Now on SnapChat
November 18, 2016
Add me on Snapchat! Username: radicalgeek https://www.snapchat.com/add/radicalgeek
My first cosplay
November 13, 2016
I have been going to sci-fi and gaming conventions since 1988, but one thing I have never done was come in costume. Starting this year I made a costume to wear as a mad scientist call Dr. Cerebral Gluteus. A little back story on the character. Back in about 2008 I got into a band call the Consortium of Genius out of New Orleans, LA.
Current Line Up of the C.O.G.
They are a band that dress a mad scientists, so I wanted to come up with my own that’s where character comes from. I also wanted the make an company he worked for or was in charge of that spelled evil, so I came up with Esoteric Vocational Industrial Laboratories, Inc (E.V.I.L. Inc). Halloween 2015 and I needs a costume for a party, so I decided to make him come to life.
Halloween 2015
Bought a lab coat for Uniform Village, added a shirt and tie to look professional. Then I added was a pair of safety glasses with clip on lights, and made a badge that looks like a company ID. Go forward to about June of 2016 and a local anime convention called Reiyacon. I came in that character and someone was selling the goggles and gas mask and they would be a perfect addition to the costume. There was a contest where I won a large Avengers pen for having an original character. It really let me develop the character asking people if they have to make a small sacrifice for science by being test subjects. Even said I was operating out of the Love Canal area of Niagara Falls, NY.
EerieCon 2016
Then went to EerieCon in Grand Island, NY and entered the contest and won an award for best presentation. My prize is a free weekend pass to Anime North in Toronto, ON Canada. I don’t know if I am going to it yet because the weekend is the week after Flower City Comic Com.
I have thought about doing some other ideas for costumes for future conventions. The male version of Carmen Sandiego called Cameron Sandiego and the Mad Hatter from Alice in Wonderland.
Do Computer Geeks Dream of Internet Stardom?
September 14, 2016
One of my dreams is to run my only new media outlet (i.e. Nerdist, Rooter Teeth, or Geek & Sundry) creating web series and podcasts. I had some ideas about shows I could put on. Here is a list:
Drone Racing Circuit – Travel to different drone races and broadcast them like they do with auto racing.
E-Sports League – Where teams will complete face to face every week in a round robin regular season and then a playoff to the championships. Do this for the popular games like Call of Duty, Overwatch or League of Legends, each having there own league.
The Con Patrol – Go to different conventions like SDCC, E3, or WorldCon and talk to the celebrities and show the guest and attractions.
Primo Destructo – Lastly I thought it would be fun to have a robot like in Battlebots that would attack different objects and see what happens when they get destroyed.
Thinking About Podcasting Again
July 1, 2016
Back in 2006-ish I was introduced to podcasting by a friend at the time. Being a fan of sci-fi I got into Escape Pod and Galacticast. Would download them and then transfer them to PDA. Over time I found out about Podiobooks and others that are non-scifi. It inspired me to make my own. So I made started making my own.
I started with The Radical Geek Video Podcast. I thought that video would show the visual aspects of the geek community. (Videos are in past posts) Then there was Literary Wasteland. Did 5 episodes of it were I would review self published speculative fiction. I stopped that one because I am terrible with monologues because there is no feedback.
If I am going to make another podcast I would like to have a partner because I like feedback. I don’t know what it will be about, but that is part of the fun. Maybe do a Hogan’s Heroes introcast.
Birthdays can be Depressing
June 24, 2016
On June 24, 1973 I was born. It is not any special day in the US but it is the Nativity of St. John the Baptist. But that isn’t why it is depressing. Why I think it is depressing is stagnation. Not the worlds but my own. I think everyone does this when they get older. Think back to some time in life when you made a different decision. I am 43 today and never moved out on my own because of school debt I am still paying, some finance problems in my past, and my own laziness. I can’t change that, but I can still look forward and change that.
Batman vs. Daredevil
June 16, 2016
I am a fan of Netflix Daredevil series. It is dark and gritty. He is like a poor man’s Batman. Then I got the think about who would win a fight between Batman and Daredevil? I think Daredevil would win, and here is why. Let’s strip away the costumes to the men underneath. Bruce Wayne is a 1% in the high society of Gotham. A spoiled little rich kid with no parents and their money. Matt Murdoch is born working class on the streets of Hell’s Kitchen. He is a survivor and knows real adversity.
Yes I am a Slackivist and Other Political Views
June 2, 2016
I am a fan of Political Compass because it gives an in depth look into what your political stance is with a questionnaire that doesn’t let you choose “no position”. Instead of using a single axis of Left and Right it uses two. A left-right (Collectivims thru Neo-liberalism) economic x axis and an authoritarian-libertarian (Fascism thru Anarchy) social y axis.
Here is what I scored after taking the questionnaire.
I am Libertarian Left. Which is odd because when I took it in the past I have been closer to the middle. Now I am in my 40’s and it has drifted farther to the left instead of going right. For one it might be that the political climate in the US has changed and went to the right and that I am rebelling against it in my own mind. I know that it won’t always work, so I do try to be pragmatic, but I am lazy just posting my politics on Facebook. (a.k.a. Slacktivism)
I want to show the political compass for the 2016 US Presidential Candidates.
If you look at the Republican candidates and they are in the extreme corner of the Authoritarian Right. Hillary Clinton is in the Authoritarian Right but not to the extreme with the GOP. This is why Republicans call everyone right of center of in the middle a liberal. Look at Bernie Sanders who is just left of center and they call him a Socialist when he is more of a Social Democrat like in Scandinavian countries. That is how screwed up US politics is. It is the conservative Democrats and the reactionary Republicans.
I wonder where it all went wrong? I am a Gen X’er and grew up during Reaganomics. Growing up I saw the slide of society turn to this pro-privatization neo-liberalism and the War on Drugs. (Which we are still fighting) In the 1992 when I was old enough to vote I wasn’t going to see another 4 years of George Bush/Day Quayle. Voted for Bill Clinton and he did some positive thinks like rise taxes on the top tax bracket and rise the minimum wage. He did setup some changes would make a turn to the worse. First was the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and that shipped jobs to Mexico and created a series of free trade agreements that shipped jobs to other foreign countries. Then there was the repeal of the Glass–Steagall Act that made the housing crisis of the early 21st Century.
Now how do we change it for the better? One is supporting the Occupy Wall St. movement that is still going on. There are many online efforts you can support. Here are a few links.
Progressive Change Campaign Committee
I also want to get a shout out to a blog of an old college friend called Pennsylbama Rising.
Sad Puppies aren’t Much Fun
May 27, 2016
SAD PUPPIES
parody of Dead Puppies by Ogden Edsl
Sad puppies, sad puppies
Sad puppies aren’t much fun
They want to say mean things
They want all the bling
Sad puppies aren’t much fun
Those puppy cried late twenty-fourteen
They keep making an awful scene
Sad puppies aren’t much fun, no, no, no
They says puppy’s days are through
They say they’re going to lose
Sad puppies aren’t much fun
Sad puppies, sad, sad, sad, sad puppies
Sad puppies aren’t much fun
Come on everybody out there, sing along, okay
Sad, sad, sad, sad puppies
Sad, sad, sad, sad, sad, sad, sad puppies
Sad puppies aren’t much fun
One more time for rolling resca
Sad, sad, sad, sad, sad, sad, sad puppies
Sad puppies aren’t much fun
Dog Catchers
May 25, 2016
Lately if you’re a sci-fi/fantasy fan you might of heard about the Sad or Rabid Puppies. They are a campaign to get books from white male authors nominated for a Hugo and try to flood the slate of categories to once of there approval. The system is easy to game for that of all it’s over 10000 members at WorldCon only a small portion of them submit ballots for nomination. This has many of the same vain as Gamergate. It seems like the right wing hate machine is getting it tentacles into everything that is changing to be more diverse.
So how we going to change this you ask? Do the same that the occupy movement and the Bernie Sanders presidential campaign. We need to get the rest of the WorldCon goes to nominate books that are not supported by the sad puppies. To strengthen are resolve like the Occupy Wall St movement. Pressure authors and artists to no accept the nomination if they are on the sad puppies list. Same goes for publishers also. TO BE DOG CATCHERS.
R.U.D.I. Project Update
May 6, 2016
Just wanted to give you an update on my robot project. The EZ-Builder developer kit is turning out to be working quite nicely. The different components in the developer app makes it easy to add controls to the servos and accessories. Let me break down what I am hoping to have by EerieCon in Sept-Oct.
Mark I
- Wheels in the feet to have it move forward, backwards and turn like a tank
- Head to rotate 90 degrees left and right, 60 degrees up and 30 degrees down
- 3×3 LED grid for each eye.
- Camera to get a first person view to drive
- Talk/Beep to interact with the people
- Interface on my tablet to control it
Biggest problem I am having is the speech functions. I could type it and get the bot to say it but that only works on the laptop and not the tablet. Thought about having a microphone that I could talk into and it would come out of the robot speaker, but there is no means to do that. Thought about having it beep like R2-D2 or BB-8 and I just press buttons on the app to make the noises or setup a chat bot interface with a microphone and speaker.
The problem with the chat bot is I will have to hack the brain and solder on a speaker and microphone and make the chat bot with Pandora Bots. With Pandora bots though I have to make the responses for questions people might ask.
If I finish with Mark I will make a Mark II? I have thought about adding some of the following items.
Potential Mark II upgrades
- Arms with possible pinchers for hands
- Flashlight
- Cigarette Lighter
- Drink Tray
- Laser Pointer
- MP3 player
- Phone Charger
The cigarette lighter, flashlight, laser pointer and phone charger would be on arms would extend and retract from the body like R2-D2, and the drink tray would attach to the arms. The ideas are endless but time and effort aren’t, so I think I will keep it to Mark I.
Radical Geek
The Radical Geek 