Jan 28

I don’t get the chance to watch much anime anymore and when I do it’s not the big-name popular series like Naruto, Bleach, Death Note and er…is InuYasha still popular? It’s the shoujo series that I tend to be drawn to. Most of my favourite series are from the 90s, when I could actually be called a decent anime fan. But here are some ‘new’ anime series that I’ve enjoyed which I hope get licensed.

LOVELY COMPLEX

lovely_complexI was introduced to “Love*Com” when Viz licensed the manga and ran a preview of it in Shojo Beat. The story revolves around two classmates–Koizumi, a girl who is much taller than average–and Otani, a guy who is much shorter than average. They both have trouble finding a boyfriend/girlfriend because of their height. I’m a sucker for cute highschool romances and this series has the added charm of being incredibly funny. I’m pretty sure the live-action movie version of the series was licensed by Viz and released here in North America, but I would love to see the anime available. It’s on my must-buy list.

ITAZURA NA KISS

itakiss_splash“ItaKiss” would seem like a fairly stereotypical shoujo anime series if you didn’t know that it’s based on an 11 year old manga series, which was fairly revolutionary in its time. A lot of what happens can seem a bit cliche, but I think it has been the manga’s influence on other shoujo series throughout the years that has made them now seem cliche. The manga series was left incomplete when the mangaka, Kaoru Tada, died do to a moving accident. The ending of the anime series was said to be based on the planned ending she had told her husband. The story is about a highschool girl in class “F” who develops a crush on the #1 student, Irie, a guy in class “A”. Unlike many highschool shoujo romances, Itakiss follows the two main characters after highschool and into their adult lives. Though I didn’t much like how dependant the main character, Kotoko, is on her love of Irie for her own happiness, the series was fairly addictive.

I’d love to add these series to my DVD shelf (especially since most of my small anime collection is made of VHS boxsets). I could mention NANA, though I already talked about that series in my last ‘Manga Break’ post, since it is absolutely on the top of my very short list of series I want. The good news is that Viz has licensed the anime version of NANA, but I haven’t heard an update on when it will be released. Again, I’m kinda out-of-the-loop when it comes to anime, but I’d say that Itakiss and LoveCom aren’t in the same league as NANA when it comes to success and popularity; which might explain why NANA has been licensed (manga sales of issues of NANA not only compete, but can beat sales records of heavyweight shonen titles like Naruto).

Jan 25
fly-me-to-the-moon

CBC Newsworld is playing Doc Zone right now with an episode called “Fly Me to the Moon”; “NASA’s 50th anniversary is marked in this documentary celebrating humans’ fascination with the moon”. But what’s with the sudden spoonfull of woo I’m seeing? They’re talking to an astrologer from Toronto (apparently the Moon represents ‘the woman’ because INSERT HIGHLY GENERALIZED STEREOTYPICAL FEMININE QUALITIES) and some guy on a piano is singing “Age of Aquarius”.

Oh, nice…next they’re talking to and about police, nurses, ambulance workers, etc., who believe that crazy(er?) stuff happens during a full moon. They could at least mention confirmation bias. sheesh.

Shame on you, Doc Zone, shame on you…

Jan 23

sararoom1Heeey~! Let’s write a post about things in my room I like! Okee! Hmm, what do we have? Yes, that green cat is Cringer from MotU (I no longer have his Battle Cat armor). Apparently, he’s guarding a few copies of Shojo Beat; I haven’t had a subscription this year because I never got around to reading them very often. Though, I do like scanning through them when I get stuck drawing and need some shoujo inspiration.

At the top of one of my little book piles is Hamlet. If I’m not mistaken, this copy is from my highschool days and somehow was never returned. I really like the binding–oh, and I like Hamlet…though I think I enjoy MacBeth more (Cyrano was my favourite). There’s some manga at the bottom of the pile; I don’t think I’ve read any of them. I like the artwork in Kamikaze but have no clue what the story is about. I have read some of the Fushigi Yugi Genbu Kaiden, but not lately. Wedged inbetween Kamikaze and my random copies of Secrets of Sorcerers is a Harry Potter book. I’ve actually only read the last two HP books (and by read I mean listen to Jim Dale read it to me). Now, here’s the really good stuff; my Carl Sagan books! Cosmos, Broca’s Brain, and The Varieties of Scientific Experience.

Sara and her fav book

This book is definitely one of my favourites. It’s edited by Sagan’s widow, Ann Druyan, and contains his talks from the Gifford Lectures. The subtitle is “A Personal View of the Search for God”, but there’s plenty more here than just religious debate. I think Sagan explains nicely why science clashes with religious and spiritual beliefs so often, in a way that is really clear for those, like me, who have no background in science. I’m reading and listening to a few of Sagan’s books so I tend to mix up what I’ve read from which book, but what I love about Sagan is how he can explain science topics simply while still sounding ‘magical’. I think that’s what some people find missing when listening to many scientists talk; it can seem dry or cold…like there’s no emotion involved in their work. Sagan talks about nature in the same sort of poetic way that new age gurus try too. If you’ve ever heard someone say, in response to science, that they just want to believe that “there has to be more than this“, as though they just aren’t sastisfied with the ‘plain facts’ and just want that magical feeling about the universe, then you should point them towards this book; Sagan makes the universe seem just as, if not more magical than any spiritual guru could, but he just so happens to have evidence for the claims he’s so passionate about.

Sara and her scopeNow, we can’t forget about my Sky-Watcher telescope! Sadly, I haven’t used it in awhile and probably would if it wasn’t stuck in my room. The nice thing about living in a small town is there isn’t a lot of light polution, so I can just take it out onto the back deck for stargazing. And it doesn’t take very long to drive out of town away from the street lights.

Man, I really dig Jupiter and Saturn! Jupiter was the first planet I saw when I first bought my scope. I was all “wthasdkfjwoeihosif~that big bright star turns into a PLANET in this thing homg! Magic!“. It has tiny lil specs orbiting it, awwww…so cute! And yes, Saturn and its rings still amaze me each and every time I see it.

Jan 22
legend-of-the-ztarr

I thought I’d write a post about my new manga series, Legend of the Ztarr. If there’s anything that I like to talk about more than Trek, Star Wars, and science, it’s my LotZ manga. It also happens to be the thing I get to talk about the least. The end of 2007 was the year that I finally started writting the script for the series, and in 2008 I did character designs, storyboards, and finally the first chapter, which can be read online at www.legendoftheztarr.com.

lotz-jhedLegend of the Ztarr is the story of a young girl named Adora Ztarr who lives on a peaceful little planet called Teri with her adopted aunt, uncle, and cousin. Her father, the Great Kalen Ztarr, was killed in the battle to overthrow The Emperor of the Known Universe. The series begins when two off-worlders, still loyal to the House of Ztarr, come to take Adora away from her homeworld, so that she can replace her father in the prophecy which fortells that he will destroy the Emperor.

The sword of Ztarr but once shall slay and end The Holy Emperor’s rein.” – The Third Prophecy of Jillian

I really enjoy creating Legend of the Ztarr; I think because, like most of my creations, it’s a story that I want to read. I’m not concentrated on creating something for a specific target audience and deciding what kind of characters and plotlines that audience will like. These are characters that I love and their adventures tell a story that I want to hear. And it’s my favourite kind of story: swords & sandals in outerspace!

My DeviantART account has a few sketches from the series I’ve uploaded. I recently updated the theme of its website (though the drawing of the blonde man on the far right needs to be replaced as soon as I finish colouring Myren). I’m working on storyboards for the second chapter, so it won’t be complete for a while yet. Also, I’m organizing a proposal for the series to pitch to manga publishers; I don’t think I want to go down the indy path like I did for Secrets of Sorcerers (not that SoS hasn’t done really well, it’s simply too much for lil artist brain me to keep track of inventory and invoices).

So tell everyone about Legend of the Ztarr and check out my youtube channel as well for a little video of me talking about LotZ (and the audio version my friend requested of me).

Jan 18

SCIENCE is my boyfriend!

I think the biggest reason behind why I like shows like Star Trek is the great science role models they have. How many times have you see a movie where, surprise surprise, the only scientist in the show is insane/evil/immoral and a superweirdo. *sigh* It seems rare to come across a hero like Indiana Jones, who is just as irresistible in his professor-bow-tie suit as he is with his whip. There are many reasons why so many people love Star Trek (I’m a TNG girl), but mine would be how it presented a world that valued intellectuals.

The crew of TNG were renaissance men (female crew included); they had a broad base of knowledge on everything–art, music, history…they read books and poetry, played instruments, and even did theatre. In the universe of Trek, if you weren’t well-read, couldn’t do math, spoke with poor grammar or you were just plain ignorant, you were very uncool indeed! A lot of shows will have a main character, who is a good leader, brave, social, charming, etc., use a nerdy socially awkward secondary character when they need ta gets some science stuff done. But in Trek, the scientists and engineers were the main characters, and those who were ignorant about science and math were the weirdos.

Unfortunately, I haven’t seen much of this myself from the general public of small towns up here in the north; I hate coming across this attitude of being proud that you can’t do math, don’t read, don’t know history, and speak with horrid grammar. But what annoys me slightly more are those who say they are “fans of science”. Why? Because every time I’ve heard this, it’s been from someone who will add a “but…” to the end of that statement.

Oh, they’re a fan of science all right. They think that Hubble and the Mars rovers are cool and will at least know what the LHC is. They like their smartphones and not-dying from smallpox. But perhaps the reason I don’t like hearing “Hey, I’m a big fan of science…” is because what immediately follows is usually a rant about new age woo, pseudoscience, or fluffy spirituality. Ugh.

This reminds me of the typical movie hero I mentioned; They’re just “fans” of science when they need it…and call upon the nerdy science wiz in their group. But when science starts to tell them something they don’t like, they put it on their ignore list. Please, if you’re going to tell me things like “faith and science will one day merge”, “I’m not religious. I’m spiritual”, or tell me that science is wrong about astrology/dowsing/numerology/pokadotpineappleology, then please don’t tell me you’re a fan of science, mmkay?

Because you’re making ME not want to say what a big fan of science I really am! So until all you pseudofans stop using that phrase, I’m going to steal the lame teenybopper style phrasing that you find on Wet Seal graphic tees and say that Music Science is my Boyfriend! lol

Jan 1

Oh how I luvs the Bad Astronomer. I believe I first came across Dr. Phil Plait’s astronomy blog when I was searching the interwebs to check up on a claim by some astrology proponents. It actually wasn’t that long ago when I got my first taste of new agers trying to make astrology sound sciency. I was pretty amazed at how easy it is to disprove all the pseudoscience claims. Thus, began my journey into the world of scepticism.

Though I’m just a hobbyist astronomer, I can turn into a bit of an astronomonster when the subject of astrology is brought up. There is just so much that is wrong about astrology. The first major hint that there might be something wrong with this kind of model is that it was invented by humans who thought the universe was geocentric. That’s basically all it takes to shatter astrology: discovering that our solar system revolves around the sun. But new agers don’t trouble themselves with silly things like laws of physics. Too bad, because Dr. Phil does such a nice job of explaining!

If you do manage to convince them that astrology can’t possibly work (I’ve never been successful), the last argument is that their experience in using astrology works for them. Ah, mon amie, it’s confirmation bias and the Forer effect that create the illusion that astrology works. “The Forer effect refers to the tendency of people to rate sets of statements as highly accurate for them personally even though the statements could apply to many people.” The personality models of astrology are all highly generalized so that each zodiac has pretty much the same chance of describing anyone, regardless of when they were born. It’s simple; the personality models of the zodiac are highly generalized and the personalities of people are highly complex. Of course you’re going to get a match.

It’s really simple to test astrology to see if it actually works in describing people’s personalities based on the month they were born. You simply take the traits each zodiac proposes, but then blind what zodiac (aka, birth month) the set of traits is from, and have people rate how accurately it describes them. If people end up highly rating or being matched with the ‘correct’ zodiac at a rate no better than chance, then it’s clear the model doesn’t work as it claims. This is exactly what happens each and every time astrology is tested.

Confirmation bias is the trick behind making most forms of divination, including astrology, ‘work’. Basically, it’s when we count the hits and not the misses. We do this often because we’re pattern seeking creatures. The example I use most often to describe confirmation bias is the myth that more accidents/births/craziness happens during a full moon. This is statistically untrue; when you compare lunar cycles to rates of crime/accidents/births etc. there are no relationships. But then why do so many reputable sources, like nurses and police officers, swear that this myth is true? It’s because they are just going by the memory of their own experience; they’re only recalling the times where a full moon matched up with a crazy night, and made no mental note of those crazy nights where there was a quarter moon or crescent. This happens in astrology too; we remember the times when the model did work, and don’t make a connection when it doesn’t. We may ignore the times when we met someone who didn’t match up very well with their zodiac, or just focus on the traits of their zodiac that do match with them.