Wow, the new Justice League movie looks amazing

Well, this has certainly turned me around on the movie; this is going to be a solid hit for sure!

(via The Robot's Voice)

A moment of beauty: Emily Ratajkowski

Source.

Breaking News: WWI British soldiers were litterbugs

(Photograph: Abir Sultan/EPA)
And alcoholics, judging by the number of bottles.

Archaeologists have unearthed hundreds of whisky and gin bottles at the remains of a first world war British army barracks in the centre of Israel.

The Israel Antiquities Authority said in a statement that the camp, near the town of Ramle, was used by an expeditionary force under Gen Edmund Allenby for about nine months from November 1917 during a pause in the campaign against the Turkish army in Palestine.

The statement quoted excavation director Ron Toueg as saying the bottles were found among crockery shards and broken cutlery in a rubbish tip.

“About 70% of the waste that was discarded in the refuse pit was liquor bottles,” Toueg said. “It seems that the soldiers took advantage of the respite given them to release the tension by frequently drinking alcohol. The discovery of this site and the finds in it provide us with an opportunity for a glimpse of the unwritten part of history, and to reconstruct for the first time the everyday life and leisure of the soldiers.”

Apparently the difference between an archaeological dig and dumpster diving is about a century. Good to know.

Off Topic Tuesday: Delete your nudes, delete your nudes, delete your nuuuuuuudes!

So unless you've been living under a rock on one of the new found planets in the TRAPPIST-1 system, you've no doubt have heard about the recent hacking and leaking of several celebrities private pictures. The body count so far is Emma Watson, Amanda Seyfried, Katie Cassidy, WWE (probably soon to be former) wrestler Paige, and probably more. You would think that after the earlier notorious leaks that the celebrity sector would at least try to exercise the bare minimum of security and delete those pictures off their phones and cloud storage after doing whatever they intend to do with them. Or attempt to conceal their identities so that if the content does get leaked, they'll have some deniability.

Regardless, it's an egregious violation of their privacy that has become all too common these days. The fact that these women or any women for that matter have taken such personal pictures isn't the issue because their bodies belong to them and no one else. That they chose to share those pictures with other people is their own business. None of this entitles those same pictures and other content to be shared with the public without their consent and that's when their privacy is violated.

I don't really understand the appeal, myself. If you're really set on seeing a celebrity such as Amanda Seyfried au naturel, then just google for any number of pictures she's done nudity in. Chloe? Lovelace? Undoubtedly tons more. The same applies with many others who have bared it on camera, so leaking or even just looking at their private pictures is more than just wanting to see a pair of breasts. I think on some level, there's a mentality that if you leak them or disperse them or look at them that you're "taking them down a peg" or "teaching them a lesson" for taking the pictures or recording the videos in the first place. I don't doubt for a second that that was the reason why Emma Watson - a prominent and very vocal feminist - was hacked and leaked. It goes to the idea that women shouldn't be sexually expressive creatures, that to do so is immoral and the leaks are a form of public slut-shaming. We're not as progressive as we like to think and things like this just go to show how far we still have to go.

Seven down, eight to go

So remember back at the beginning of the year when I posted about my reading goals for the year? If not, then you know, scroll down like three or four spots. Anyways, one of them was to read at least fifteen books. It was my goal last year and I more than surpassed it, and this year looks no different. Three months into the year and I'm already halfway there with seven books down and eight left to go.

Here's the list so far:

• Tooth and Nail - Ian Rankin
• Assassin's Apprentice - Robin Hobb
• His Majesty's Dragon - Naomi Novik
• Old Man's War - John Scalzi
• The Ghost Brigades - John Scalzi
• Night Train to Rigel - Timothy Zahn
• The Last Colony - John Scalzi

 I'm actually blown away by the fact that I read four sci-fi novels in a row. One of my big gripes last year is that I didn't think I read enough of the stuff, especially compared to all the fantasy novels. I'm not going to read too much into my slow start on the latter because that's what it is, a slow start. By year's end, the number of fantasy books I've read will probably have tripled. The mystery/crime fiction needs some work because I want to read a lot more of it this year than I did last.

I highly recommend the Old Man's War series, btw. It's excellent.

Unpopular opinion: I hope Ghost in the Shell flops

Why? I think we all know why. If you don't, well, go and take a look at who's playing Motoko Kusanagi - Scarlett Johansson. Casting a white actress - even one that I like - to play an Asian character immediately sank the movie in my eyes. Otherwise, it would have been no problem at all if they had cast someone who is, you know, Japanese. I'm not alone in my feelings and the choice of casting Johansson has been the singular point of criticism ever since the casting was announced.

I've seen the movie defended with arguments that Kusanagi being played by a white actress is irrelevant because of the nature of the character's ability to change bodies and well, that argument is pretty irrelevant itself because at the end of the day the character is Japanese. Changing that is just plain as day white-washing and racist. It's also nothing new. A few years back, Warner Bros was going to do a live-action adaption of Akira and if I remember correctly, the project was sunk when word got out that they wanted to cast white actors and move the location from Neo-Tokyo to New York City.

It also brings to mind The Last Airbender, the live-action adaption of Avatar: The Last Airbender that was resoundingly lambasted for its casting choices and flopped at the box office. Just like Ghost in the Shell and any movie that white-washes or otherwise miscasts characters of color should because some studio exec things that it's the way to go. It's the 21st century folks, come on.

2017 reading goals

2016 was a mighty good year when it came to reading. I found myself gripped with a sudden and never ending hunger to read and ended the year with 26 books under my belt, more than doubling the 12 I read the year before. Not bad, considering my goal was 15 books. So with the dawn of a new (and hopefully better) year, I figured it would be a good idea to come up with some goals.

I'm going to set the number of books I want to read this year to 15. I didn't think I could meet that number last year, but I proved myself wrong, so that should be an achievable number for me. I was tempted the set the number higher, but I don't want to go off half-cocked and set it too high. At the same time, that 15 is the minimum that I want to read and I sure as hell going to try and exceed it.

I want to increase the number of books written by women. I just did a tally and I only read books by six women. I don't know what would be a good number other than more than six.

I was thinking of diversity as well. As best I can remember, Kazuo Ishiguro and Octavia Butler are the only two non-white writers I've ever read. Not great. Even worse with queer writers, which is a big fat zero. I plan on upping the numbers on both if I can.

Another thing I want to do is read more non-SF&F fiction. I have a bunch that I've picked up over the years that are just sitting on shelves or boxed up, so I may as well put an effort into reading them. At the very least I want to read Les Mis and some of the Charles Dickens I have.

So to sum it all up: 15 books minimum, more women, queer, and writers of color, and more non-SF&F. If I manage any of this, I'll be amazed.

Yogurt out of here

I bought two packs of some sort of cappuccino flavored yogurt drink at the grocery store on Tuesday. I've never been a fan of yogurt, but my mom wanted it (for context, I live with my parents as a caregiver/helper due to their health) so we got it. I didn't try one until yesterday and what follows is the exact sequence of events:

1. Grabs a bottle from the fridge and heads back to my bedroom.
2. Opens bottle and takes a drink.
3. Pause, then walks back down stairs.
4. Hands bottle to mom since she loves the stuff.
5. Leaves and joins the Trappist monks so that I may atone for my horrific decision to try it.

I don't like yogurt because of the taste. It doesn't matter what the flavor is, yogurt has a taste to it that I just cannot stand. Bad enough I have some of it sitting in my belly right now.

An unfortunate bump in the blogging road

So you might have noticed that despite my newfound commitment to blog on here more that I haven't since the 19th of last month. I had reason and boy, is it ever the shittiest: my dog, Smokey, died.

It happened on the 22nd. Smokey had been sick for a couple of days prior and the vet diagnosed him with heart failure and that even with medication he could have died at any time. He was also in terrible pain and discomfort, so we made the decision to put him to sleep. He was a great dog and my best friend and I'll always miss him.

Needless to say that his death was a blow and I lost any interest I had in posting on here until now. So I'm going to do the only thing I can and start my blogging commitment anew. Again.

Tomorrow.

72 hours

I noticed that for the past week I've only posted every three days. It was unintentional for the first few posts but once I saw it, I decided to keep the ball rolling at least for today. At least I'm posting with some kind of regularity again.