Java House #5: My Thoughts on The Lantern Corps.

275 Days Left Until Dragon*Con 2011! This edition's pic features the lovely and talented Kelldar as Poison Ivy!

Okay, for a while there I was one of the many who thought there was only one Lantern Corps, the Green Lanterns (so don't feel bad, Jedi-J). I knew about Hal Jordan, Kyle Raynor, John Stewart, Guy Gardner, and a few others, and I knew that Sinestro had the yellow ring (thank you Challenge of the Superfriends), but that was about it. But in the past few months, I have learned a lot more about the Green Lanterns, as well as the other colors of the emotion spectrum, thanks to the comics I've been reading and the Lantern Shoot at Dragon*Con 2010. So here's a brief look at each of them.

1) THE GREEN LANTERNS. EMOTION: WILL
I was a fan of the Hal Jordan Green Lantern at a very early age. He was one of my favorite action figures. In fact, he was such a hero that I HATED when he was possessed by Parallax. I hated seeing one of my favorites become a villain. I like Kyle and John too, as well as Soranik Natu and Arisia (hey, I'm a guy), but Hal will always be my favorite. The Green Lantern Corps in general is an awesome concept, an entire multitude of powerful heroes as opposed to one or a few.

2) THE RED LANTERN CORPS. EMOTION: RAGE
These guys remind me a lot of the Sith, as they become Red Lanterns because they allow their anger to consume them. So being a Star Wars fans, I love these guys. I do have an issue with the whole "spitting up plasma all the time" thing. I do think Hal looked pretty sweet as a Red Lantern, despite the brief alliance.

3) AGENT ORANGE. EMOTION: AVARICE
I think of all the Lanterns, Agent Orange is the best concept. The whole fact that there is really just one guy who commands a bunch of duplicates of those he has killed is pretty cool. I think the back story of the Orange Light adds some mystery as well.

4) SINESTRO CORPS. EMOTION: FEAR
I've always been a fan of Sinestro, and I love the story of how he turned from the Green Lanterns. The relationship between him and Hal is a great story as well. I really want to read the Sinestro Corps War to learn more about him and his minions. Also, I think it rocks that Scarecrow joined!

5) BLUE LANTERN CORPS. EMOTION: HOPE
I love the spirituality behind the Blue Lanterns. As one who studies and respects the teachings of Buddhism, the Blue Lanterns' outlook and optimism are very inspirational. Even in the darkest of hours, they see the light at the end of the tunnel. I tend to think of Brother Warth first when I think of the Blue Lanterns, as the elephant is strongly connected with Buddhism.

6) INDIGO TRIBE. EMOTION: COMPASSION
I don't know much about them, but I think the mysterious connection to Abin Sur is cool.

7) STAR SAPPHIRES. EMOTION: LOVE
I like how on the surface, these group seems to be benevolent, but they have a dark side as well as love can also mean lust or obsession, which has gotten them on a Green Lantern's bad side as well from time to time. I love the costumes too. My friends Margie and Heather did them great justice at Dragon*Con

8) BLACK LANTERN CORPS. EMOTION: DEATH
Being a horror fan, I love the whole Black Lantern concept! I think the coolest aspect is seeing a lot of the classic heroes like Superman and Wonder Woman as Black Lanterns, much like what they did with the Marvel Zombies. I think all my friends who did their costumes at Dragon*Con did a phenomenal job!

9) WHITE LANTERN CORPS.
Since I am backtracking on the Lantern Corps stories, I haven't really learned much about them yet. Can't wait to find out though!

So that's it for this edition!

The Java House #4: Being Thankful

With a little over 280 Days Left until Dragon*Con, here's this edition's Countdown Pic: Myself and the lovely Jessica Nova as Harley Quinn.

Happy Thanksgiving, Everyone!
I know there are those out there who are quick to put down Thanksgiving because of their personal beliefs or because of their view on Thanksgiving's history. But honestly, should it be all about that stuff? I think people should look at the very name of the holiday in order to see what it is really about- The Giving of Thanks. No matter who we are or how we see the world, we have a heck of a lot to be thankful for. So here's a few things I'm thankful for:

1) I am thankful for the part of my family who has always been there for me no matter what, and have supported me in dark times.

2) I am thankful for the people who have been true friends to me, who have not judged me, who have tolerated my shortcomings and have accepted me for who I am.

3) Despite this country's problems, I am still thankful for being born in America, where I have the freedom to praise or rant about who and what I want to without worrying about being thrown in jail.

4) I am thankful for having food and a roof over my head.

5) I am thankful for the creative minds of the world who creates other worlds that I can get lost in once and a while.

I hope all of you are thankful too for what you have, and my best to you all. Again, Happy Thanksgiving!

Java House #3: The Dos and Do Nots of Online Role-Playing

A little over 285 Days Left until Dragon*Con 2010. This edition's Countdown pic is of the lovely Jennifer as Slave Leia!

Okay, so anyone who has or had a Myspace or Facebook account has seen this before; Online Role-Players. Now by Role-Playing, I'm not talking about the kinky stuff couples do to keep the romance alive, nor am I talking about RPGs. What I am talking about is a person pretending to be a fictional character online, and creating a social networking account for said character. Now on the surface, there's nothing wrong with that. Heck, how many of us went out and portrayed our favorite cartoon characters in the backyard when we were kids? However, there does come a point when it gets out of hand, and can even negatively affect others. So now I give you the Dos and Do Nots of Online Role-Playing.

DOs:

PLAYING A CHARACTER YOU COSTUME: I notice some of my costuming friends have at one time or another created a special account for a character they really enjoy costuming. I think that's really cool. They bring the character to life at conventions, so why not bring the character to life online? Plus, it's fun to see a person posing in that costume in various pics. A good example is my friend Maygin who costumes an amazing Anastasia DeCobray (aka COBRA's Baroness from the classic GI Joe cartoon). She is one of my favorites as that character, and even though she no longer uses the account, I happened to catch it and it was cool seeing her giving a favorite cartoon character of mine flesh and blood in the pics.

NON-COSTUMERS USING ART AND MOVIE STILLS: Now not all people who want to role-play are great costumers, so they use art and movie stills. As long as they are not blatantly stealing someone's personal art and claiming it as their own, that's cool. Like me playing Batman in the backyard as a kid, they are just having fun and escaping from the real world for a while.

DO NOTs:

PHOTO/IDENTITY THEFT: This is a BIG No-No that could get someone in BIG trouble. This is when a non-costumer who role-plays a particular character begins to steal pics of costumers who do costume that character. People may argue with me, but to me that's a form of identity theft. This is even more evident when they post a caption under a costumer's photo saying something like "This is me at San Diego Comic Con". I recently became the victim of one of these people as they used a photo I took of a good female friend of mine in costume. Not only that, they allowed "friends" to leave obscene comments about her. That in itself is a big No-No. You don't talk crap about my friends!

DISRESPECTING THE CHARACTER: If you are going to role-play a beloved fictional character, don't degrade or disrespect the character. Don't make an honorable character out to be sleazy, slutty, or comical. Well, unless the character is sleazy, slutty or comical to being with, but we are talking about honorable characters here. A good example here is a non-costumer Slave Leia role-player who was on my friends list for a brief period of time. She would IM and flirt with me "in character" and talk about how dedicated she was to her master. Okay, as I recall Princess Leia was 1) not a slut and 2) was not really all that loyal to Jabba since, um I don't know, she choked his fat-ass out shortly after her enslavement!

BEING OBSESSED: Okay, this goes to costumers or non-costumers. Play a character, be a character for a short while at a time, but don't "become a character". Don't take on the persona so much that you think you own that character. That's just mentally messed-up right there!

So bottom line here, role-playing can be fun not just for the role-player, but their friends as well. But it only works if it is indeed all in good fun. Don't take it too far, don't harm reputations or violate the online privacy of someone you probably don't even know. Don't turn something fun into a sick, sad, pathetic obsession that not only hurts others, but harms the REAL you.

So that's the rant this time. Thanks for visiting the Java House!

The Java House #2

290 Days Until Dragon*Con! Here's the Dragon*Con Pic for this edition: Myself with the lovely Megan as a cool, vintage version of Harley Quinn!

Okay, so I've only posted one blog on here, and that was back in April, so I thought what the heck and that I would get back on this thing.

This is basically a 2010 catch-up blog of sorts, so here we go:

- Still doing the Substitute Teacher thing, mostly at the Middle School. I was sad to see the 8th Graders leave last Spring. They were a terrific group the first two years I subbed. I don't sub at the High School much, so I really miss them.

-Went to Orlando last Spring as well. That was a blast. I got to meet my friend Jamie and Julie for the first time and do a costume photoshoot with them. I also got to spend time with my friends Holly, Lymari, and Hector. Of course, another big thrill was that it was my niece's first trip to Disney. She had a blast.

-The next highlight of the year was of course Dragon*Con 2011. It was a crazy one this year. I organized one shoot, did crowd control for another, and participated in another. Then there was the shoot-hopping I did. But damn was it fun! Big thanks to all the awesome people that made it possible!

-Halloween was pretty blah. Rather not talk about it.

-Now just subbing and looking forward to a few things: Niece's Birthday, Thanksgiving, Atlanta Comic Con and Christmas.