what

51- do i like confrontation?no

52- when do i feel most at peace?when i sleep

53- what makes me smile?hhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

54- do i sleep with the lights on or off?off

55- play any sports?no

56- what is my song of the week?idk the week just started my guy

57- favorite drink?grape juice

58- when did i last send a handwritten letter to somebody?idk

59- afraid of heights?not really

60- pet peeve?when u tell someone to stop fuckin touching u and they keep doing it immediately after

61- what was the last concert i went to see?the 1975!! just last night

62- am i vegetarian/vegan/pescatarian?no 

63- what occupation did i want to do when i was younger?i really wanted to be a singer

64- have i ever had a friend turn into an enemy?i’ve had fights with friends but we either made up or stopped being friends but aren’t enemies

65- what fictional universe would i like to be a part of?idk

66- something i worry about?friends when they’re sad, i know some of them probably won’t but i still worry about them hurting themselves

67- scared of the dark?yeah

68- who are my best friends?you, zee, shannon, spencer, i could go on but there’s a lot

69- what do i admire most about others?musical abilities, especially with singing

70- can i sing?idk, logically i have no reason to think that i can’t because literally everyone that’s ever heard me sing says it’s not bad or that i have a nice voice but i’m still unconvinced

71- something i wish i could do?sing in front of people without having an anxiety attack, speaking of singing

72- if i won the lottery, what would i do?buy myself and my friends a ton of shit probably

73- have i ever skipped school?i’ve faked being sick to get out of school

74- favorite place on the planet?idk man i haven’t been many places

75- where do i want to live?kinda wanna live in nyc

76- do i have any pets?cat named danny, two fish one named goldy and the other shaneeta dee

77- what is my current desktop picture?an nsp concert but i’ve been meaning to change it for a while now

78- early bird or night owl?night owl

79- sunsets or sunrise?sunsets

80- can i drive?no

81- story behind my last kiss?it was so long ago man i can’t really remember

82- earphones or headphones?earphones

83- have i ever had braces?no

84- story behind one of my scars?idk if i have any but i have a scab that i picked at until it bled in piano class because i was Not Ok and many times after for the same reason and that’s probably gonna scar now

85- favorite genre of music?idk

86- who is my hero?idk

87- favorite comic book characters?i don’t really read comic books much

88- what makes me really angry?when people hurt my friends 

89- kindle or real book?real book

90- favorite sporty activity?idk man

91- what is the one thing that isn’t tight in schools that should be???????

92- what was my favorite subject at school?idk man i guess art is ok but i’m not the biggest fan of my teacher

93- siblings?two, one brother and a sister

94- what was the last thing i bought?probably food

95- how tall am i?i think 5′5

96- can i cook?i can make grilled cheese and also pancakes

97- can i bake?if u give me a recipe then probably

98- 3 things i love?my friendspianosleeping

99- 3 things i hate?donald trumpdepressionanxiety

100- do i have more girl friends or boy friends?idk a lot of my friends are non binary or i don’t know their gender

101- who do i get on with better, girls or boys?im tempted to say girls but that’s just bc i have a preference for girls romantically in reality it doesn’t really matter as long as u aren’t a dick

102- where was i born?albany

103- sexual orientation?pan, probably somewhere on the ace spectrum bc sexual attraction is so so rare for me so if i think ur hot u better believe u are

104- where do i currently live?new york

105- last person i texted?you

106- last time i cried?not sure, i think last week when i had that big meltdown that y’all saw where @ hero-art was sending me asks through it

107- guilty pleasure?hhgghg,,hggg, watching vids of u singing

108- favorite youtuber?probably still the game grumps

109- a photo of myselfdamn bitch just search the tag # rain shows you his face

110- do i like selfies?i take a lot, usually just because my makeup looks cool that day, but they’re mostly shit

111- favorite game app?i don’t play game apps

112- my relationship with my parents?:/

113- favorite accents?idk man

114- a place i have not been but would like to visit?metropolitan museum of art

115- favorite number?five

116- can i juggle?no

117- am i religious?no

118- do i like space?it’s cool

119- do i like the deep ocean?it’s pretty

120- am i much of a daredevil?lol no

121- am i allergic to anything?i think grass

122- can i curl my tongue?yeah

123- can i wiggle my ears?no

124- do i like clowns?don’t really have an opinion on them

125- the beatles or elvis?i don’t listen to either of them

126- my current project?my dumbass lab writeup

127- am i a bad loser?i don’t think so

128- do i admit when i’m wrong?yes

129- forest or beach?beach

130- favorite piece of advice?“love everyone, forgive everyone, especially yourself.”

131- am i a good liar?i think so

132- hogwarts house/divergent faction/hunger games district?i’m a gryffindor and i didn’t read divergent or the hunger games

133- do i talk to myself?all the time

134- am i very social?no

135- do i like gossip?maybe? idk as long as no one is hurt

136- do i keep a journal/diary?i guess my writing blog is kind of an over exaggerated diary

137- have i ever hopelessly failed a test?i got a zero on a quiz once if that counts

138- do i believe in second chances?depends

139- if i found a wallet full of cash on the ground, what would i  do?get my mom to turn it in to ppl who know what to do with it

140- do i believe people are capable of change?yeah i suppose, but depends

141- have i ever been underweight?no

142- am i ticklish?very

143- have i ever been in a submarine?no

144- have i ever been on a plane?when i was seven

145- in a film about my life, who would i cast as myself, friends, and family?ah man idk i don’t have an extensive knowledge of actors

146- have i ever been overweight?no

147- do i have any piercings?one in each ear

148- what fictional character do i wish was real?idk

149- do i have any tattoos?two, one on my ankle and another on my ass

150- what is the best decision i have made in my life so far?to realize that i fucked up and to apologize

151- do i believe in karma?i guess

152- do i wear glasses or contacts?i need glasses but don’t wear them much

153- what was my first car?none

154- do i want children?depends on who i’d have them with

155- who is the most intelligent person i know?idk man it’s kinda subjective isn’t it?

156- my most embarrassing moment?my whole entire life

157- what makes me nostalgic?old songs

158- have i ever pulled an all nighter?oh yeah

159- which do i value most in others, brains or beauty?brains

160- what color dominates my wardrobe?idk actually

161- have i ever had a paranormal experience?not really

162- what do i hate most about myself?i’m stupid, i hurt and bother others way too much 

163- what do i love most about myself?ok i’m honestly not being a self loathing dick on purpose here i genuinely can’t think of something i love about myself

164- do i like adventure?yeah

165- do i believe in fate? maybe

166- favorite animal?question already asked bro

167- have i ever been on radio?no

168- have i ever been on tv?no, but yesterday i got asked to be (i declined because of anxiety)

169- how old am i?fourteen

170- one of my favorite quotes?“and you know that it’s not good, that there is no good, that nothing good can ever come out of it. but you do it anyway. and then... well. and then you burn.”

171- do i hold grudges?depends

172- do i trust easily?i don’t think so

173- have i learnt from my mistakes?yeah

174- best gift i’ve ever received?well my computer was p good though i payed for part of it

175- do i dream?yeah

176- have i ever had a night terror?yeah

177- do i remember my dreams, and what is the one that comes to mind?i do, and i just remembered the dream i had where there was this weird ass magical storm by my school that happened once thousands of years before on the same day and ppl thought it was a myth but it wasn’t, it was controlled by some ghost of a little girl and it lasted for weeks and eventually within our small shelter by the school people just died arbitrarily and some died from the storm who went out to try and get food and some starved, and soon all that was left was me and three others and it was horrible because every time we closed our eyes we were afraid we were going to open them and someone would be dead

178- an experience that has made me stronger?idk. probably my dad dying?

179- if i were immortal what would i do?try and undo that immortality or send myself into a coma forever because god i already want to die having to live forever would be the biggest curse ever

180- do i like shopping?sure

181- if i could get away with a crime, what would i do?idk man i don’t think about a life of crime much

182- what does family mean to me?people who care about me and love me and that i care about and love back

183- what is my spirit animal?im p sure that as a white person i’m not supposed to have one

184- how do i want to be remembered?for kindness

185- if i could master one skill, what would i choose?being better at piano

186- what is my greatest failure?everything

187- what is my greatest achievement?don’t know, i’m not proud of many things that i do

188- love or money?love

189- love or career?love

190- if i could time travel, where and when would i want to go?nowhere, i don’t want to spoil the future for myself and i don’t want to fuck with the past

191- what makes me the happiest?FUCK off

192- what is “home” to me?being with someone i love

193- what motivates me?i don’t know. not much anymore

194- if i could choose my last words, what would they be?idk, it depends on who i’d say them to

195- would i ever want to encounter aliens?if they’re nice then yes

196- a movie that scared me as a child?coraline

197- something i hated as a child that i like now?idk

198- zombies or vampires?vampires bc baz

199- live in the city or the suburbs?city

200- dragons or wizards?wizards

201- a nightmare that stayed with me?so this is from when i was little, my dad was driving my brother and i to the park and i was in the backseat bc i was tiny. so i said something to him and got no reply, i looked over and he wasn’t in the front seat, he was gone and nobody was driving. i look out the front and we’re headed for a part where we were meant to turn and there’s a giant steep hill and the car just keeps going forwards. it drives up the hill then flips over and crashes and rolls back down the hill and then i woke up

202- how do i define love?oh gosh. it’s in trusting other people to tell everything, even if they don’t “get” you, even if they won’t understand what you mean or how you feel because you trust them. it’s in the way you feel accepted around them. and all the inside jokes and knowing glances and doing everything you can to help when they’re down and feeling at home around them.

203- do i judge a book by it’s cover?a little

204- have i ever had my heart broken?yeah

205- do i like my handwriting?not really

206- sweet or savory?sweet

207- worst job i’ve had?never had a job

208- do i collect anything?ramune bottles and pokemon cards 

209- item of clothing or jewelry you’ll never see me without?don’t think there is one

210- what is on my bucket list?kiss a girl

211- how do i handle anger?vent to a friend

212- was i named after anyone?not with my first name, but my mom gave me my middle name after her friend from college

213- do i use sarcasm a lot?no.............of course not

214- what tv character am i most like?not sure

215- what is the weirdest talent i have?talent. What Is That

216- favorite fictional character?how could i choose one

thanks for asking  

[alienvirals]

Finally! CIA Releases ‘X-Files’ Docs, Details ‘How To Investigate’ UFOs

An odd thing happened this past week involving the real CIA, some fictional FBI agents and the oft-disputed truth about this country’s investigation into UFOs.

Just three days prior to the long-awaited return of “The X-Files,” the Central Intelligence Agency posted two rather extraordinary items on its official site.

Under the agency’s News & Information page, an article titled “Take A Peek Into Our ‘X-Files'” appeared. According to the description, hundreds of formerly secret documents were declassified in 1978, “detailing the agency’s investigations into Unidentified Flying Objects (UFOs). The documents date primarily from the late 1940s and 1950s.”

By latching on to the saga of Special Agents Mulder and Scully, the CIA is using the fictional FBI series in an unlikely bid for public goodwill, especially from the UFO community, a group that almost automatically accuses the government of conspiring to cover-up the truth. 

As the CIA says on its site:

To help navigate the vast amount of data contained in our FOIA [Freedom of Information Act] UFO collection, we’ve decided to highlight a few documents both skeptics and believers will find interesting. … You will find five documents we think ‘X-Files’ character Agent Mulder would love to use to try and persuade others of the existence of extraterrestrial activity. We also pulled five documents we think his skeptical partner, Agent Dana Scully, could use to prove there is a scientific explanation for UFO sightings.

The truth is out there; click on the links to find it.

Readers can then pour through a collection of documents running the gamut between flying saucer reports, official memos and advisory panel reports from the 1950s.

As if that weren’t enough, the CIA ends the page with “Do you want to believe? Then find out how to investigate a flying saucer.” Off you go to the next lengthy treatment that begins with a re-telling of a famous 1964 UFO close encounter, in which a New Mexico police officer reports seeing a football-shaped craft on the ground. 

In the report description, the CIA describes the account of officer Lonnie Zamora outside of Socorro, New Mexico. The CIA quotes Air Force Maj. Hector Quintanilla — the last chief officer of Project Blue Book, the Air Force’s long-term UFO investigation — who was in charge of the Socorro case. According to the new CIA X-File, Quintanilla said this was “the best documented case on record.” The CIA adds that the Zamora incident “remains unsolved.”

The introduction to the document doesn’t mention the most extraordinary part of the sighting: According to the initial report, “two persons in apparent white coveralls” appeared near the strange flying object and eventually disappeared, presumably entering the object before it rose up and sped away. See an image of the original FBI teletype below. 

FBI

In addition to the Socorro report, the CIA posts the following instructions:

10 Tips When Investigating A Flying Saucer:

1. Establish a Group To Investigate and Evaluate Sightings

2. Determine the Objectives of Your Investigation

3. Consult With Experts

4. Create a Reporting System To Organize Incoming Cases

5. Eliminate False Positives

6. Develop Methodology To Identify Common Aircraft and Other Aerial Phenomena Often Mistaken for UFOs

7. Examine Witness Documentation

8. Conduct Controlled Experiments

9. Gather and Test Physical and Forensic Evidence

10. Discourage False Reporting

In item #5 (above), the CIA cites a 1998 report that suggests how “some common explanations for UFO sightings…included misidentified aircrafts (the U-2, A-12 and SR-71 flights accounted for more than half of all UFO reports from the late 1950s and most of the 1960s).”

It’s not that we’re nit-picking the fact that the CIA referred (above) to more than one aircraft as “aircrafts” — but UFO researchers are questioning the accuracy of that 1998 assessment about UFO sightings mistaken for U-2 flights.

Bruce Maccabee, a retired Navy optical physicist, and UFO researcher, is one who questions the U-2’s role in the frequency of UFO sightings. 

“Their claim is straightforward, that, once the U-2 started flying, more than 50 percent of UFO sightings were actually of the high-flying U-2 (spy aircraft). But if you look at the actual statistics, the number of sightings reported per month, for three years before and after, you find there’s no big increase as a result of the U-2 flights,” Maccabee told The Huffington Post.

“Oddly enough, according to the official government’s Condon report statistics, there were 430 [UFO] sightings in 10 months before the U-2 started flying, and 430 during the 10 months after. That astonished me as much as anybody else. To claim that more than 50 percent of sightings [were reported] after the U-2 started flying, is a complete canard.”

The Condon report that Maccabee refers to was the University of Colorado UFO Project, funded by the Air Force in the late 1960s to evaluate UFOs. The director of the study, physicist Edward Condon, concluded that there was nothing of scientific interest to warrant any further examination of UFOs.

 The following video shows several top secret aircraft that may have been occasionally mistaken for UFOs:

During a four-decade Naval career, Maccabee, pictured below, worked on control systems as part of the Strategic Defense Initiative and Ballistic Missile Defense, using high power lasers. 

“My work for the Navy had nothing to do with UFOs. I wasn’t employed by the CIA or the FBI, and all of my UFO case analyses were carried out on my own time. Everything I did regarding UFO investigations, analyses, historical research, etc. was unclassified,” Maccabee said.

Jan Maccabee

Maccabee maintains that none of his Navy superiors ever suggested he tone down his UFO research. “They said they didn’t care what I did in my spare time, ‘but just leave the Navy lab out of it.’ From that point on, Maccabee relied on his skills in optical data processing when he was asked to analyze the visual components of UFO cases.

“There are things I did that a few other people could have done, I suppose, because of the required knowledge. Aside from having an ability to interview people — listening to what they say and deduce stuff from it — I had to be both a historian and a physicist.”  

UFOs? Maybe They’re Just…

UFOs? Maybe They’re Just…

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Sky Lanterns Mistaken For UFOs

Chinese or sky lanterns are often misidentified as UFOs. These three were part of a large group of lanterns that was the main event of the 2013 Pingxi Sky Lantern Festival in Taiwan on Feb. 24, 2013.

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Sky Lanterns Mistaken For UFOs

Chinese or sky lanterns are often misidentified as UFOs. These three were part of a large group of lanterns that was the main event of the 2013 Pingxi Sky Lantern Festival in Taiwan on Feb. 24, 2013.

Getty

image

More Chinese Lanterns, aka UFOs

These candle-lit Chinese lanterns can rise high into the sky and are often mistaken for UFOs.

China Photos / Getty Images

image

Kentucky UFO — Oct. 16, 2012

Amateur astronomer Allen Epling captured video and images of a cylindrical object in the sky above his Virgie, Ky., home on Oct. 16, 2012. This is one of the images he took, which led many to believe the object was a high-flying solar balloon.

Allen Epling / YouTube

image

Manufactured UFO — 2011

Pictured is a quad copter — a deliberately manufactured UFO created by special effects wizard Marc Dantonio for a National Geographic special, “The Truth Behind: UFOs,” which aired in December 2011. On the left is what the small device looks like resting on the ground, measuring 4 feet in circumference. At right, is how it appeared behind a tree in the night sky.

Marc Dantonio / FX Models / YouTube

image

Boomerang UFO composite images — 10-5-12

This is a composite of images shot by two eyewitnesses of a boomerang-shaped UFO they reported seeing over their Burbank, Calif., home on Oct. 5, 2012. Mutual UFO Network photo/video analyst Marc Dantonio concluded the object was likely “a balloon, floating on the wind that has collapsed in half.”

Mutual UFO Network

image

Melbourne, Australia, Feb. 2013

This is a composite image of how three alleged UFOs maneuvered about in the sky over Melbourne, Australia, in early February, 2013. The final verdict isn’t in yet on whether they’re birds, aircraft, balloons, bugs or something truly unidentified.

FindingUFO / YouTube

image

Exploding Weather Balloons, Not UFOs

On Dec. 20, 2012, a bright, circular object (pictured at the top of this composite image) was videotaped exploding in the skies above Sacramento, Calif. It wasn’t immediately identified, resulting in speculation that it was either an alien spacecraft, military top secret weapon, runaway planet, North Korean satellite, among others. Within a short period of time, it became apparent that this was a weather balloon. The bottom part of this image shows such a balloon as it ascended over Tampa Bay, Fla., on July 2, 2012, and exploded in an identical manner as the Sacramento object, probably much to the dismay of all true ET believers out there.

CBSNews13 / Sutor 1000 / YouTube

image

Changing UFO Pattern — Warren, Mich. 1-10-13

This four-image series of lights in the sky was recorded over Warren, Mich., on Jan. 10, 2013. The lights were seen changing into several patterns. The most logical explanation for these types of UFOs is a series of balloons or lanterns.

LUFOS.net / YouTube

image

UFOs Over Earth

This composite image shows four different times that alleged UFO were photographed above Earth by either space shuttles or the International Space Station. The big question is whether or not they are truly unidentified objects or if they are more likely reflections from spacecraft windows, meteors or fast-moving spacecraft-generated debris.

danielofdoriaa / YouTube

image

Pink UFOs Or Lens Flares?

What appear to be pink-red UFOs are actually lens flares from the Google Earth street view camera as it snapped images in Texas (left) and New Mexico (right).

2012 Google

image

Lens flares Arizona

These two flying saucer-shaped, pink-colored lens flares were created by the Google Maps camera as it drove through locations in Sedona, Ariz. (left) and Flagstaff, Ariz. (right). The images were snapped in April 2009. Submitted to HuffPost by trenna.

2012 Google

image

Lens flare Whiteriver, Ariz.

This skybound lens flare was created by a Google Maps camera in June 2008 over Whiteriver, Ariz. Submitted to Huffington Post by Cheryl Weeks.

2012 Google

image

Lens flare Gulfport, Miss.

This very Earthbound lens flare was created by a Google Maps camera in November 2007 at Gulfport, Miss. Submitted to Huffington Post by Jenni Parker.

2012 Google

image

Lens flare Eureka Springs, Ark.

This seemingly grounded lens flare was created by a Google Maps camera in January 2008 at Eureka Springs, Ark. Submitted to Huffington Post by SE.

2012 Google

image

Lens flare Escanaba, Mich.

This lens flare appears to be following a car. The Google Maps image was created in October 2008 at Escanaba, Mich. Submitted to Huffington Post by Mary Robinson.

2012 Google

image

Cincinnati Skydivers NOT UFOs Sept. 28, 2012

On the night of Sept. 28, 2012, a group of strange-looking lights appeared in the sky near Cincinnati, Ohio. First there was one, then, two, then three lights, slowly descending. It turns out, however, that these lights were originating from a group of skydivers performing a pyrotechnics jump at the La Salle High School homecoming event.

Galuyasdi / YouTube

image

Weather Phenomenon

Some UFO sightings may be due to a natural phenomenon known as sprites, like this one shown from 2006. “Lightning from [a] thunderstorm excites the electric field above, producing a flash of light called a sprite,” said geophysicist Colin Price.

ILAN Science Team / Space.com

image

Clouds

Clouds: Saucer-shaped or “lenticular” clouds that form at high altitudes have been confused with UFOs.

Getty Images

image

Blimps or Advertising Balloons

Blimps or advertising balloons: These can look like flying saucers from some angles, especially at night.

Lars Baron, Bongarts / Getty Images

image

Sunken Ship in the Baltic Sea

On June 19th the Swedish-based diving company Ocean Explorer discovered something they’ve never quite seen before. They were exploring in the Baltic Sea between Sweden and Finland looking for sunken treasures when a very unusual image suddenly appeared on the sonar. A 197 feet diameter cylinder shaped object was discovered at the depth of approximately 275 feet which resembles the Millennium Falcon from the movie Star Wars.

www.oceanexplorer.se / Everett Collection

image

Baltic Sea UFO 1

An image released on June 15, 2012, shows a close-up view of the unidentified object sitting on the bottom of the Baltic Sea.

Expressen.se / YouTube

image

Baltic Sea UFO 2

Close-up of rock bed that forms the Baltic Sea UFO, which still mystifies researchers.

Expressen.se / YouTube

image

Baltic Sea UFO 3

One of several odd stone circle formations, sitting on top of the unidentified object at the bottom of the Baltic Sea.

Expressen.se / YouTube

image

Antarctic UFO — Aug. 10, 2012

A circular UFO hovers above the Neumayer-Station III research facility in Antarctica on Aug. 10, 2012. Theories ranging from a simple weather balloon to a more elaborate ship from another planet have run the Internet gamut. The next slide shows a closeup of the object.

myunhauzen74 / YouTube

image

Antarctic UFO Closeup — Aug. 10, 2012

This is a closeup of the UFO from the previous slide. No official explanation has been offered about the object.

myunhauzen74 / YouTube

image

Meteors

Meteors: Space debris can create a spectacular light show when it burns through the Earth’s atmosphere, and sometimes reported as UFOs.

Ethan Miller, Getty Images

image

Civilian or Military Aircraft

Civilian or military aircraft: Planes can look mysterious at night or in certain light conditions, thus confusing an observer.

Sean Cole, US Navy / Getty Images

image

Read more: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/

The post Finally! CIA Releases ‘X-Files’ Docs, Details ‘How To Investigate’ UFOs appeared first on AlienVirals.com - Latest Alien & UFO News.

from AlienVirals.com – Latest Alien & UFO News http://www.alienvirals.com/finally-cia-releases-x-files-docs-details-how-to-investigate-ufos-3/

[alienvirals]

Finally! CIA Releases ‘X-Files’ Docs, Details ‘How To Investigate’ UFOs

An odd thing happened this past week involving the real CIA, some fictional FBI agents and the oft-disputed truth about this country’s investigation into UFOs.

Just three days prior to the long-awaited return of “The X-Files,” the Central Intelligence Agency posted two rather extraordinary items on its official site.

Under the agency’s News & Information page, an article titled “Take A Peek Into Our ‘X-Files'” appeared. According to the description, hundreds of formerly secret documents were declassified in 1978, “detailing the agency’s investigations into Unidentified Flying Objects (UFOs). The documents date primarily from the late 1940s and 1950s.”

By latching on to the saga of Special Agents Mulder and Scully, the CIA is using the fictional FBI series in an unlikely bid for public goodwill, especially from the UFO community, a group that almost automatically accuses the government of conspiring to cover-up the truth. 

As the CIA says on its site:

To help navigate the vast amount of data contained in our FOIA [Freedom of Information Act] UFO collection, we’ve decided to highlight a few documents both skeptics and believers will find interesting. … You will find five documents we think ‘X-Files’ character Agent Mulder would love to use to try and persuade others of the existence of extraterrestrial activity. We also pulled five documents we think his skeptical partner, Agent Dana Scully, could use to prove there is a scientific explanation for UFO sightings.

The truth is out there; click on the links to find it.

Readers can then pour through a collection of documents running the gamut between flying saucer reports, official memos and advisory panel reports from the 1950s.

As if that weren’t enough, the CIA ends the page with “Do you want to believe? Then find out how to investigate a flying saucer.” Off you go to the next lengthy treatment that begins with a re-telling of a famous 1964 UFO close encounter, in which a New Mexico police officer reports seeing a football-shaped craft on the ground. 

In the report description, the CIA describes the account of officer Lonnie Zamora outside of Socorro, New Mexico. The CIA quotes Air Force Maj. Hector Quintanilla — the last chief officer of Project Blue Book, the Air Force’s long-term UFO investigation — who was in charge of the Socorro case. According to the new CIA X-File, Quintanilla said this was “the best documented case on record.” The CIA adds that the Zamora incident “remains unsolved.”

The introduction to the document doesn’t mention the most extraordinary part of the sighting: According to the initial report, “two persons in apparent white coveralls” appeared near the strange flying object and eventually disappeared, presumably entering the object before it rose up and sped away. See an image of the original FBI teletype below. 

FBI

In addition to the Socorro report, the CIA posts the following instructions:

10 Tips When Investigating A Flying Saucer:

1. Establish a Group To Investigate and Evaluate Sightings

2. Determine the Objectives of Your Investigation

3. Consult With Experts

4. Create a Reporting System To Organize Incoming Cases

5. Eliminate False Positives

6. Develop Methodology To Identify Common Aircraft and Other Aerial Phenomena Often Mistaken for UFOs

7. Examine Witness Documentation

8. Conduct Controlled Experiments

9. Gather and Test Physical and Forensic Evidence

10. Discourage False Reporting

In item #5 (above), the CIA cites a 1998 report that suggests how “some common explanations for UFO sightings…included misidentified aircrafts (the U-2, A-12 and SR-71 flights accounted for more than half of all UFO reports from the late 1950s and most of the 1960s).”

It’s not that we’re nit-picking the fact that the CIA referred (above) to more than one aircraft as “aircrafts” — but UFO researchers are questioning the accuracy of that 1998 assessment about UFO sightings mistaken for U-2 flights.

Bruce Maccabee, a retired Navy optical physicist, and UFO researcher, is one who questions the U-2’s role in the frequency of UFO sightings. 

“Their claim is straightforward, that, once the U-2 started flying, more than 50 percent of UFO sightings were actually of the high-flying U-2 (spy aircraft). But if you look at the actual statistics, the number of sightings reported per month, for three years before and after, you find there’s no big increase as a result of the U-2 flights,” Maccabee told The Huffington Post.

“Oddly enough, according to the official government’s Condon report statistics, there were 430 [UFO] sightings in 10 months before the U-2 started flying, and 430 during the 10 months after. That astonished me as much as anybody else. To claim that more than 50 percent of sightings [were reported] after the U-2 started flying, is a complete canard.”

The Condon report that Maccabee refers to was the University of Colorado UFO Project, funded by the Air Force in the late 1960s to evaluate UFOs. The director of the study, physicist Edward Condon, concluded that there was nothing of scientific interest to warrant any further examination of UFOs.

 The following video shows several top secret aircraft that may have been occasionally mistaken for UFOs:

During a four-decade Naval career, Maccabee, pictured below, worked on control systems as part of the Strategic Defense Initiative and Ballistic Missile Defense, using high power lasers. 

“My work for the Navy had nothing to do with UFOs. I wasn’t employed by the CIA or the FBI, and all of my UFO case analyses were carried out on my own time. Everything I did regarding UFO investigations, analyses, historical research, etc. was unclassified,” Maccabee said.

Jan Maccabee

Maccabee maintains that none of his Navy superiors ever suggested he tone down his UFO research. “They said they didn’t care what I did in my spare time, ‘but just leave the Navy lab out of it.’ From that point on, Maccabee relied on his skills in optical data processing when he was asked to analyze the visual components of UFO cases.

“There are things I did that a few other people could have done, I suppose, because of the required knowledge. Aside from having an ability to interview people — listening to what they say and deduce stuff from it — I had to be both a historian and a physicist.”  

UFOs? Maybe They’re Just…

UFOs? Maybe They’re Just…

Share

1

of

27

Sky Lanterns Mistaken For UFOs

Chinese or sky lanterns are often misidentified as UFOs. These three were part of a large group of lanterns that was the main event of the 2013 Pingxi Sky Lantern Festival in Taiwan on Feb. 24, 2013.

Share this slide:

Getty

Sky Lanterns Mistaken For UFOs

Chinese or sky lanterns are often misidentified as UFOs. These three were part of a large group of lanterns that was the main event of the 2013 Pingxi Sky Lantern Festival in Taiwan on Feb. 24, 2013.

Getty

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More Chinese Lanterns, aka UFOs

These candle-lit Chinese lanterns can rise high into the sky and are often mistaken for UFOs.

China Photos / Getty Images

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Kentucky UFO — Oct. 16, 2012

Amateur astronomer Allen Epling captured video and images of a cylindrical object in the sky above his Virgie, Ky., home on Oct. 16, 2012. This is one of the images he took, which led many to believe the object was a high-flying solar balloon.

Allen Epling / YouTube

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Manufactured UFO — 2011

Pictured is a quad copter — a deliberately manufactured UFO created by special effects wizard Marc Dantonio for a National Geographic special, “The Truth Behind: UFOs,” which aired in December 2011. On the left is what the small device looks like resting on the ground, measuring 4 feet in circumference. At right, is how it appeared behind a tree in the night sky.

Marc Dantonio / FX Models / YouTube

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Boomerang UFO composite images — 10-5-12

This is a composite of images shot by two eyewitnesses of a boomerang-shaped UFO they reported seeing over their Burbank, Calif., home on Oct. 5, 2012. Mutual UFO Network photo/video analyst Marc Dantonio concluded the object was likely “a balloon, floating on the wind that has collapsed in half.”

Mutual UFO Network

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Melbourne, Australia, Feb. 2013

This is a composite image of how three alleged UFOs maneuvered about in the sky over Melbourne, Australia, in early February, 2013. The final verdict isn’t in yet on whether they’re birds, aircraft, balloons, bugs or something truly unidentified.

FindingUFO / YouTube

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Exploding Weather Balloons, Not UFOs

On Dec. 20, 2012, a bright, circular object (pictured at the top of this composite image) was videotaped exploding in the skies above Sacramento, Calif. It wasn’t immediately identified, resulting in speculation that it was either an alien spacecraft, military top secret weapon, runaway planet, North Korean satellite, among others. Within a short period of time, it became apparent that this was a weather balloon. The bottom part of this image shows such a balloon as it ascended over Tampa Bay, Fla., on July 2, 2012, and exploded in an identical manner as the Sacramento object, probably much to the dismay of all true ET believers out there.

CBSNews13 / Sutor 1000 / YouTube

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Changing UFO Pattern — Warren, Mich. 1-10-13

This four-image series of lights in the sky was recorded over Warren, Mich., on Jan. 10, 2013. The lights were seen changing into several patterns. The most logical explanation for these types of UFOs is a series of balloons or lanterns.

LUFOS.net / YouTube

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UFOs Over Earth

This composite image shows four different times that alleged UFO were photographed above Earth by either space shuttles or the International Space Station. The big question is whether or not they are truly unidentified objects or if they are more likely reflections from spacecraft windows, meteors or fast-moving spacecraft-generated debris.

danielofdoriaa / YouTube

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Pink UFOs Or Lens Flares?

What appear to be pink-red UFOs are actually lens flares from the Google Earth street view camera as it snapped images in Texas (left) and New Mexico (right).

2012 Google

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Lens flares Arizona

These two flying saucer-shaped, pink-colored lens flares were created by the Google Maps camera as it drove through locations in Sedona, Ariz. (left) and Flagstaff, Ariz. (right). The images were snapped in April 2009. Submitted to HuffPost by trenna.

2012 Google

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Lens flare Whiteriver, Ariz.

This skybound lens flare was created by a Google Maps camera in June 2008 over Whiteriver, Ariz. Submitted to Huffington Post by Cheryl Weeks.

2012 Google

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Lens flare Gulfport, Miss.

This very Earthbound lens flare was created by a Google Maps camera in November 2007 at Gulfport, Miss. Submitted to Huffington Post by Jenni Parker.

2012 Google

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Lens flare Eureka Springs, Ark.

This seemingly grounded lens flare was created by a Google Maps camera in January 2008 at Eureka Springs, Ark. Submitted to Huffington Post by SE.

2012 Google

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Lens flare Escanaba, Mich.

This lens flare appears to be following a car. The Google Maps image was created in October 2008 at Escanaba, Mich. Submitted to Huffington Post by Mary Robinson.

2012 Google

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Cincinnati Skydivers NOT UFOs Sept. 28, 2012

On the night of Sept. 28, 2012, a group of strange-looking lights appeared in the sky near Cincinnati, Ohio. First there was one, then, two, then three lights, slowly descending. It turns out, however, that these lights were originating from a group of skydivers performing a pyrotechnics jump at the La Salle High School homecoming event.

Galuyasdi / YouTube

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Weather Phenomenon

Some UFO sightings may be due to a natural phenomenon known as sprites, like this one shown from 2006. “Lightning from [a] thunderstorm excites the electric field above, producing a flash of light called a sprite,” said geophysicist Colin Price.

ILAN Science Team / Space.com

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Clouds

Clouds: Saucer-shaped or “lenticular” clouds that form at high altitudes have been confused with UFOs.

Getty Images

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Blimps or Advertising Balloons

Blimps or advertising balloons: These can look like flying saucers from some angles, especially at night.

Lars Baron, Bongarts / Getty Images

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Sunken Ship in the Baltic Sea

On June 19th the Swedish-based diving company Ocean Explorer discovered something they’ve never quite seen before. They were exploring in the Baltic Sea between Sweden and Finland looking for sunken treasures when a very unusual image suddenly appeared on the sonar. A 197 feet diameter cylinder shaped object was discovered at the depth of approximately 275 feet which resembles the Millennium Falcon from the movie Star Wars.

www.oceanexplorer.se / Everett Collection

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Baltic Sea UFO 1

An image released on June 15, 2012, shows a close-up view of the unidentified object sitting on the bottom of the Baltic Sea.

Expressen.se / YouTube

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Baltic Sea UFO 2

Close-up of rock bed that forms the Baltic Sea UFO, which still mystifies researchers.

Expressen.se / YouTube

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Baltic Sea UFO 3

One of several odd stone circle formations, sitting on top of the unidentified object at the bottom of the Baltic Sea.

Expressen.se / YouTube

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Antarctic UFO — Aug. 10, 2012

A circular UFO hovers above the Neumayer-Station III research facility in Antarctica on Aug. 10, 2012. Theories ranging from a simple weather balloon to a more elaborate ship from another planet have run the Internet gamut. The next slide shows a closeup of the object.

myunhauzen74 / YouTube

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Antarctic UFO Closeup — Aug. 10, 2012

This is a closeup of the UFO from the previous slide. No official explanation has been offered about the object.

myunhauzen74 / YouTube

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Meteors

Meteors: Space debris can create a spectacular light show when it burns through the Earth’s atmosphere, and sometimes reported as UFOs.

Ethan Miller, Getty Images

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Civilian or Military Aircraft

Civilian or military aircraft: Planes can look mysterious at night or in certain light conditions, thus confusing an observer.

Sean Cole, US Navy / Getty Images

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Read more: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/

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