Cinnamon Geek

The Random Valentine's Day Generator

2013-02-14T11:47:00.002-08:00

Valentine's Day is an interesting holiday. I feel like no matter where you fall on the relationship spectrum, you probably have some kind of mixed emotions about it. If you're single, you feel reminded about it. If you're taken, you might feel a sense of dread or obligation towards having to do a certain thing on a certain day. However, the point of Valentine's Day - showing someone you care about them - is in the right place. It's just not being done right.

In my opinion - the biggest gripes about Valentine's Day revolve around timing. Maybe you really do want to take someone out to dinner - but hate that you can't get a reservation or that you're forced to shell out extra for a special menu. Maybe you're interested in someone but having the holiday encroach on you is putting extra pressure on things. Maybe you'd rather just do something nice for your significant other on any old normal day instead of feeling forced to do it because you're supposed to....

...which is where the Random Valentine's Day Generator comes in. So let's say we completely remove February 14th as Valentine's Day, and people can just do something nice for their loved ones on any random day they chose.... the idea is in the right place, but let's be honest - most people are kind of lazy. Left to our own devices, we'd find ourselves back at anniversaries, birthdays, and Christmas and think "Oh crap, I forgot to just do something loving and kind just for the hell of it."

With the Random Valentine's Day Generator, each person would be assigned a random day every year where they are reminded to do something special for their loved ones. The giver still gets the reminder that there is an extra day a year where they should be doing something sweet but without the other knowing exactly when it might be. You also benefit by the sheer likelihood that the two of you will probably get different days so each one can really do something for the other person that they would enjoy much more.

Think about it - no more crowded restaurants one day a year, no more Facebook griping about being single/obligated-to-do-something, no more corporate consumerism making money off of people's natural tendency to want to be with other people...

I think I'm onto something, who wants to help make it happen?

*Update* No really, I've been thinking about this all day and I think I've figured out a good program with a monetization scheme. Any programmers who know how to create apps want to team up and try to make this happen?

Nikki's 2013 Resolution

2012-12-31T08:07:00.002-08:00

Every year for the past few years, I've come to my blog (at the time) and posted my New Year's Resolutions. Every year, they change a bit but you still get some of the generic things - working out, saving money, new experiences, etc. For a few years, I really needed that.

I'm a list maker. I love them. Every day at work, I make lists for myself. I revel in the feeling of accomplishment as I cross things off. Making a list of things to do each year fed my type A personality's need to get things done.

When I was making this years list, I found myself in an odd spot. It seemed like I was adding the same key points that I'd grown fond of over the past couple of years: gym schedule, save money, travel somewhere new. They're all important and I strive to do them every year but it was the first year where I wasn't really making a new list. 2012 was a really crazy year for me. While I think I'm in a great place now - it's not without a year of moving through a lot of struggles. I'm not perfect, but for once I feel like I'm starting my year in a spot where I'm not struggling to figure out how to make myself better. Life did that pretty well on its own and 2012 was a lot of life experiences in one year.

In the end, when I got rid of all of the superfluous and repetitive resolutions, I only had one. This is going to sound really terrible and I honestly mean this in the best way, but I just want to be a little bit selfish.

Resolutions are supposed to be to better yourself or do something for others so I was torn up that I kept coming back to this... but I couldn't let it go. And then I kept thinking about 2012... why did I feel so burnt out? So I tried to pinpoint what the problem was. I realized that I'd used most of my days off to be places for other people - weddings, friends in town, family needs, holidays. I took one trip for myself.. in January. Even the days I took to study, I was worried about a friend that had gotten into some trouble. The only time I'd really said no to obligations I had, was when I was mentally and emotionally drained from dealing with a family issue.

I love helping friends, I love being there for my family, and I really really hate flaking out on plans. Then again - was doing all of those things worth not being home sometimes? Not making time for my personal well being? Most of my friends say "no" sometimes. They take time for themselves. I don't think anyone would think any less of me if I did the same sometimes.

After really thinking about it, I realized my selfish goal wasn't actually that selfish. It was being a normal person who makes balances and priorities and takes time for themselves. If I'm not doing it now - then when will I?

The Sarah Connor Workout

2012-11-30T08:12:00.000-08:00

Hi blog world - I know there hasn't been a whole lot going on in this corner of the internet. Although I've had a ton of ideas for posts, it's been really hard to get excited about writing when my fellow authors have not. I'm not usually one to follow the crowd but it's hard to be motivated when that kind of thing happens. I can see this blog kind of fading away. With that said - there was something that I started working on months ago and I wanted to at least get to it...

You blog readers will soon come to know that Becca, Will and myself are also part of a trilogy club. The idea started a few months ago after the "Trilogy Time" episode of How I Met Your Mother in which you learn that Barney, Ted, and Marshall have a pact to watch the Star Wars Trilogy every three years. As part of the tradition, they guess where they will be the next time they watch the trilogy three years later and then compare what actually happened to what they guessed. I thought this was a great idea and gauged interest on Facebook. Thus, Trilogy Time / Trilogy Club was born.

Since then we've watched and scheduled a few more trilogies, but we've been hypothetically planning some of the ones coming up. My group of trilogy friends are all people who love to dress up and plan theme parties and sometimes we get... out of hand. So - in preparation for the Terminator Trilogy, I want to go full on T2 Sarah Conner but that's going to take some work.

The goal:
Have a realistically Sarah Connor-ish body (mostly just those arms) by the time Terminator Trilogy Time rolls around.

The Workout Plan:

Based on Linda's actual workout:
Four times a week: Mondays, Thursdays (work chest, shoulders, triceps)
Tuesdays, Fridays (work back, biceps)
4 sets of 8 to 12 reps per exercise (starting with 8 lb dumbbells and moving up)
Dumbbell bench press
Inclined flies
Lateral raises
Front raises
Kickbacks
One-arm rows
Bent-over rows
Standing curls

Plus, my own workouts:
Climbing
Ab workouts
Walks, Jogs, Rollerblading, Kinect (you laugh but 30 minutes on Dance Central...), Hikes

Ideal Results:
Convert 10lbs of fat to 10lbs of muscle mass (note that I'm not trying to lose weight)
Get Sarah Connor (circa T2) arms
Open the door to my apartment in a fitted black tank top, cargo pants, steel toed boots, aviators and holding one of my Lara Croft airsoft guns, urging people in before the machines arrive (if you're not acting the part, you're only half dressed up)

Actual Results:
Workout plan above - did I stick to it?
I was bad at doing the workouts as many times a week as I wanted, but I did them. It's hard to balance a workout with a full+ time career, a social life, video games, reading, etc. The best way this works is just to MAKE yourself do it. I'd get home, change, and work out. Luckily, I had weights and things at home so there wasn't an extra push to go somewhere. This helped because it cut down on the time needed and I could still watch recorded things while I worked out. Basically it replaced couch + tv time with workout + tv time. However, my dumbbells only went up to 20lbs so unless someone wants to get me these, I'm going to have to head to the gym now.

The exercises I listed above were great to get started since I hadn't lifted in years. However, I blew through them quickly. I ended up going online to find a variety of Back/Bicep and Chest/Tricep/Shoulder work out so I had more variety and was pushing myself harder. If you're not sore, you're not trying hard enough so I kept building on the work outs in order to get results.

It was really interesting to see how quickly I could really adapt to the workouts I was doing and that I had to keep adding reps, weights, and exercises. With the arms, I knew I just had to increase the number of pounds. However, my abs are where I really started having trouble. If I was getting an ab workout from randomabs or pinterest, I usually had to multiply the number of reps or sets (or both) by 3-4. This is the area that I really had to keep changing up my workouts and I've become really good at creating my own ab routines.

Diet:
This was tough. I was trying to do a lot of different things here instead of sticking to one concrete eating plan so my weight ended up fluctuating and driving me crazy. In the end, the best thing for me was to stick with what has always just worked for me: portion control, picking healtier options, staying away from excess fat and carbs, and piling on the protein. Most of all - cooking at home has worked out really well. I'm really lucky that we get lunch at my work but these options aren't always the healthiest. It's not too hard to pick out the better options from the food we order but some days I was trying to make two meals out of it or I'd get food out for dinner. That was terrible for my goals and really showed on the scale and on my body. Eventually I just took it back to cooking dinner at home so I could be aware of what was going into my body and that helped so much. I find that personally, when I focus on making myself healthier food, I also tend to pick the healthier options at work. It's like I train myself to not crave things that will hurt my goals.

Results
Having a goal was so important. In that past I went with "workout more" and that was too generic. Instead this one was "be Sarah Connor." I could think about how long I'd been working, see what the muscles looked like and realize I wasn't there. I'd think I was getting strong and then look at Linda Hamilton pictures and realize I wasn't even close. I think that's going to keep me going for a long time. Genetically, it might not even be possible for me to look just like that, but I know I haven't reached my limits so I need to keep pushing.

The biggest thing was balancing weight loss and muscle game. I had said that the aim wasn't to lose weight, but gain muscle. If done right, the muscle gain would offset the weight loss so I'd still lose size and be toned. At first, I was gaining weight because I wasn't eating healthy. This was so frustrating because I could feel my muscles growing and getting stronger but it just made me feel bigger instead of reaching my goal. However, I'm happy to say that I'm back at my starting weight but with a lot more muscle and that feels fantastic. I'm excited to keep up on this trajectory now that I've gotten the diet down. But really - the goal was Sarah Connor and I'll need to keep lifting a few more dumbbells.

Useful tips:
- Don't put it off. I tried to do my workouts RIGHT when I got home. The only things I did first were change and set up my workout area. I didn't want to let myself get comfortable at all. This also means I'd work out before eating dinner. Helpful hint - if you do a tough ab workout, you don't really feel too hungry. This kept me from stuffing myself when I did get to dinner.
- Find partners. I love climbing because you need a partner. It's much easier to get yourself to a gym if someone is expecting you. I hate flakiness so planning to meet someone was a great way to ensure I would show up.
- Find an inspiration. I find it hard to push myself to work out if it's not "fun." Even though I don't mind ab and weight work outs, I know I won't be a good coach for myself. However, it was easy to look at the Linda Hamilton pictures and get pumped to work out. There are plenty of actors that have transformed their bodies for a role. Find your inspiration (it may not be Hollywood either, that's just pretty visible).
- Change it up. I found randomabs.com to get ideas for different ab workouts so I wasn't stuck doing boring crunches all day. This has two benefits: working a variety of muscles and keeping yourself interested. It was fun to see what workout would come up. When randomabs got too easy I'd try to find workouts wherever I could. Comcast has a ton of workout On Demand. I found a variety of ab plans on Pinterest and eventually I was familiar enough with the exercises that I could try to throw together my own creative sets. Plus, I was still climbing, hiking, going to gym classes, and I dusted off some old Tae Bo videos.
- It doesn't take much time but it does take some. My ab work outs were only about 10-15 min on the days I did them and the arms were about 20-40 min. Plan for an hour a day. Some days I added in some sort of cardio which was another hour and climbing takes around 2 hours. That means I was working out 1-2 hours on the days I did it. That's quite a bit of time but it wasn't that hard to fit it in if I made it a priority. Getting dumbbells for the apartment made it easy for me to do things while watching TV.
- Schedule time to work out. Some weeks I would be great about making myself do my workouts every evening or moving them to the morning if I had plans after work. This got to be pretty tough. I want to work on putting workouts as a higher priority than happy hours. I feel better when I work out. Let's have that fill up the calendar.
- Keep healthy snacks around. Snacking is natural and healthy. It's much better for your metabolism to eat little snacks throughout the day so keep healthy snacks around. This will keep you from resorting to junk food. My favorites are fresh fruit for something sweet, chips and fresh (or homemade) salsa or carrots and hummus for a savory snack.

I'm excited that I found a work out plan that I love. Mostly I'm excited that I have something set up. Having a plan that I really stuck to, is getting me excited for what's next. I really just focused on my abs and arms. Now I want to use the same goals for legs and cardio. I've recently purchased a Nike Fuel Band so that I have motivation to run and I've been signing up for some 5ks. I think I'm becoming a bit of a work out geek... and I'm so happy about it!

If you are interested in the things I've been doing, you can follow me on fitocracy and check my workouts.

I know the Holidays are tough for anyone to find time to work out (myself included) but this might be a great time to start planning your January fitness plan.

The Art of Pumpkin Carving, Part 2

2012-10-25T10:33:00.000-07:00

Now that Halloween is around the corner, I've gotten around to carving my pumpkins and here's what I ended up with:

These little guys were pretty easy to make. I ordered a dozen vampire teeth from Amazon, bought some little pumpkins and cut out mouth shapes then stuck the teeth in. They didn't last as long as I hoped and was pretty grossed out to find the mouths were black. Needless to say, I didn't recover the teeth...

If you want to make these guys, the shape for the small and big mouth can be found here. The teeth won't look right if the lines aren't straight so be careful with that.

Also, I think mine didn't last so long because I didn't clean them out. The only hole is the mount but it should be big enough to get some of the insides out of these small gourds.

I thought it was fun that Assassin's Creed 3 was coming out right around Halloween so I decided to pay homage to the game. Last year, I did Portal pumpkins so this was along the same vein. Plus, I've been working on powering through Assassin's Creed 2 so I can do the second part of my series (btw - I adore Ezio. Can I just say that?) The pumpkin was very easy but having such a big piece in the middle with little support was my downfall and when the biology started setting in, the middle caved. I'm glad I snapped this before that happened!

I saw a picture for a Dark Knight Joker pumpkin and I knew I had to do that. I've only really scraped one pumpkin before so I wasn't sure how it would go but I think it turned out really well. The picture I was going off had a variety of shades on the face. Some areas were black so I didn't touch those. Every other lighter area, I did a base scrape. From there, I scraped deeper on the light areas and left the medium ones with a fair amount of thickness. I think the key here would be to constantly light the pumpkin and see how it's going. I think it would have looked better if I'd gone a little deeper but it still turned out pretty cool.

The last pumpkin may be hard to figure out if you don't know what you're looking for but it's the Delorean from Back to the Future with it's flame trails. To be honest, I was a little pumpkined out by the point and was preoccupied with the World Series (GO GIANTS!!!!) so I really phoned this one in. This is basically the image I was going off of. Again... phone that one in...

I also made a couple of tweaks to the Heath pumpkin. This is the picture I used for that one. There's is definitely more angular but like I said, I'm still a pumpkin-scraper-in-training. Hopefully, next year I can nail it down because I already have some amazing things I want to try.

The important thing for me is to try to do something fun and creative. Face pumpkins are cool but I've made dozens of them. I didn't start doing images until a few years ago so I'm probably going to stick with it for a while.

Arrow, Episode 2 - Who's Still Watching?

2012-10-19T12:59:00.001-07:00

Pilots are pretty unique episodes. They usually tend to stand out from the rest of the season or run of a show because they have one purpose - to attract viewers. Usually they either fail horribly (cough, Beauty and the Beast, coughcough) or work pretty well. Since Arrow's was the latter, I was curious to see how the second episode followed up.

There was one big thing that I was on the fence about in the pilot and once I was able to get around my initial qualms about the show, I found it to be incredibly glaring in the second episode. I had no idea what to make of the acting, specifically the lead. I couldn't decide if Stephen Amell is either an amazing or terrible actor.

The question started last week and the acting issue became more apparent in the second episode. When Amell is playing Ollie Queen, he's stiff and bland. He makes a lot of awkward smirks. You really can't help but think that he was hired to be a pretty face. The character really falls flat... until you realize that he's playing several different parts...

There are at least 3 different roles that he's tackling: Ollie Queen, Arrow, and Ollie Queen in flash backs and all three of these characters are pretty different. Present day Ollie Queen is the one that drives me crazy. He's emotionless and flat. However, this can be explained by the fact that he's been living on a deserted island for five years and is probably pretty scarred. We haven't seen a lot of Arrow yet. He's spoken occasionally but it's in that solid, justified Batman kind of way. However, the flashbacks to younger, pre-accident Oliver Queen are almost like a completely different character. The mannerisms, the expressions, even the tone of voice almost make you think it's a different actor all together.

It makes me really happy that they have these flashbacks and continue to have them. It makes for a more well-rounded character AND let's you see that Amell is more than a pretty face. At the end of the episode when Oliver realized he was going to have to act like his pre-accident self in order to mask his secret, he again completely transformed into the immature playboy that was completely unique from the Oliver Queen in the rest of the episode. That was when I settled the acting talent question once and for all. This guy is good.

Aside from that, the show is growing on me. I was having trouble with that hurdle but once I got over it, I was able to appreciate the rest of the show. I said in the last review that I would really like it if the show continues to use flashbacks to explain what happened to Oliver on the island that transformed him into Arrow and gave him the skills he now possesses. This episode solidified that they are indeed going to continue with that which I think is vital to making this show more complex than just a "hero catches bad guys" story.

I'm excited to see how it goes. It seems like they're still filling some back story and setting the show up which has made it move a little slower, but I have high hopes.

CW's Two New Geeky Shows

2012-10-16T11:56:00.000-07:00

Last week the CW premiered two shows that definitely flashed on my geeky radar. Both made me a little wary but the plots piqued my interest and I figured it would be good to give them a shot. I had a few slots open on my weekday tv schedule so there really wasn't much to lose. Both shows had the distinct possibility of being amazing or completely terrible... so let's see how they turned out.

Both reviews include extensive plot summary so beware of spoilers. However, they are both on the pilot episodes so even with spoilers, it's all need-to-know information if you want to get into the show(s)!

Beauty and the Beast

Even though this show premiered second, I watched it first because I thought it was sure to be the better of the two shows. I had no really no intention of watching this show originally. I love the Disney movie of my childhood and the Once Upon a Time interpretation of the story, so I was pretty content with where the fairy tale laid in my eyes. Plus, seeing advertisements of a not-so-ugly beast really made the show come off as just another crappy CW melodrama.

Until I actually read up on the plot... The show was to take a new angle on the tale as old as time. This beauty was more than a damsel in distress - she was actually an NYPD detective who comes across a man who saved her life ten years earlier. She learns that he was part of a failed military experiment that has left him (hardly) deformed and will super human powers. He has faked his own death so they don't come after him and he needs her help to stay hidden. Wow! A Beauty and the Beast story where she helps save him as much as he saves her? That doesn't sound so bad.

I was wrong.

The story has so many flaws, I'm not even sure where to begin. First of all, for a crime drama, the cops' actions just don't really make sense. While solving the opening mystery, they jump to a ridiculous number of arbitrary conclusions. My favorite is when they find a pregnancy test in a public area of the victim's workplace and assume she is pregnant even though this doesn't come up in the autopsy and they mention that it should have. You'd think that would be a flag that test belonged to someone else... The main character's actions are just so off the charts, that it was borderline ridiculous. She gets a search warrant for a building and then goes without her partner. There she finds a man that is supposed to be dead who is the only suspect as his fingerprints were at the crime scene and does not arrest him because he had a news article about her mother's death and more or less asked her not to. Then, there is a scene where she is attacked on a subway platform that inexplicably has no one there besides herself and the attackers. Despite this, the beast is there and saves her life again, killing three people. They both flee the scene even though she is a cop and could easily be linked back to the crime in about 20 different ways.

This pilot just completely baffled me. This was some of the worst, hole-filled writing I have ever seen. The show took a pretty cool sounding premise and destroyed it by not being thoughtful in the writing. With so many popular crime shows on TV, it's so easy to see how many problems there are with the logic in this show. The whole thing seemed incredibly rushed and I need a bit more effort so this was definitely the first and last episode of Beauty and the Beast for me.

Arrow

I almost didn't even want to watch this after the last one. However, I figured I should at least give the pilot a chance... and I'm so glad I did.

The story starts off with Oliver Queen, a ship wrecked billionaire, using a flaming arrow to light a fire and signal the ship that will save him from the island he is stranded on. You quickly learn he has been stranded for five years and his father died in the accident that left him deserted. The doctor that inspects him correctly foreshadows that this Oliver has likely been changed by the island where he has lived for so long.

Throughout the episode, Oliver has flashbacks to the shipwreck which teach the viewer that Oliver's father was involved in some shady dealings when he ran the Queen company. He wants Oliver to survive the crash in order to fix the corruption that he started and then takes his own life so that Ollie can use the supplies to survive. It is clear that there are still many gaps about what else Oliver learned during the wreck and on the island and hopefully the show continues to use flash backs to fill in this information.

Now back home with his wealth and resources, Oliver is able to set up a secret base that he can use to create high tech weapons and set up powerful computer systems that he can use to track down evil and corrupt criminals in order to restore justice to society using primarily arrows.

If you think this sounds just like Batman meets Robin Hood - you pretty much nailed it.

I really love super hero movies, but wasn't an avid comic book reader so I knew just about nothing about Arrow going into this show. I figured the character was just the DC version of Hawkeye and that wasn't terribly far off. What I wasn't expecting was an archer version of Batman. However, I really like Batman so I'm okay with that. I'm excited to see where this show goes. They set up a lot in this pilot. There are many avenues to go down for future villains, recurring villains, deeper back story, future side kicks, and potential love interests. The writing gives a lot of information in the pilot while barely scraping the surface and I'm very excited to keep watching.

Arrow is on Wednesdays at 8pm and Beauty and the Beast is Thursdays at 9pm. Both shows are on the CW.

How Did the Ghost Patch His Sheet?

2012-10-12T12:12:00.001-07:00

With a Pumpkin Patch!....No, nothing? Bummer.

With the World Famous Half Moon Bay Pumpkin Festival happening this weekend near us, I was already going to write this before Nikki blogged about carving them, so puns aside, here are some fun facts about that gorgeous gourd, the PUMPKIN!

Pumpkins are believed to have originated in North America. Seeds from related plants have been found in Mexico dating back to 7000 to 5500 B.C.

A pumpkin is really a squash, which is actually a fruit! Seriously, I don't make this stuff up. This is science! Maybe this is. Or this.

Early references to pumpkins go back several hundred years. They were called “pompions” (from the Greek word ‘pepon’, meaning “large melon”).

American Indian tribes grew pumpkins for food and long before the discovery of corn, relied on pumpkins to get them through long winters.

Pumpkins were once thought of as a cure for freckles and snake bites.

Pumpkins are now grown on every continent except Antarctica.

Pumpkins are 90 percent water.

Pumpkins are monoecious, having both male and female flowers on the same plant.
After planting, it takes pumpkin approximately 90 to 120 days to mature. There is only one day during the entire growing season, in which the pumpkin flower can be pollinated. If the growing season is a dry one, pumpkins will typically be 20% - 30% smaller, in size.

80% of the pumpkin supply in the US is available in October.

Thanks for reading!

The Art of Pumpkin Carving

2012-10-12T10:11:00.000-07:00

With Halloween coming up, I thought it would be fun to have some relative posts. For those of you who don't know, I dabble in the arts recreationally. I love painting and sculpture but really don't take as much time to do it as I should. That makes Halloween extra fun for me - I like being creative with my pumpkins and try to push the skill and nerdy limits each year.

I have no idea what I'm going to do yet but you better believe it will be amazing and probably have some sort of geek cred. Here are some of my past masterpieces:

An ode to my favorite team and Alma Mater

I clearly like Portal...

I think anyone can make fun pumpkins if you take the time to be thoughtful about it. Here are some of my tips for easier pumpkin carving:

Be mindful when picking your pumpkin - get one that is big enough to easily fit your image and has a flat face.
Make it easier on yourself - when cleaning your pumpkin, do extra scraping on the inside wall of the side you are going to carve. You can easily thin out the wall which will make carving a lot easier.
Have your image ready. Print out or rough sketch your image and then try to trace it over to the pumpkin. It's pretty tough to free hand on a round surface, especially if you're not artistic. This will give you a better idea of how it's going to fit too.
TOOLS - I can't state this enough. Pumpkin carving kits can be helpful but it's likely that the tools are cheap and will fall apart. Get a variety of pumpkin specific kits. Amazon is a good spot to look since people leave reviews. Also don't be afraid to think outside the box here. I often use kitchen knives, pottery tools, regular tools - anything I can get my hands on to make the job easier.
Be creative - scary faces are fun but I love that my pumpkins were unique. More and more people are changing up their pumpkins from using multiple pumpkins in one piece, painting, or using glow sticks to incorporate fun colors. If you're not creative but want to do something fun - search around the web for fun ideas.

I really loved last year's pumpkins, but I know I need to step out of the box this time. Any suggestions for me? With certain video game releases this month and movies that I loved this summer, I have an idea or two...

Some of us Cinnamon Geeks are going to get together to carve our pumpkins later this month. Something tells me you'll be hearing about it.

Recap: Assassin's Creed

2012-10-04T22:08:00.000-07:00

Assassin's Creed is a game I always wanted to play and knew I would love. However, I never felt a huge urge to play it as I had seen a lot of the story already. Then - I saw the trailers for Assassin's Creed III/Liberation and was incredibly excited to play the new games. I decided to try to play the preceding games by the release date of the new one and document them here as a recap for anyone else who's planning on getting the game(s) this fall. Spoilers will be in italic.

Story

When the story starts, you are instantly throw into the game as an assassin with a multitude of commands being thrown at you. It's almost impossible to keep up and you die quickly. As it turns out, you are actually a guy named Desmond who lives in current times but has been hooked up to a machine called an Animus. The Animus allows you to relive the memories of your ancestors and Desmond comes from a long line of assassins. He is being held against his will and sent back to the Crusades era to unlock a memory of his ancestor, Altair.

Altair is a very prominent assassin but after failing a mission and causing the death of a colleague because of sloppiness, his rank and tools are taken away. Altair needs to start from the bottom and assassinate nine targets in three cities (Damascus, Acre, and Jerusalem) order to have his rank restored.

As you begin to assassinate your targets, you learn that many of them have reasons behind the things they are doing and Altair begins to question his mission. The master of the assassins tells you that they are all part of the Templars and their mission is to create a new world order. This reinvigorates Altair and brings him more in line with the Assassin Brotherhood than he ever was before.

Meanwhile, in Desmond's world, he learns that the company that has kidnapped him is also part of the Templar group. They use the Animus to discover the location of ancient treasures and secrets that give them power in modern times. In between Animus sessions, Desmond also begins to be able to snoop around the area he is being held. He is able to find access codes and read the emails of one of the people holding him, Lucy.

Back in Altair's time, he finally takes out the last Templar only to learn that there is a tenth - his own master. When he goes to confront him, he finds that the master has taken the treasure for himself - a Piece of Eden - which allows it's owner to control minds. The artifact only partially works on Altair so instead of succumbing to the control, he is able to fight his master. This Piece of Eden, is one of many hidden around the world. Once the master is defeated and Altair gains control of it, the other locations are revealed.

At this time, Desmond is unhooked from the Animus as the kidnappers have the information they need. They are going to kill him but Lucy points out that they may still need his help in the future so it would be good to leave him around. Desmond has the ability to explore the rooms he's held in again and begins to see hidden markings on the walls and floors. And this is where the game ends...

Game-play

The game play is pretty straight forward. The buttons are fairly easy to figure out and there is always a guide in the top right corner of your screen to remind you of what the controls are (they change if you hold right trigger). There are a variety of running speeds and Altair is pretty responsive to the control sticks. I did encounter a few buggy things though. If you are targeted on a person, it's very difficult to control your camera angle which is very frustrating. This happens a lot when fighting a group of guards and I've often had the camera behind some scaffolding or other obstacle that completely obstructed my view. I also found that Altair didn't always go where I was directing him on the climbing missions, even if it was a spot he could go to. All in all, some things were a little clunky. There were a few instances of half-my-body-is-in-a-building but I didn't seem to get "stuck" as I thought I would. I heard this got figured out for the sequel and I hope that's true.

There are two ways to "level up." The first is by doing the objectives in your mission. If you do a certain number, your health will increase. The second way is by completing an assassination challenge. You will have a skill or weapon restored each time you are successful with that. The game itself moves pretty quickly. You have a minimum you need to do to advance and you can do more on top of that. Since I was trying to play through the game in a short amount of time, this was a nice touch although I tried to do most of the challenges (except collecting items). At first I wasn't going to do all of the "Save the Civilian" challenges unless they were directly in my path but I quickly learned it was a good way to increase your health bar as well as practice fighting. After I doing a few in a row, I could feel the movements getting smoother which definitely nice. Sometimes you get to take out a Templar as well (even though I wasn't intentionally trying to collect things). By the last few cities, I also stopped doing insider challenges.

I really loved the Bird's Eye View challenges. As a climber, it was fun to climb in the game and look for what would make a good hold. The sweeping shots of the cities were beautiful. I did mess up the leap of faith a couple of times but the game still counted the objective complete which was nice. I also like that there are a variety of buildings to climb within each city as well as various architecture styles.

Review

The Taste of Power trope at the beginning was a little painful. It's always hard going from all powerful to novice. However, it was great to slowly learn all of the many skills that Altair has as an assassin. The objectives of the game can be a little monotonous. It's clear that you will have a pickpocket, an eavesdropping, an assault, an informer assassination, an informer flag challenge, civilian saving, bird's eye view challenge, and key assassination in every city area. The differences among each city and little nuances keep the game from getting stale but a little more variety wouldn't have hurt.

The more interesting part was definitely the bigger story of why these assassinations are important and which side is actually good vs. corrupt. It's also interesting to wonder why such ancient memories are important in modern times and the way clues are slowly dropped through out the game definitely kept me trying to solve the bigger puzzle as I played through the story.

I really loved the concept of the game as a whole. I thought it was very original and the modern vs. historical aspect of it made it seem relevant. My biggest problems with the game had to do with just the gameplay dynamics. It seems like they had this fantastic concept but then rushed to get it out without doing testing and troubleshooting. My next problem would just be that I wasn't a big fan of the idea of blending in. I know you're supposed to be a stealth assassin but I don't have a ton of patience to tip toe through crowds. I ended up spending most of the time jumping around the rooftops since it was the quickest way to get around without being seen. This paired with the knife throwing (there are occasional roof guards) ended up solving the problem pretty quickly.

Since the whole point of this recap series is in anticipation of ACIII, I've also been watching and reading all about that. I recently saw a video that talks about how they used old maps to recreate Boston and New York. I thought this was really interesting so I went on Google maps and looked up Damascus, Jerusalem, and Acre and compared them to the maps in the game. Each city, although much larger and different now, definitely had an "old city" that closely resembled those in the game. The Google map couldn't zoom in too closely and the cities obviously have shown some deterioration throughout the millennium but it was a nice touch that I will look forward to exploring further in the future games (which take place in cities I've actually been to).

Now time to start AC2 - anything I should keep in mind? I'm excited to see if they've fixed the issues I listed above.

What We Read This Month - September Edition

2012-09-30T19:10:00.001-07:00

In addition to our other geeky pursuits, the three of us also love to read. Two were English majors and one worked at a bookstore so you can only imagine how much reading takes place in our free time. Becca had the great idea that we share a little bit about what we've read each month. We will keep it to 1-2 of our favorites in case we're exceptionally prolific in any month. Becca and Nikki are also on Goodreads if you want to stalk our literary interests.

Nikki's Reads:

For some reason I read a lot of books this month. In case you're curious a lot equals six. That's definitely some kind of record even though a couple were short reads. In any case, I'm just going to highlight two of the books that I read since they left a pretty strong impression on me.

The first was Gone Girl. I'd heard some hype about this book before it came out and then started seeing it around the city (I live in San Francisco which is quite literary so it's incredibly common to see people reading everywhere. It's a great way to see what book is popular at the moment.). The book was suggested to me as part of a book club challenge so I was excited to give it a shot even though I was very unclear on what it was about. The novel is about a married couple who are getting ready to celebrate their 5th anniversary when the wife suddenly goes missing. All signs point to a kidnapping but as the book goes on, it becomes much more complicated than that. I really liked the way this book unfolded. I went from completely identifying with one of the characters to not really knowing what to think. I also really enjoy mysteries and this one gives you a few opportunities to figure out what's going on.

Another book I loved this month was The Princess Bride. I'm sure you've all seen the movie that came out in the late 80's. It's a hilarious classic and even though I usually read the books that movies are based on, I was very hesitant this time. I had assumed the movie was a funny adaption of the book and that the novel wouldn't have the same humor that the film does. Well, that was completely incorrect. It has all of those jokes and inflections in addition to more in depth back stories for many of the characters. I really love how it says that Westley and Buttercup immediately start bickering once they are reunited. True love conquers all - except for snide remarks and arguments. The author also employs a literary technique that I hadn't seen before. I'm not going to ruin it for you because I think it's one of the things that makes this book so special... just read it. Please. For me.

I'm going to give a little honorary mention to Tuesdays with Morrie. It was definitely suggested to me at a time I needed its message most.

Will's Reads:

I have a condition which I will call...Squirrel Syndrome. It is where I will start reading one book, then see another book which I've been meaning to start, and begin reading that one. So I end up with 4-6 books of varying depths of reading. So...I haven't finished any books this month, but I am currently reading The Maltese Falcon by Dashiell Hammett (great book if you haven't read this classic), Me talk pretty one day by David Sedaris, and The Hunger Games: Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins.

I will of course give you updates on these and many other books once I reach the authors picture.

Becca's Reads:

I'm in much the same boat as Will. September has consisted with me starting 6 different books, but so far, I've only finished one. Of those 6, here are my top 2:

My first September pick, and the only novel I finished, was John Scalzi's debut novel, Old Man's War. A recent sci-fi classic, Hugo award nominee, this was a book that I was ashamed to admit that I hadn't read prior to this month. For those unfamiliar with the work, Old Man's War follows the recruitment, training, and early career of John Perry, a 75-year old retired advertising writer and newly minted Colonial Defense Force recruit. Scalzi's future is one where the protection of mankind's far-flung colonies is entrusted to these aged recruits, who at 65 become qualified to join the CDF and receive restored youth in exchange for their service. How these senior citizens are transformed into soldiers is one of the work's best moments, and while the protagonist is predictably portrayed as the best and brightest soldier in the CDF, the novel grabbed me and I found myself compelled by Perry's story. Scalzi has written three other works in the Old Man's War universe, all of which I plan on reading in the near future, and the work was optioned by Paramount last year for film adaptation.

My second favorite, though currently unfinished, September read is (predictably) J.K. Rowling's The Casual Vacancy. Published a whopping three days ago, Rowling's first published novel since the end of the Harry Potter series is a stark departure from the Wizarding World, but the work is no less compelling and shows that Rowling is truly a master story teller. Focusing on the run up to a parish council election being held in Pagford after the unexpected death of council member Barry Fairbrother, Rowling's latest work is a darkly comic social commentary on the seemingly idyllic English country town. I'm only 175 pages into The Casual Vacancy, but I'm already recommending it to anyone and everyone who will listen to me.

Also reading: Foundation (Asimov), Cloud Atlas (Mitchell), State of Wonder (Patchett), and Boneshaker (Priest).

Hunger Games Catching Fire: Thoughts on Casting

2012-09-25T07:23:00.003-07:00

So - the whole crew here at Cinnamon Geek has been pretty terrible about writing posts this month. The goal was to have a post a week and clearly we haven't been too great about that. I apologize on my behalf. I've had some personal things going on that have really distracted me from writing. I do have some ideas in the works though and I've been trying to put those down but they've required some extra research or follow up work. Hopefully the groundwork I'm doing on those comes together soon so I can finish those up and post them here. As for the other two - well, I'll let them make their own excuses. For now - here's a post I should/could have put up weeks ago on The Hunger Games Sequel.

SPOILER FILLED POST

I am ridiculously excited for The Hunger Games: Catching Fire. Not only was the second book my favorite of the trilogy, but I think the clockwork arena is extremely creative and I'm excited to see it come to life. Catching Fire also introduces us to 22 new tributes and several characters from the Capitol so there are a lot of new roles to fill. I've been watching the Hunger Games Facebook page very closely for any casting news and I wanted to give my thoughts on who's been cast. I had written up a summary on all of the tributes, but I realized it was a little too long and some of the actors were a little obscure. If you would like all of that, I can do a follow up with the rest of the tributes.

Character: Plutarch Heavensbee, Head Gamemaker
Book Description: "Just then Portia appears with a large man who looks vaguely familiar. She introduces him as Plutarch Heavensbee, the new Head Gamemaker" (80).
Actor: Philip Seymour Hoffman
What You May Know Him From: Moneyball, Ides of March, Doubt, Mission Impossible III, Capote, Cold Mountain, and a million other things. His IMDB page is huge and he has an Academy Award so I'm sure you've seen him in something...
Thoughts: I love this casting. I think PSH is a fantastic actor and that this character gives him an opportunity to show that. When I was reading the books, I pictured someone taller and fitter, but that's the thing about a character with almost no physical description - your mind can do whatever it wants to do (although Haymitch will always look like Hagrid to me and I still can't fit Woody Harrelson in there..). Anyway, I have no doubt that PSH will do a great job with this role.

Character: Enobaria, District 2
Description: "Enobaria looks to be about thirty and all I can remember about her is that, in hand-to-hand combat, she killed one tribute by ripping open his throat with her teeth. She became so famous for this act that, after she was a victor, she had her teeth cosmetically altered so each one ends in a sharp point like a fang" (224).
Actor: Meta Golding
What You May Know Her From: The Chicago 8, Leslie Seale; Dark Blue, Melissa Curtis; Criminal Minds, Jordan Todd; CSI, several guest spots; Day Break, Jennifer Mathis
Thoughts: I pictured Enobaria as Zoe Saldana when I first read the character. I haven't seen Meta in anything, but looks-wise she sounds perfect. The only exception would be the pointy teeth - she's so beautiful that it will be a frightening contrast but I believe that's also fitting for the character description.

Character: Beetee (Bolts), District 3
Description: "Beetee, the man, is older and somewhat fidgety. He wears glasses but spends a lot of time looking under them" - CF pg 226 (in addition to the joint description under Wiress).
Actor: Jeffrey Wright

What You May Know Him From: Casino Royale, Source Code, Quantum of Solace
Thoughts: There had been a lot of talk of Tony Shalhoub (Monk) being cast for this role so I hadn't really put my mind around anyone else getting the part. However, this seems like a really great casting. A lot of Jeffrey's parts so far have been small but he's done a great job with them. I could definitely see him filling this role of a quieter but more intelligent character. I don't want to spoil Mockingjay for anyone but as the series develops, you learn more about his character. I think Jeffrey will be able to tackle those new facets as well and show a more complex side to Beetee.

Character: Wiress (Nuts), District 3
Description: "The two tributes from District 3 [...] are small in stature with ashen skin and black hair. The woman, Wiress, is probably around my mother's age and speaks in a quiet, intelligent voice. But right away I notice she has a habit of dropping off mid-sentence, as if she's forgotten you're there" (226).
Actor: Amanda Plummer
What You May Know Her From: So I Married an Axe Murdered, Rose; Pulp Fiction as Honey Bunny/Yolanda
Thoughts: Wiress is a little (read very) crazy, hence earning her nickname, Nuts. If you've seen the two movies above, you know that Amanda Plummer can definitely pull off crazy. Ethnically, she's not what I pictured for the role, but she will nail this character who is on a brink of a complete psychological collapse.

Character: Finnick, District 4
Description: "Finnick, the handsome bronze-haired guy from District 4 who was crowned ten years ago at the age of fourteen" (191). "Finnick Odair's famous sea green eyes are only inches from mine" (208). "I can't argue that Finnick isn't one of the most stunning, sensuous people on the planet" (209). There were about 709,089,009 other descriptions I could have picked from the book, but basically, this guy is good looking and important.
Actor: Sam Claflin
The only thing I saw him in was Snow White and the Huntsman and I thought he was really good in that. Then again, when most of your screen time is with Kristin Stewart, it's not very difficult to look like a decent actor. Looks-wise, he is probably not the most Finnicky person I could picture. His dark hair and pale skin doesn't shout "I spend all of my time in the ocean" but that's a pretty easy fix for Hollywood (the three main actors in this series all have naturally different hair colors than their characters). He definitely is a great looking guy and it will be interesting to see what he does since I'm not sure he can pull off the many layers of Finnick's character. Prince William was a pretty one dimensional role, and off the top of my head, I can think of at least 4 different dimensions to Finnick. I'm not saying Sam can't do it, but the roles I've seen him in haven't given me the background information I need to make a judgement. He does kind of remind me of James Marsden earlier in his career (when he was type casted as the douche until people realized he was actually a pretty good actor... then again I just looked at his IMDB and I think I only love him because his character in 27 Dresses is exactly the kind of guy I would date), who actually would have been perfect for the role if he was 10 years younger... but I digress. The jury is out on this one.

Character: Mags, District 4
Description: "She's quickly replaced by a volunteer, an eighty-year-old woman who needs a cane to walk to the stage." - CF pg 191.
Actor: Lynn Cohen
What You May Know Her From: Sex and the City, Magda; Eagle Eye, Mrs. Wierzbowski; Munich, Golda Meir
Thoughts: I had been picturing Betty White or Cloris Leachman but I think that's mostly just because they are higher profile actors. I've only seen Lynn in SATC (embarrassing, I know) and she was great in that. I actually had to double check to see if she was American as an accent wouldn't be fitting for this role.

Character: Johanna Mason, District 7
Description: "Johanna Mason. From District 7. Lumber and paper, thus the tree. She won by very convincingly portraying herself as weak and helpless so that she would be ignored. Then she demonstrated a wicked ability to murder. She ruffles up her spiky hair and rolls her wide-set brown eyes." - CF pg 214.
Actor: Jena Malone
What You May Know Her From: Pride & Prejudice, Lydia Bennet; Saved!, Mary; Donnie Darko, Gretchen Ross; Suckerpunch, Rocket
Thoughts: Where do I start... I was really hoping Kristin Bell would get this since she's one of my favorite ~~actresses~~ ~~celebrities~~ human beings. I got in more than one debate about she clearly has the range to play someone who can appear weak but is also capable of chopping you in half with an axe and not batting an eyelash. Heroes...hello?!?! Anyways - I sadly had to move on from that dream when I heard about this. I have seen Donnie Darko about thirty-seven thousand times and Saved! was a go-to for a while too and those two characters are pretty similar... and don't shout Johanna Mason to me. Lydia Bennet is closer but there's still no worry about her soullessly murdering you or stripping just to get a rise out of people (actually, scratch that - you translate P&P to modern times and that would totally work). I just don't see the edgy side of Johanna Mason in Jena Malone (fyi - I have not seen Suckerpunch). I didn't see the looks either until I saw this photo. That helped a little, but it's going to be really tough for me to get past that whimpering pregnant teenage hanging out with McCaulay Culkin in a wheelchair. Who was that punk friend? THAT girl sounds more like Johanna Mason to me. I'd really love to see the audition tape for this one and see how that director made this decision.

Character: Seeder, District 11
Description: "The woman, Seeder, looks almost like she could be from the Seam, with her olive skin and straight black hair streaked with silver. Only her golden brown eyes mark her as from another district." - CF pg 214. It's also mentioned that she's one of the few older contestants who has stayed in shape. She's one of the few victors that Katniss half trusts and it seems like Seeder is more thoughtful and considerate than the others.
Actor: Maria Howell
What You May Know Her From: That horrible lady in The Blind Side that tried to get Sandra Bullock in trouble for helping Michael Oher
Thoughts: Physically, the description sounds more like what I might look like 30 years, but I'm don't really have a problem with casting a different race for a smaller role. I'd say that Maria Howell looks a little young for a role that's going silver but then again, I know 20-somethings with a few greys so it's possible. I think Maria did a great job in The Blind Side even though I clearly did not like the character. Based on what I've seen of Maria, she carries herself with an intelligent, quiet strength that I think will play well into this role quite well.

And who's left...

Character: Annie (she might not even be in this one as her small appearances could be edited out until the next movie like they did with Plutarch), District 4
Description: "A hysterical young woman with flowing brown hair is also called from 4" - CF pg. 191. "Annie's the one who went mad when her district partner got beheaded. Ran off by herself and hid. But an earthquake broke a dam and most of the area got flooded. She won because she was the best swimmer." - CF pg. 347.
My Dream Casting: I know it would never happen but I think Natalie Portman or Anne Hathaway would nail Annie. They both can do that shining positive spirit but also play characters who have just completely fallen apart. I keep picturing the scene in Dark Knight Rises where Selina Kyle is pretending to be terrified by a bar fight and thinking "That would be a perfect Annie."

Characters: Morphlings, District 6
Description: "We seem particularly riveting to the pair from District 6, who are known morphling addicts. Both are bone thin, with sagging yellowish skin." - CF pg213.
My Dream Casting: Wouldn't it be great to get some washed up super models for this? I bet Janice Dickenson would nail this. These characters basically just get really high and paint flowers all over their bodies. They don't get names so the parts aren't going to go to two big actors but it would still be fun. I actually really loved the morphlings because I felt like they just had this innocence about them since they were so doped up.

Character: Cecilia, District 8
Description: "The woman from 8 who Effie calls Cecilia, who looks about thirty, has to detach herself from the three kids who run up to cling to her" - CF pg 191.
My Dream Casting: It could be fun to get a TV mom for this part. I'm trying to rack my mind for some in the thirties though... Someone like Lauren Graham but younger? Erika Christensen could work? The part isn't huge so probably not but I like the idea of casting someone that people already identify in a motherly way.

Anyways - I'm excited for this!!! It will be interesting to see how the characters adapt to the roles. I did think some of the parts would go to bigger actors but I suppose there are already quite a few big checks to write so I'll take it. I think this has the potential to launch some careers (Meta, Sam - I'm looking at you) and I hope these actors nail their parts - mostly just because this was my favorite book of the series and I want it to be an amazing movie.

And just to keep you entertained - here are some shots from filming. To no one's surprise, Finnick already has his shirt off.

Not So Fast, B-Man!

2012-09-11T14:47:00.001-07:00

Will wrote a wonderful article yesterday on Batman and his birthday. Well, today is another very special birthday... Harley Quinn's! As I pointed out in my bio, Harley is my favorite villain so I've taken it upon myself to help celebrate her special day.

Harley Quinn first appeared in an episode of the Batman: The Animated Series and she didn't always start out as a villain. Originally, Harley was Dr. Harleen Quinzel. She was a psychiatrist at Arkham Asylum. She felt she could learn more about Joker's psychosis and eventually cure him. Instead, she ended up falling in love with him and becoming his most faithful follower. The Arkham City video game also allows you to explore this story if you choose to collect the extra items in the game. Harley Quinn quickly became part of Batman canon through her popularity.

Since her introduction a couple of decades ago, Harley has become a beloved and important character. She is fan favorite for cosplays, and has been a leading villain in the Arkham video games. Arkham City even gave her an additional downloadable game: Harley Quinn's Revenge.

So raise a giant hammer, put on your best jester outfit, and fall in love with your favorite clown in honor of Harley Quinn - just don't buy her a drink. Harley only turns 20 this birthday, but I'm sure she'd love to go out next year.

Happy Birthday B-Man!

2012-09-10T15:41:00.002-07:00

That's right kids, if we can even call you that any more, it's Batman's birthday...sort of. It's really the 20-year anniversary of what is arguably the greatest animated superhero cartoon ever, "Batman: The Animated Series." Even to this day, it still is highly praised for maturity, voice acting, artistic merit, and faithfulness to the comics. During it's 3+ year run, it received 4 Emmys Awards and was nominated for another 9!

I grew up watching every episode of this legendary cartoon, and for me, when I think of Batman's voice I immediately think of Kevin Conroy. You throw Mark Hamill in as the Joker, and anyone else that tries to play those roles has some stadium sized shoes to fill. Click on THIS to see these two in action.
"Batman: The Animated Series," was THE cartoon that opened up the world of superheros to me. Sure, Superman was pretty cool and had another great series that would eventually blend into this one, but there is something about a regular guy with no super powers trying to change a corrupt, dark, and neglected city that makes me think I could actually do something good.
Granted, if I was as loaded as Bruce Wayne, it would definitely make things a little bit easier. But I digress...Here are some interesting facts about the "Batman: The Animated Series."

Harley Quinn, The Joker's sidekick, was created just for the series and proved to be so popular that she became a regular villain in the comics. Officer Renee Montoya was also later added.

Mr. Freeze/Dr. Victor Fries 's origin was completely rewritten for the series to portray a more tragic, lovesick character that would evoke more emotion in the audience. Originally, he was a two-bit criminal who had an accident trying to create a freeze-gun.

To create the eerie nighttime feeling, the background painters used dark paper instead of the traditional white. This also allowed them to save time from painting large portions of black color as most of the scenes are set at night. The animators coined the term "Dark Deco" for this art style.

Tim Curry was initially cast as the voice of the Joker. After he recorded four episodes, his take on the role was deemed to be too scary, so the decision was made to recast and eventually the role went to Mark Hamill.

At no point in any of the episodes is the title, "Batman: The Animated Series" displayed. The producers decided that since Batman was an instantly recognizable character that anyone in any language would be able to tell what the show was about. The show's first opening sequence is essentially a remake of the pilot used to sell the show to Warner Bros.
However, in all the Seasons 3, 4, and 5 episodes the title "The Adventures of Batman & Robin" was displayed.

When the series moved to Sunday evenings on WB, it marked one of the first time an animated series created specifically as a Saturday morning cartoon had aired on Primetime.

In most episodes, there is a character reading a Tiny Toons Adventures Magazine.

Kevin Conroy is the first person in animation to use two distinct voices to portray Bruce Wayne and Batman. It was his own idea.

After every single storyboard, FOX would send the producers a long single spaced list of restrictions about five pages in length, on things they could not do for example; no child endangerment, no open wounds, no blood, no heavy gun violence, no strangling or neck grabs, no alcohol references, and no smoking. The FOX network was really picky, not just about the censorship, but just in terms of content and story. The network had many opinions on what the producers should and shouldn't be doing.

For a long time, the producers wanted to use Firefly, a character that uses fire as a weapon, but Fox said no completely because they did not allow any character to be threatened or harmed by fire. It wasn't until Batman moved to the WB that Firefly was able to be used.

Al Pacino was initially offered the role of Two-Face.

These facts were taken from IMDB.com. I might have changed some of the wording here and there, but they are all taken from the IMDB website and I claim no credit for writing them.

The Positive Influences of Television: Top Chef

2012-08-30T12:03:00.002-07:00

It's frequently said that TV has a lot of negative qualities: It sucks your brain out, it wastes your time, it's hours and hours of trash, it's a bad influence, etc. This is all true in some cases. I know I don't get anything positive from watching a Real Housewives marathon, but there is some television that has a positive influence on it's viewers. This is the first in a series on some shows that have had a positive influence on my life and first up is Top Chef.

If you read my last post, you know that Top Chef is one of my favorite shows. I started watching Top Chef on accident. There was nothing on and my ex stumbled across it. The show was well into the first season (which filmed in my current home of San Francisco), but we were interested in the location and the challenge - the palate test. We were soon hooked, finished the season, and I never stopped watching after that.

Before I became a Top Chef addict, I thought cooking meant finding a new sauce to put on the Buitoni pasta that I had just boiled or microwaving steaming Green Giant vegetables. I had no idea what molecular gastronomy, blanching, braising, brining, or julienning meant, and even though I'll probably never be as skilled as the worst contestant to ever be on that show, it got me interested in cooking. No, it taught me how to cook.

My mom had watched a lot of cooking shows when I was a kid (Two Fat Ladies, Barefoot Contessa, etc), but I found these step-by-step instruction shows boring. They made it look like cooking was just chop, stir, and wait. But Top Chef, with its fast-paced and competitive setup, showed me that cooking could be exhilarating.

I'm lucky in that I can interpret a recipe or pick up tips from television shows. After a couple of seasons of Top Chef, I began experimenting in my own kitchen. A spice rack that my mom had given me was suddenly getting used, I stopped buying frozen vegetables and pastas, and I would emailed my mom for my favorite childhood recipes. I bought cook books while also watching vigilantly as the chefs on TV combined flavors to adapt to that week's challenge.

It didn't stop with Top Chef either. Top Chef was my gateway show, and watching it made it easier to get into Chopped and then the Top Chef Spin-Offs (Just Desserts and Masters). Eventually, I was also hooked on Worst Cooks in America because I loved the tips they gave for the novice chefs (I always pre-heat my pans now). After Around the World in 80 Plates, I realized my DVR didn't have room for any more cooking shows so I cut myself off... but when I was home visiting my parents, I found that I didn't mind watching a few step-by-step shows with my Mom.

Top Chef changed me from someone ambivalent about cooking to a pretty good home chef. I love making dishes for parties, have a full shelf just for cookbooks, and know how to balance and mix spices to make flavors I enjoy. Now, I really identify as a "foodie" and I don't know if that would be a part of my life if I hadn't found this show. I wonder if I would have found my biggest take away - my love of wine and interest in pairing. The first season of Top Chef featured chef Stephen Aspirinio - who was also a sommelier (master wine pairer). Before the show, I didn't even know that was a thing, and now I've built a wine collection and read books on pairing.

My love for food and wine is a huge part of my life. It has propelled me to try certain restaurants, learn how to cook, go on foodie adventures, taste wines, and I might not have discovered these interests without Top Chef.

Gotta love Tony Stark

2012-08-23T19:30:00.001-07:00

The Bowling Theory

2012-08-23T10:58:00.002-07:00

After a recent happy hour with some co-workers, we were trying to figure out the best way to divide the check. Since I'm pretty good at mental math, I took the check and was able to very quickly figure out the tip and divide the bill. My co-worker needed me to walk her through it a few times and no matter how I explained it, the numbers worked perfectly. She then made the comment, "I bet you were able to do that so well and quickly because you've had a couple glasses of wine." Actually... that's probably right and it has to do with something I like to call "The Bowling Theory."

When I was a teenager, bowling was actually a somewhat competitive activity, and I remember being pretty terrible ("Really? we can't use bumpers this one time??"). However, after my 21st birthday, the game changed a little bit. Whether I was playing at an alley or on my Wii, a pattern started to develop. We'd order our beers, and play our first game. The first few frames would start out pretty weak but as the game progressed, the later frames would be full of strikes and spares. At first, I assumed this was just do to warming up and re-acclimating to the game since I don't bowl all that often. However, the second game was always somewhat of a disaster. If it was due to acclimation, then the second games scores should be nearing 200 and this wasn't even close to being true.

That's when I discovered the Bowling Theory.

When you go bowling, everyone (well at least everyone in my groups of friends) tends to get a round of drinks. You get one drink to warm you up, release some tension, and relax you a little bit. It's enough to make you not over-think what you're doing and your body reacts a bit more naturally. However, about halfway through the first game - you get to the second drink. The second drink won't hit your system right away, so you're still playing off the endorphin from the first one as your body metabolizes the second. This usually happens around the time you're finishing the first game and are setting up for the second. By now you've finished both drinks and are feeling invincible... however, your body has enough alcohol in it that now it's not responding in the way you'd like it to be.

Even though I call it the Bowling Theory, I think it applies universally. It's why I could split the check quickly and accurately at the end of my second drink. It's why Wii and Kinect games are so much better after a beer. It's why you're so good at bar trivia in the middle of the game, but you can't remember the name of your favorite band by the end.

The Bowling Theory explains everything and maybe there's a take away from this. It's easy to go out and have a drink or two. According to the Bowling Theory, it also relaxes you enough to have your strengths shine with less stress or worry. So what would happen if we stopped there? Everyone has heard the concept of the designated driver who gets plenty of entertainment from watching his or her friends act silly. Let's take the concept a bit further - next time you're at a game night or trivia or you go bowling, let's see what happens if you stop after the first or second drink (this will depend on your tolerance/size/etc.). If the Bowling Theory is correct, you'll have stopped drinking right when you've peaked in terms of ability.

The Bowling Theory has so many entertaining applications. I love Rock Band and all of my friends know this. I often invite people to come over to play Rock Band after a night out. My instruments of choice are drums and singing. Drums require hand/eye/foot coordination, precise rhythm, and great timing. They're pretty tricky and playing them well requires practice, focus, and the ability to separate the movement of your arms from your feet. It is the perfect candidate for the Bowling Theory. Even though I have quite a bit of drumming experience under my belt, I tend to pick singing when I know I'm not in prime shape. Singing is the opposite of drumming. You can basically hum the songs and get 90% or higher. You also get to watch whoever plays drums slowly fall apart as the night goes on. One of the best aspects of the Bowling Theory is that it doesn't affect your sheer will and self-confidence. Friends who might otherwise be excellent drummers, guitarists or keytarists (oh yes, I have the keytar) will come over, set their difficulty to hard and then need this singer to constantly bail them out. This is the Bowling Theory in action.

I'd love to see if the Bowling Theory works. If you're like me and would rather win than go nuts at a bar - I challenge you to test out the Bowling Theory next chance you get and report back. Since I couldn't find any back up on this - let's do our own research! Yes, having a couple of drinks and seeing how well you bowl is research. Isn't science so fun?

Who is ready to make some science?

Note: I was going to see if there was any sort of official research on this but I wasn't exactly sure how to search for it. If anyone knows of any studies done on the effects of small amounts of drinking, I'd love to read a scientific approach to the Bowling Theory.

Will's Incredible Bio Answers! (ECHO ECho echo)

2012-08-22T14:28:00.004-07:00

Last, but far from least, it's me and my CG Bio!

Name: Will "Danger"

Geek Nickname: ChillyWilly, WilK(as in "Got WilK?"),

Fictional Character You Identify Most With: Deadpool because I like talking to me, myself and I, Captain America, Superman, Wall-E, and Kenpachi Zaraki and Kyouraku Shunsui from Bleach

Favorite Comic Book Hero: Deadpool because Psychosis and Schizophrenia are in.

Favorite Comic Book Villain: Magneto, Joker, Taskmaster, Bullseye, Mr. Mxyzptlk or Deathstroke/Slade.

Favorite Comic Team: X-Men, Justice League, Green Lantern Corps, Thunderbolts, and any "team-up" with Deadpool.

DC or Marvel: To me, this is like someone asking you what your favorite nipple is? I grew up watching, reading, and loving both. I did not segregate my action figures based on what comic or series they were from. To me, my heroes are on one side of the couch, and the villains are on the other. But if I had a gun to my head, most likely from my favorite character, I would pick Marvel, all day everyday.

Favorite Geeky Website: Superherohype.com, Geekexchange.com

What sites do you check every day? Facebook, IGN, eBay, CNET,Superhero Hype, Geek Exchange,

Favorite Gaming System: Nintendo, the original.

What Gaming System(s) Do You Own? NES, Wii, Sega Genesis, Sega CD, Xbox 360, Playstation 1, 2, & 3, iPhone, iPad, and a few other Japanese plug and plays that have a ba-jillion games on them.

Favorite Video Game(s): Ice Hockey for Nintendo, Rocket Knight Adventures, Ratchet and Clank (all), Spiderman (mostly any/all), LA Noire, Batman:Arkham City, Mario Kart, Street Fighter EX3,Super Mario Bros. (NES), Marvel Ultimate Alliance 1 & 2, to name a few.

Most Anticipated Game(s): Halo 4, Deadpool, Assassin's Creed III,

Favorite Movie(s): Untouchables, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, Fight Club, The Dark Knight, Boiler Room, Rounders, Good Will Hunting, Wall-E,

Favorite Movie Trilogy: Indiana Jones (I don't count the crystal skull garbage).

Most Anticipated Movies: Tyler Perry's We the Peeples...Ha ha ha I'm just kidding, Man of Steel, The Great Gatsby, Catching Fire, World War Z, Sin City: A Dame to Kill for, Thor: The Dark Worlds, Iron Man 3, Captain America: The Winter Soldier, R.I.P.D., Pacific Rim, Lone Ranger, The Goon, and Deadpool, to name a few.

Favorite Current TV Shows: Suits, Sherlock, Misfits, Wipeout!, Ultimate Spiderman, Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes, Being Human, Destination Truth, No Reservations, most cooking shows... this is a long list.

Favorite Off the Air TV Shows: Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip, Life on Mars (BBC),The Twilight Zone, Eye on the Bay, X-Men, Superman:The Animated Series, Batman: The Animated Series, Spiderman, Lois and Clark, The Adventures of Brisco County Jr. (you know you love that show and they still use the music for sporting events on NBC!), I could go on for years.

Do you have any collections? An insane amount of baseball cards, sports memorabilia, comic books, and historical San Francisco trinkets.

Your Best Costume/Cosplay: Tough call. As anyone who knows me will tell you, I LOVE getting dressed up in costumes! But, I was one of the Blues brothers with one of my best friends as the other brother. We got in to strangers parties, we were getting free shots and drinks left and right, I felt like a celebrity. However, the time I dressed up as a cop for Bay to Breakers and continually got stopped to ask for directions, people hiding their less than legal beverages, and busting people for said beverages only to tell them I wasn't a real cop, was pretty awesome.

Favorite Literary Genre: Non-Fiction, nothing more unbelievable than the real thing.

Favorite Sci-Fi/Fantasy Book: I'm going to go on a limb here and say that Graphic Novels probably don't count. That being said, I'm really digging the whole Hunger Games Trilogy. I'm on the second book, so don't ruin it for me. But there are numerous short stories that I read when I was in college that I really liked. Did I mention I'm an English Major? I didn't? Good, let's keep it that way.

Favorite Sci-Fi/ Fantasy Protagonist: Like I said, reading Hunger Games, Katniss, in the book, is entirely different than in the movie, so I'd say her. Any girl you can shoot a bow, track a person, and sleep in a tree, can go camping with me anytime.
If you guys get a chance, watch Lockout. Guy Pearce's character is one of my favorite characters ever.

Favorite Sci-Fi/ Fantasy Antagonist: The Sith. I like Star Wars as much as the next guy, but man, I wish they would do more with the Sith! It's one thing to have really good guys, but it's even better to have even worse bad guys!!! You can't have a really incredible Protagonist without and equal if not better antagonist! I wish they would do a whole Star Wars movie, or at least an episode of the Clone Wars, dedicated to how bad ass the Sith are.
I'm also a huge fan of Manga, and would throw The Akatsuki from Naruto or The Espada from Bleach.

Alcoholic Drink of Choice:
Irish Whiskey (always with an "E"), and sometimes Gin.

Favorite Trope:
That's a fish right?

What do you do in your free time? Save the planet from impending doom, help wayward cats down from trees, try not to suck at softball and dodgeball, get lost in the woods both on and off trails, sports that have anything to do with water, run the occasional obstacle course, find the greatest sandwich known, and not known, to man, try new hobbies (this month I'm learning Bartitsu!), try to figure out where the hell the Pabst sign from San Francisco went, with the occasional micro brew tour and video game fest every now and again.

What do you Geek out over?
More like what don't I Geek out over?

Nikki Loves Answering Questions!

2012-08-17T15:42:00.001-07:00

Oh you want me to answer some questions too? OK!!

Name: Nikki

Nikki/Belle

Geek Nickname: Link - it's derived from my last name and of course, is from the Legend of Zelda, one of the best video games of all time.

Fictional Character You Identify Most With: I would say Johanna Mason but my friends said River Tam. I still haven't decided if I'm honored or insulted. *edit* Actually, now that I've been listening to the Broadway Pandora station for a solid 3 months, I'm going to go with Eponine.

Favorite Comic Book Hero: Tie between Batman and Iron Man. I have a thing for billionaire, philanthropist, genius, masked men. If such a person is reading this... call me.

Favorite Comic Book Villain: Harley Quinn

Favorite Comic Team: X-Men - those guys are crazy. I really did not realize they went into space THAT much until I re-watched the animated series a few months ago.

DC or Marvel: Marvel

Favorite Geeky Website: The Mary Sue

What sites do you check every day? Facebook, The Mary Sue, Pinterest, Blogger, Goodreads, IGN, G4, 1Up Network

Favorite Gaming System: Playstation 3

What Gaming System(s) Do You Own? PS3, Xbox 360, Wii, PS Vita, Nintendo DS - gotta have all your bases covered. I also pre-ordered an Ouya.

Favorite Video Game(s): God of War series, Ratchet & Clank series, Halo series, Smash Brothers Melee, Rock Band series

Most Anticipated Game(s): Assassins Creed 3/Liberation (looking forward to the Vita crossover), Deadpool, God of War: Ascension

Favorite Movie(s): The Dark Knight, Vertigo, Breakfast at Tiffany's, Fight Club, Ratatouille, and Beauty and the Beast (I contained it to one Batman, one Hitchcock, one Audrey, one Pixar and one Disney but really I could go on for a while)

Favorite Movie Trilogy: Back to the Future, Dark Knight Trilogy, Star Wars (both, don't judge), Terminator

Most Anticipated Movies: Iron Man 3, Hunger Games: Catching Fire

Favorite Current TV Shows: How I Met Your Mother, Top Chef, American Ninja Warrior, L.A. Complex

Favorite Off the Air TV Shows: Veronica Mars, House, Battlestar Galactica, Firefly, X-Men (actually most cartoons I liked as a kid), Better Off Ted

Do you have any collections? I love collecting (and drinking) wine - I'm certain this will be a re-occuring theme in this blog. I have a collection of posters from a famous theater in San Francisco. Since I only have so much wall space this is a quality over quantity collection but I'm very vigilant about getting the posters for my favorite movies when they become available. I also try to collect every (excluding straight to DVD) Disney and Pixar movie.

Your Best Costume/Cosplay: I have a really great Lara Croft outfit. I just got all the pieces together for a Halloween costume I've been wanting to do for a few years (which I'm sure will make it's way onto this site). I also just love accesories: Batman mask, pirate accessories - you need to be covered for any theme party or movie premiere!

Favorite Literary Genre: Mystery/Suspense for fiction, Behavioral Economics for non-fiction, Dystopian Future Societies for geeky categories

Favorite Sci-Fi/Fantasy Book: A Wrinkle in Time, Catching Fire, Hitchhiker's Guide, A Ring of Endless Light

Favorite Sci-Fi/ Fantasy Protagonist: Peeta Mellark (Hunger Games), Ford Prefect (Hitcher's), V (V for Vendetta)

Favorite Sci-Fi/ Fantasy Antagonist: The Red Queen (Through the Looking Glass)

Alcoholic Drink of Choice: Wine - specifically, Cabernet, Sirah, and Malbec.

Favorite Trope: Hilarity Ensues or Mary Sue (if you don't know what a trope is, click here. I apologize in advance for the many hours you are about to waste) although Becca insists it should be Manic Pixie Dreamgirl.... which, after reading the description, is probably spot on.

What do you do in your free time? Everything (quite literally)! My hobbies include rock climbing, hiking, exploring, painting, arts & crafts, reading, movie watching, cooking, and generally exploring/going on adventures.

What do you Geek out over? I love wine and try my hand at pairing all the time. I just love to absorb information and can get lost on wikipedia/tropes etc. forever. When I read a geeky article I always click through to the source. When I watch or re-watch a television series, I spend a lot of time online getting more information. This is even more so for something that has a large universe outside of what is on the show/movie (e.g. comic books based media).

The Economics of Wine

2012-08-12T15:09:00.003-07:00

The inspiration for this post came from, where I suspect many future posts will come from, a comment fight on the Internet. I try to avoid these things, but if something I'm passionate about comes up... well, I'd need two bouncers to hold me back. I'm not going to lie, part of the idea for this blog was for me to have a place to formulate my comment debates into a well thought out essays that drives my point home.

This particular discussion started when a friend posted an article about how Charles Shaw (2 Buck Chuck) won double gold at a wine competition proving once and for all that cheap wine is as good as or better than expensive wine.

My stance?

First, the article is eight years old and discussing a ten year old wine, so I felt it to be a bit outdated (and we'll go into further detail about the significance of the years). Additionally, I feel that its possible for wine to be too cheap. That doesn't mean you need to spend a small fortune on twenty year old wines imported directly from the heart of France. There are a lot of really great wines in the $10 range and those few extra dollars can make a huge difference in the quality of the wine you end up buying.

My Background

I'm not going to say I'm some sort of wine expert. I like to refer to myself as a "wine connoisseur-in-training." I love wine, I'm a member of two wine clubs, I have a few wine books and I read several wine articles. I'm not an expert, I have never taken a class. I know what I know about wine from buying and drinking a lot of wine.

My credentials

Economics, on the other hand, is a different story. I have a Bachelor's degree in Economics from a leading university, I've worked in finance for four years, I read economics books for fun, and I constantly calculate my opportunity cost (opportunity cost is what you have to give up in order to do/buy something. For example, I think of how many hours I would need to work to pay for something I'm going to buy vs. how many hours I'll enjoy it).

So here is an Economist who loves wine, telling you a little but more about what it is you're paying for. I got a little carried away with this post so the rest is after the jump!

The Basics Behind Charles Shaw

Let's start with the basics - How does Charles Shaw work? The brand is owned by Bronco Wine, which is run by the Franzias (guess what they are known for?) who have been in the wine industry for decades. 10 years ago, they approached Trader Joes to start a $2 wine called Charles Shaw. Originally, the wine would be inexpensive to produce because it would source grapes from wineries that have a surplus or have gone bankrupt (the brand name was also purchased after the original Charles Shaw estate went bankrupt). These days, the brand additionally operates their own wineries throughout the California Central Valley, but continues to bottle in Napa so that they can lay claim to the region.

What About These Awards and Things?

There are two facts here that are key to explaining how Shaw likely won their awards in 2002. First, since they source surplus grapes, they are able to blend them in order to improve taste. Since 2002 was one of their first vintages, the company had all of their initial grapes accessible in order to start off the brand with the best grapes they were able to source. For a label that is sourcing grapes, 2000-2002 would have been great years to buy grapes as there was a huge economic downturn. Therefore, it's quite likely that the grapes Shaw purchased for their 2002 vintage were sold at a much lower than they would have been in subsequent years, allowing the brand to have an unusually superior vintage.

The Chemistry and Aftermath of Cheap Wine

However, 2002 was a long time ago and I doubt that anyone has been aging a bottle of $2 Chuck for ten years so let's take a look at the wine today. I'm not going to lie - when I was fresh out of college and adjusting to "the real world" and full autonomy, I was elated to take home an armful of wines without breaking a twenty. However, once I started drinking slightly nicer wine, I noticed that I had the worst hangovers when I broke out the cheaper bottles. My mom, who is a big fan of spending less than $5 on wine, came to visit me and broke out some of my favorite wines from the clubs I order from. The next morning she told me that she surprisingly had no hangover, unlike when she shares a bottle of Chuck with my dad. It was a phenomenon that I noticed too - even though I was enjoying more wine with dinner and usually sticking to wine when I went out, I only felt bad the next day if I ended up opening a cheaper bottle.

I wanted to do some research into this hangover theory. I did some reading on the interwebs and found that cheap wines are notorious for putting extra additives into their wine for a variety of reasons. Charles Shaw has been accused (I have no proof) of adding grape concentrate, sugars, flavorings etc. For example, cheap wine may cut costs by putting oak chips into its wine instead of aging it in an oak barrel. Although you may end up with a product that has a taste profile similar to a wine that runs 4-5x the price, it's due to these artificial ingredients rather than the aging process, so you're more likely to have a rough morning after if you have a few glasses of the stuff.

Here's where the opportunity cost comes in. If I feel sick in the morning, I could be an hour or more late to work, just from buying cheap wine. If I spend $10 more on a bottle (and I make more than $10/hour) than the time that I'm in work instead of clutching my head in agony is money in the bank.

And... Back to Economics

A big part of the reason that Charles Shaw can keep their prices so low is because of their mass production (economies of scale). The larger the quantity of a product produced, the lower the average cost will be to produce each unit, and since Charles Shaw is producing millions of bottles a year, they can be more efficient and keep their costs low. The company also cuts costs by using cheaper glass, plastic corks, etc. The biggest cost the company faces is actually in distribution as can be shown by the $2.99 price tag outside of California (In some ways, they're just exhibiting good micro-economic principles).However, some cost cutting does make for an inferior product. As I said above, cheaper wine companies tend to add additional substances to their wine order to mask the flavor of cheaper grapes.

Other times, the higher price isn't caused by the wine at all, but factors like property and production costs. A winery charging a bit more may grow their grapes in an area that creates better natural flavors, but has a higher price for land. Perhaps you just really like a winery in particular but they are a small operation that doesn't benefit from the economies of scale that a mass producer like Charles Shaw can benefit from. If you happen to like foreign wine, you're paying for that bottle to travel quite a distance on top of it's original cost.

Sometimes you really are just paying for a superior product. I'm a proud member of the Francis Ford Coppola Winery. As far as wineries or wine clubs go, it's a little hokey... but I love that. I love that the labels show the artistic expressions of a visionary director. I love that the wine has a variety of price points from house wines to supermarket wines to reserve wines. I love that they have a pool and movie paraphernalia at their estate in Sonoma. I love that I have a private shopper that I can email when I want to make an order and that they make my life as a customer incredibly easy. They're easy to contact, they give great customer service, they have a wide selection, they constantly email me deals. I love putting my dollars into a company that is going to give me great service and I'm willing to pay a premium on the wine for that (however, as a member, I do get a 30% discount).

Membership Benefits

So How Much Should I Spend?

You don't have to look far on the Internet to find a lot of posts about how wine doesn't need to be THAT expensive, with results from double blind taste tests, etc. I've had those articles pushed in my face plenty of times when I say I don't like cheap wine. Let me clarify my pricing scale - I think $2 is cheap. $4 is extremely inexpensive. $10 is a fair price. $25 is a very nice bottle of wine. $40+ and I'm probably holding onto it for a special occasion or an investment. After all, I'm 26 and I don't have a small fortune to spend.

The articles that you are throwing my way are calling $8-10 bottles of wine "cheap" and comparing them to $25-50 bottles. Most of the wine I drink is around $10-15 and I don't feel a huge need to jump out of that price bracket largely in part because I fully agree - you can get a lot of amazing wine at that price point.

Ten Dollar Wine? Go on...

Less than $10

Although my friends often call me a wine snob, I want to reiterate that you don't need to spend a ton of money to get a good wine. Here are a few of my favorite wines that won't break the bank.
-Blue Fin Petite Sirah, $3.99, Trader Joe's (they also have a Pinot Noir, Chardonnay, and Viognier)
-Coppola Votre Sante Chardonnay can sometimes be found on sale at Trader Joe's (also a Pinot Noir but I wasn't a big fan of it)
-Louis Latour is a great French wine which currently has a Chardonnay blend for about $8 at Trader Joes

Trader Joes also frequently features staff picks on affordable wines and I've used those suggestions to branch out to new wines as well.

A lot of Coppola, Benzinger, Kendall Jackson, and Mondavi wines can be found in the $10 range as well, if you can find a special or a discount store, (Target is a good place for this) but they can also be higher so it's good to shop around and see how the price varies at different locations.

Another tip is to shop the Five Cent Sale at BevMo. My biggest tip here is that sometimes the prices are marked up before the sale. They also tend to offer the same wines each time around so if you see a wine at the Five Cent Sale, do not buy it when it's regular price because you're likely overpaying at that point.

And for even a little bit more, one of my wine clubs, Club W, sells a wide selection of wine's each month for $13/bottle including tax and shipping. There is a 3 bottle minimum each month but you can skip months at will. The club will also quiz you on your taste profile and recommend wines to you each month based on your answers and your ratings of any of your orders.

I Judge Wine, Not People

If you like cheap wine or Charles Shaw, there's nothing wrong with that. Wine is an acquired taste. My dad lives off of Charles Shaw and Carlo Rossi and that is perfectly ok with him. The way I see it, it's like those people who only drink Budweiser or eat fast food for dinner most nights. There might be better options out there that are better for you, but if you don't mind then more power to you. Charles Shaw, Budweiser and McDonald's are also great - as starters. Wine, like beer and food, have different layers that you grow different tastes for. If someone tells me they've never had wine before, I'm not going to suggest they order a ten year old Cabernet Franc just like no one would hand a pint of Guinness to a beer virgin. You start with something light and maybe after they get used to that you suggest a lager, then a Blue Moon, then they can move onto other Belgium beers and then ales and so on. Some people never feel the need to move out of that and that's great, save yourself the money and be happy with what you know you like.

It's the same thing with wine. If someone told me they had never had wine before and wanted to know what they should start with, I would tell them to get some Charles Shaw or Sutter Home White Zinfandel and then we'd move forward from there. These wines are great for getting people started. Sometimes that's enough and sometimes you grow a greater interest and want to go on tastings and try different brands and varietals. Sometimes you end up being a "wine snob" like me and try to fill your brain with as much wine knowledge as you can.

But How Do You Really Know?

The one thing I wasn't able to tackle in this post was an actual blind taste test. As much as I love an excuse to crack open a few bottles, I know that this should be a fully blind taste with a variety of pallets. I also hate wasting even the cheapest of wines but didn't want to get stuck having to drink $2 Chuck. Instead, Cinnamon Geek is going to have an official blind taste test and... we need volunteers!!! We need person to prepare the blind pours and film (yes! the future of Cinnamon Geek is in video!). We also need a couple of extra tasters to increase the statistical significance of this experiment. If you are interested in participating and live in the Bay Area, tell me why you're an awesome judge of wine in the comments.

Sources

In addition to any links embedded in this post, I've listed any articles I read while doing my back up research on this post (after the jump) because I needed to be absolutely confident in what I was putting here.

The Catsuit - Form or Function?

2012-08-09T12:05:00.000-07:00

I don't think there is anything on the internet that gets me more riled up than the discussion about whether or not a female protagonist can realistically wear heels and still do awesome stunts and action scenes. I've gotten into many internet debates over this... because I think any woman can kick ass and wear heels, and I'm going to tell you why (minor Dark Knight Rises spoilers ahead)

Several months ago, when Catwoman's costume was shown, there was a pretty big internet outcry about how "once again a female action star is wearing heels" and "sexist costumes" and "isn't Nolan's Bat-verse supposed to be realistic?" It's caught my attention that when a female's costume debuts, the first impulse is to point out impracticalities in it. I think there are two sides to this coin, and as a female, I have no problem explaining why heeled boots work.

I think first and foremost, sometimes it's easy in the movie world to assume "the director wanted this" or "producers think this outfit will make us more money" and while those things may be true, it's helpful to remember that they are still dressing a character. This character may actually prefer this kind of outfit. Catwoman is a perfect example of this. Her character has always been a seductress, using her feminine wiles to distract her targets. If sex appeal and seduction is one of your tools, then doesn't a sexy costume make sense?

I also just extremely dislike the argument that one cannot move in heels for practical reasons. My roommate recently got me into So You Think You Can Dance (SYTYCD). I was already firmly on Teams Heels before watching the show but watching these young women do a variety of dances and flips while wearing strappy stilettos only reinforced my opinion. I personally love heels and while I may not sport them every day and for every occasion, I definitely feel comfortable wearing boot heels (similar to those that Catwoman dons) for extended periods of time. Comfortable may not even cover it... part of me feels more empowered when I can wear some stiletto boots and march down the street knowing that I look good but am still physically capable of running, jumping or climbing even though I'm not nearly as acrobatically adept as Catwoman. I look at Catwoman or the women on SYTYCD and I wonder if they get that some feeling. The feeling that not only are you capable of doing something but that you can still do it while wearing heels makes you that much better, that much stronger. That boost to one's confidence could very well be more than enough to overcome any sort of physical hindrance that the heels may cause.

A big reason why the comments regarding Catwoman's shoes particularly bothered me, was that the shoes were also designed to serve a useful purpose as well. Long before the movie came out, it was said that the Selina Kyle's heels actually hid a blade that she could use in combat. The movie clearly demonstrated this on two occasions: once when she pinned an adversary against a wall with her heel and again when she used the heel blade to kick and cut a rope in order to lower a window washing cart. The shoes clearly had a greater purpose than only being a sexy costume design.

Not comfortable... then again, I accidentally got a kid size...

There is also an aspect of the costume that is supposed to represent a cat-like form. Take Batman, for example. I personally would go crazy if I had to don a cape and a cowl. I hate having my head or arms covered and I tend to get tangled up very easily. I would feel like the cowl limited my visibility and I wouldn't get 2 feet on the Bat-pod without the cape getting caught in my gears. While there are functions of these two costume elements - I would find them much more annoying than useful. However, these design elements help make Batman appear more like the animal from which he derives his name. In the same way, Selina's boots help her appear to have and more of a cat-like swagger. That visual aspect of the costume is important in the transformation from normal person into something more.

What is boils down to in the end is that it's always a choice. I wear heels because I love them. I love the way I look in them and the way they make me feel. I imagine Catwoman makes the same choice for similar reasons. Many people hate to wear heels and, lucky for everyone, they have that choice too.

Why I Kickstarted Ouya

2012-08-07T14:23:00.000-07:00

Ok, blog readers, I feel like my posts haven't been stereo-typically geeky enough so here's a post on my geek area of strength: the gaming world.

I have been a huge gamer my whole life - a concept that is odd to people for two reasons: I'm a girl and the only console I owned until I was in high school was a classic Nintendo and a Gameboy (briefly). So I missed a lot of systems in between Nintendo time and when I finally bought a second hand PS1 off of my brother for $50. Yet I rarely missed an opportunity for gaming. Anyone who was friends with me during that time, would usually have me over to help them beat their video games. There was some beautiful mystery in the fact that my siblings and I, having the least video game experience, were always handed the controller when the level or boss fight got too hard. We mostly just played games at friends and neighbors houses but eventually we got involved in computer gaming and then discovered the beauty of emulation - both wonderful ways to game while living with parents who refused to let us have consoles.

Now that I'm an adult (kind of) and live on my own, I have my own pay checks to spend where I want. Despite my parents' attempts at keeping me away from gaming, I love it more than ever. I own all the modern systems, and I have quite a game collection. That's why I knew I had to get an Ouya as soon as I heard about it.

I pride myself on being knowledgeable about the gaming world. I watched E3 the way some people watch CNN or Monday night football. I already have a wishlist for all of the winter and spring release games. While my first impulse was "OMG a new console! I need this!" Ouya actually made a lot of sense to me.

Ouya is going to run Android (I should also put out there that I am adamently not an Apple person. I will always pick PC, Android, Google, etc. Always) 4.0 and be completely open source. This console is an open invitation to developers to create games for a television. Imagine the people who created Angry Birds, Farmville, Draw Something, etc. being able to work with a game that fits on your flat screen tv and using a controller. It sounds like there's a lot of possibility there.

Well, that's sounds great for developers, but what's in it for us little people? All games will be free in some form. This could be a full game, a free demo, etc. Either way, you get to test what you're playing before you ever have to commit dollars to it.

Ouya is also going to have some of those same benefits that I love about my Xbox 360, PS3 and Wii - apps. Since it runs Android, it's going to run any Android apps. As a dedicated Android and Chrome user, it's nice to have one more place where I can sync up to my Google world.

I'm excited for Ouya and I've committed to testing it out. Check back in March to see what my first look at Ouya is like. Maybe we'll even have videos up by then you can watch our hands on gameplay.

There's more information about Ouya on their Kickstarter page although the fundraising period is almost over.

Haiku Forgive Me?

2012-08-06T13:04:00.001-07:00

Since I didn't do a
post last week, I thought I should
write an apology.

Everything I write
will be in Haiku form since
I love a challenge.

If you would like to
write your own Haikus, click here
for WikiHow's page.

I will quit stalling
and get to my apology now.
check my hard work here.

Sorry I am, for one
post a week I did not do.
This sounds like Yoda.

One post each week is
much harder than I first thought.
Life is never easy.

Luckily, I don't
have writer's block, I just want
quality above all.

So if nothing else,
expect a geeky Haiku
to fill in the gaps.

Thanks for reading!
I'm working on a few posts
and are coming soon.

Amazon Love Sonnet

2012-08-01T12:46:00.000-07:00

I had to get an item at the store

But the nearest shop was miles away

To drive that far would be a tough chore

When the nearest store was across the Bay

I knew Amazon would have it online

With so many deals, I had to get Prime

Lending Library books were now all mine

Instant videos to watch all the time

Though I did not need my order today

Before the end of the week would be great

I used my Amazon Visa card to pay

And then the only thing to do was wait

The box would arrive in days less than few

But it came in one day instead of two

The Dark Knight Rises Podcast Discussion

2012-07-30T08:04:00.000-07:00

Welcome to our first podcast! After opening night, the three of us got some wine and talked about different aspects of the movie. Now that it's been out for over a week, we'd love to share our thoughts with you. DO NOT LISTEN IF YOU HAVEN'T SEEN THE MOVIE. It is loaded with spoilers. You've been warned.

Dark Knight Rises Podcast Link

I also want to add - this was a our first podcast so please have patience with any sound inconsistencies. We are working on fixing this for future recordings.

The Big "O" or 5 Rings to Rule Them All

2012-07-27T16:34:00.002-07:00

THE OLYMPICS ARE HERE!!!

The Olympic Games are easily one of my favorite sporting events to watch. Why? You might ask, or who cares? To that I say, Shut your mouth when you're talking to me! The Olympics bring the entire world together for 2-ish weeks, to put differences and conflicts aside in the name of peace and good sportsmanship. Granted, after looking at Olympic Juggernauts like the U.S. and China, it hardly seems fair, but that doesn't mean they are not entertaining.
Now I was going to write this whole essay like post comparing The Hunger Games to The Olympic Games, but it's been a long week at work, and like I said, I've got two weeks, should I ever feel up to it. Until then, enjoy these very interesting facts about The 2012 London Olympic Games. U-S-A! U-S-A!

London will become the first city to officially stage the Olympics for a third time.
There is a very fair argument that the first modern Olympic Games actually took place in the small English village of Much Wenlock in 1866 - some 30 years before the 1896 Athens Games.

Britain was the first country to stage a Paralympic event which took place on the Opening day of the 1948 London Olympics and were known as the Stoke Mandeville Games. Competitors were disabled war veterans. The name derives from Parallel Olympic.

The two mascots of the Games, Wenlock and Mandeville are named after the previously mentioned Much Wenlock and Stoke Mandeville.

The sporting pictograms that are now an integral part of the Olympic Games were first introduced at the 1948 London Games. There were originally just 20 Olympic Symbols and they were used on the tickets to help people find the events. They were reintroduced at the 1966 games and have been used ever since.

At the 1908 London Games the organizers of the Marathon discovered that the British Royal Box was 385 yards further down route than the 26 mile finishing mark. The route was extended to finish exactly in front of King Edward VII and has been 26miles and 385 yards ever since.

It has been announced that there will be serious fines of up to £20,000 for anyone 'streaking' at the London 2012 Olympic Games if they are using their nudity or partial nudity to advertise any product or brand that is not already associate with or a sponsor of the Games. It is uncertain what will happen to people who just get naked for fun.

A century ago, the gold medals were entirely gold. The ones that will be awarded over the next two weeks contain just 6 grams of gold. They're mostly silver. They haven't been entirely gold since 1912.

For more interesting facts, check out CNN's London Olympics by the numbers. Who knew the U.S. has never won a medal in Badmitton, Table Tennis, and Handball? And no, it's not the same Handball that you played in Grade School.

That's the Fun Facts for this week. If you have a topic that you would like me to research and find little known facts for, comment on this post below or call Nikki, perferably between the hours of 1:00am-4:15am.
If you made it this far, congrats!