SLOTW – Hey that doesn’t look so scar-*insert blood curdling high pitched scream here*

For those in the dark (the deep, deep dark…), this coming weekend is Halloween!  With that, you’ll get annoying kids dressed up in tacky and bad looking costumes, knocking at your door for the expected candy treatment for going away.  Not to mention the constant sight of pumpkins that would be better suited for pie (and you know I love me some pie!).  Halloween should be reserved for scaring the crap out of those kids, and mutilating those pumkins for your own personal baking and consumption.  With that mindset in mind, I present to you some very scary (and very sweet….. now I want some damn pie!) links of the week!

When you get done with your trick or treating, you and your friends might decide to sit by a campfire or dark room with a flashlight and tell each other ghost stories.  While your stories might be cheesy and sometimes funny or dumb, you always had a good time.  But I’m not quite in the business of funny and stupid…… ok, maybe I am.  But for now, I’ve got a story for you that might trump all the stories you’ve heard as a kid.  It’s scary, blood curdling, and you can view it HERE.

If that didn’t quite elicit a blood curdling scream, you might be able to find something below.  If you want, you can chant along if you know the words…

If  you’ll excuse me, I need to grab a change of underwear, as well as some pants…. also I need a new chair…

~Kirby

SLOTW – Lights! Camera! Otaku!

Since the dawn of movies and television, there have been followings, movements, heck, even downright tributes to famous movies and television series.  Nowadays, these forms of fandom have shifted from the realm of television and movies to Anime and Video Games.  While the realm of cosplay has been the easiest and most accessible form of fandom, it’s the effort of one’s fandom that truly seperates the casual geeks from the hardcore fans.  As such, this week’s Sweet Links of the Week is all about fan films from Anime and Video Games!

Our first entry involves 3 things.  A beautiful woman, A gun, and SCIENCE!  Put all 3 together, and what do you have?  This short Portal fan film directed by Dan Trachtenberg, is beautifully made, complete with jaw-dropping visuals, fantastic scenery, and even more awesome action.

 

While a fan film can be great with the right visual effects and great camera angles, some of the best fan films come complete with mind-blowing coreography, great dialogue, and staying true to the original media!  One of my favorite series is and continues to be Naruto.  From all the action packed fight scenes, to the awesome techniques, to the character relationships, I find the series to be spectacular.  So I immediately become a skeptic when I see fan films out on the internet.

With this big gem, however, my mind has been completely blown, with no room for skepticism (other than the hair.  It’s always the hair on Naruto…) with Thousand Pounds Action Co.’s first part of their movie.

 

SLOTW – GIGAAAANTOOOOR!!!

As one might notice when looking around in day to day life, you night notice that many things are getting smaller and smaller.  From electronic devices, to computer monitors, even cars!


see what I mean?  Now let’s see how many clowns we can fit into that?

With technology and autos getting smaller nowadays, it only seems natural that one might desire to feed their inner giant every once in a while.

And on the note of food, you might be thinking of a big ass bowl of pasta, or a humongous 5 pound burger.  Hell, even a HUGE ass Ice Cream Cone.  Or, if you live in Japan, you could very well have one of these…

Indeed, it’s a GIANT SUSHI ROLL!  And yes, you can get one of your very own at the Umewaka Restaurant in Anjo City, Japan for the low low LOW price of $197 (¥15,000)!  This giant roll of sushi and fish weighs in at a whopping 5 kilograms, and features a fuckton of awesome wrapped up for a party of 5!

Now that we’ve gotten your future dinner (and bucket list entries) out of the way, if you’re still having problems with your inner giant raging out on stuff to buy, I think I’ve found just the solution for you!  Ever wanted a giant pen to sign for a giant check?  Ever wanted to have an epic win at Scrabble?  Dare to run with giant scissors?  Got a huge ass cork board with nothing to pin stuff to it?


touche, internet.  touche.

Well you can satisfy those urges, and MUCH more with the folks at Great Big Stuff!  They have all sorts of HUGE and GINORMOUS items for sale!  Ever wanted a set of big Monopoly™ pieces?  Boom!  Still looking for something to go with your giant cork board?  Pow!  Need to give your cats a reason to bow down before you?


yeah that was my first reaction, too.

~Kirby

SLOTW – Trek On!

For as long as I can remember my first episode, I’ve been a HUGE fan of Star Trek, whether it’s The Original Series, The Next Generation, to even Voyager!  It’s unique brand of storytelling, complete with awe inspiring technology and vast array of characters that drew you in.    This week’s SLOTW highlights two awesome pieces of Star Trek related info!

 

Our first link is one for the history buffs!  Not everyone knows the history of Star Trek, including it’s run dates, as well as fun tidbits of factoids that might be otherwise unknown!  Fear not, for Space.com has made an infographic of the first 45 years of Star Trek for all of us to enjoy!  I would put it up here on the front page, but it’s quite large and lengthy, so I’ve provided a link here!

 

Our second piece of info comes in the news of a series re-release onto Blu-ray!  TrekCore has just announced that the Star Trek: TNG series is being remastered for a Blu-ray release!  This news was also confirmed on Levar Burton’s (Geordi La Forde in TNG) twitter!   For those who are fans of the series, this news is pretty awesome!  For those on the Kirk side of the captain face off, you already have your DVDs, so buzz off!

And since you’ve read through this whole article (or just skipped to the images, you lazy dork…) and love us for it, why not reward yourself with some awesome bite size Star Trek Cookies?

~Kirby

SLOTW – Holy Clearance, Batman!

Whether it’s replicas, actual props, or whatever fancies the collector, Hollywood memorabillia is a treasure trove and a hobby that’s long loved.  From swords, to movie devices, and sometimes whole set pieces for the maniacal and rich.  It’s a big business, and there’s always a collector for SOMETHING.  While props are special, it’s the functional props that garner the most attention.

I’ve always enjoyed the Batman movies (save for one.  *COUGHGEORGECLOONEYSUCKSCOUGH*), and was ALWAYS fascinated by the complexity with the design and the functions of the Batmobile.  From wondering how the engine worked, to how he got the little gadgets into the car, It’s always been a dream of mine to sit in the driver’s seat and take it for a spin!  Well my dream has been half realized.

Yes you’re not seeing things, it’s a replica of the batmobile!  Best of all, it’s drivable, turbine powered, and COMPLETELY STREET LEGAL!  Now why did I say my dreams were half realized?  Cause on the plus side, the owners of this replica, Putsch Racing, is selling the car on Ebay!  On the down side (and it’s a huge downer for me), it’s on sale for $620,000.  While I’ll never be able to afford to drive it, it’s pretty damn amazing that a working replica can be made available to a serious collector with a lot of cash to spare!  Here’s the original article here.

 

Now for something a bit more awesome.  If you’re a cosplayer, you’ve no doubt ran into some awesome cosplayers that look great, get all sorts of attention, but have you run into anything like this?

Shiney!

The man behind this little project, Anthony Le, told Popular Science how he built this version of the War Machine costume in time for the premiere of Iron Man 2.  Having been a huge fan of Iron Man since he was a kid, Le wanted to show his fandom when he heard about the production of the first Iron Man  movie in 2008.  The War Machine suit Le built features a motorized spinning gatling gun barrel, LED eyes, and a faceplate that opens up with a small servo motor!  Now once you install the Repulsor motors and make the gun shoot, come to me and we’ll talk financing!

~Kirby

 

SLOTW – I’d hit that… with a Pickaxe!

In case you didn’t get get the joke of the headline, this week’s Sweet Link of the Week is all about one of my favorite games of all!  The open box world of Minecraft!

For those new to this game (seriously, have you not heard about it somewhere?), Minecraft is an open box sandbox game created by Markus “Notch” Presson and his team over at independent startup Mojang Studios in Sweden!  From it’s inception, Minecraft has gained more than a million unique players, won “Game of the Year” award at the Indie Awards, and was selected to be included in the Smithsonian American Art Museum’s “Art of Video Games” Exhibit!  All this while the game is still in it’s Beta stage of development, with a release date of November 11, 2011!

With games like Minecraft, it’s only natural that people would create mods and whole new types of gameplay!  From constructable games like Spleef, and the Yog-Olympics, to whole new mods and world to be played in the game, Why don’t we show you some of the more unique and fun creations that we at aniRAGE have found!

First up, we have a mod that literally asks the question “What if there were Pokemon in Minecraft?”

Well Minecraft modder Seagoingmanatee answered that for us, and in a big way!

For those who play Minecraft, you can find the mod here.

 

As some may know, I’m a huge Team Fortress 2 fan, and will occaisonally jump into a server to lay out the pain!  But while I enjoy it, I now have to wonder how you’d play Team Fortcraft!

 

~Kirby

SLOTW – Surprises of the Colorful and Sweet Kind!

Candy.

It is the stuff of legends and has been talked about for centuries.  From Gum Drops, to Licorice, it’s variety is as limited as the amount of sugar you can cram into it.  And it’s culturally universal, too!  Ever had British candy?  How about Spanish Candy?  More than likely, perhaps not, but that doesn’t mean you can’t enjoy it!  Take Japanese candy, for example!  Have you ever had pocky?  Not quite candy, but it can give you a taste of what it might be like!  Well wonder no more!  You too can have a sample of Japanese Candy thanks to the people at CandyJapan.com, they’ll send you a sample of Japanese candy to your doorstep twice a month for a reasonable subscription fee.  Plus the fee includes your shipping!

Since my eyes have been able to look at objects, Optical Illusions have always fascinated me.  From double images, to straight line tricks, to even after image illusions, they’ve shown me how my brain works, as well as what’s possible with the human mind in terms of creativity.  Often or not, I also try to dissect how these illusions work, as well as how to try and fool them (I like to challenge myself sometimes).  However, one particular illusions always seemed to be impossible for me to figure out, now matter how many times I checked out.

This one.

The basics behind this is that tiles A and B are the same color.   Obviously, it’s not quite the same.  I couldn’t bring myself to believe it… that is until a youtube video popped up that showed me that indeed it is real and obviously that my brain needs more work.

Amazing, ain’t it?

~Kirby

Kirby Goes to the Movies! – 30 Minutes or Less

*puts on the Gene Shallot tie* Greetings, fellow movie goers!  It’s Kirby with a movie review for everyone!  For my first movie review, I wanted to pick a movie that was comedic, yet potentially ridiculous at the same time!  And also something that was currently out!  So the obvious choice turned out to be “30 Minutes or Less.”

 

The basic plot of the movie revolves around 1) Nick, a pizza delivery driver who has trouble keeping the “30 minutes or less” policy of the pizza restaurant, and 2) Dwayne, a deliquent who lives under his father’s domineering shadow.  Travis hatches a plan to kill his father, requiring $100,000 to hire the assassin to do the job.  And in order to attain the money, Dwayne and his friend Travis both hatch a plan to kidnap someone to do the dirty work for them.  Ordering a pizza, Nick ends up getting kidnapped and has a bomb strapped to his chest, being forced to rob a bank in order to save his live, involving his friend Chet in the process.

Here’s the summary of my thoughts on Plot, Impact, Dialogue, and Overall Attitude towards the film!

Plot –  2 / 5 – The plot overall was somewhat predictable throughout most of the film, however, there were some moments (though far and few in between) that stood out, such as the bank robbery scene, and the last few moments of the movie.  The plot for this movie seemed to try too hard to be a comedy movie with a plot point as dark as robbery by force.

Impact – 4 / 5  – The movie didn’t have everything going against it!  The acting in the movie was superb, in my opinion.  The overall emotional connection to the characters was wonderful, and the actors did give it their all for the movie!  Plus points go out to Aziz Ansari (Chet) and Jesse Eisenberg (Nick) for standout performance.

Dialogue – 2 / 5 – This movie suffers from a couple of things.  While the jokes are there in the movie, they are far in between.  What we kinda got instead was plot exposition, filler, with jokes inserted in between.  While I do understand the darkness of the movie in it of itself, comedy movies need jokes and funny dialogue.  Most jokes were unfunny toilet humor and low brow comedy bits, with a few really good one-liners mixed in.

Overall Attitude – 2/5 –  While the acting from all the characters in the movie was superb and wonderful, it doesn’t save it from it’s bad writing and less than stellar humor points.  It seemed to be trying too much to be funny.   Not to say that the movie wasn’t funny, it just wasn’t funny enough to do well.  I can honestly say that I left the movie theater with a neutral outlook on the movie, and it still keeps the impression.

I have to give this movie a 2.5 out of 5 rating.

Movie: 30 Minutes or Less
Run Time: 1 hour, 23 minutes.
Rating: R

Till next time!

~Kirby

SLOTW : Food stuffs, and why you can’t eat them!

I know it’s been a while (*coughunderstatementcough*), but I’m back with a brand new SLOTW!

As we all know, chefs can create a plethora of imaginative food creations, from the most delicate and light dishes, do the heavy and fulfilling!  I would know, I work as a chef for a living!  And the limits to what a chef can do is only limited to what foods he has at his disposal, the tools on hand, and the imagination in his or her head.  If this is the case, then we wonder what tools a Japanese Chef in Japan had at his disposal when he created these:

HOLY SHIT!  PODRACERS!!!

Personally, I think these are some of the most intricately detailed pieces I’ve ever seen carved out of food!  You can see these and more creations here!

 

And speaking of delicious plants, I’ve been quite a big fan of Plants vs Zombies for quite a while now.  And while it does get more and more hectic, I always did wonder what the reality and purpose of zombies eating plants would accomplish?  Well apparently, the guys at Dorkly seemed to have answered that questions for me!

~Kirby

 

SLOTW – Reality and video games augmented into one big awesome pile!

Growing up, I always wondered what it would be like if certain event happened in real life, what kinds of experiences would I have?  Apparently, I wasn’t the only one who stepped through the portal to the other dimension…

Real life and video games.  It’s more hand in hand than you think.  Whether it’s a silly discussion on what might happen, to full blown scenarios LARPed out to perfection, we’ve been using our imagination to it’s fullest when it comes to realizing our fantasies and dreams.  This week on SLOTW, we’re gonna show you some of the more fun and imaginative ways we incorporate video games into fun entertainment for all!

Real life situation, old school thought processes. – So you’ve come across a dreaded Los Angeles street crossing.  You don’t have much time, and the environment is treacherous.  Luckily, there’s a guide there to help you out in the most dire of straits!  But be sure to pick the right choice, or you may not survive!


as imaginative as it is technical, what’s better than playing video games on a big tv screen?  Well shit, why not play games on an office building?!?

Sure office building are awesome, it doesn’t feel right unless you’re right smack dab in the middle of the action yourself, racing against danger or unseen opponents.  Or on a mission to rid the playing field of mines!

However, it’s not just the homebrew video fans that make the fun stuff either!  Sometimes big name business have nerd fantasies of their own.  Probably the biggest nerdgasm in the video game world came with an april fools trailer of epic proportions in 2009.

And last but not least, we leave you with this bit of French goodness.  Seriously, makes me want to own a go-cart!

~Kirby