Stopped by the library today and picked up this book. I haven’t read it yet but I wanted to share the summary on the back:

Did you know that…?

Flour dust is explosive.

Homeland Security figures prominently in modern food production.

Glucose, the form of sugar that adds bulk and sweetness to Twinkies’ crumb and filling, also adds glossiness to shoe leather and prolongs concrete setting.

The iron compound in enriched flour is also used as a common weed killer.

Only a small percentage of the 750 million pounds of cornstarch that’s manufactured annually goes into food like Twinkies. Two-thirds is used to make paper, cardboard, and packaging “eanuts.”

When cooked, cotton cellulose is transformed into a soft goo, perfect for lending a slippery sensation to the filling in snake cakes--and rocket fuel.

Phosphorus, one of the seven elements necessary for life, is also what puts the glow in tracer bullets and causes artillery shells to explode.


Twinkies, Deconstructed by Steve Ettlinger
“My journey to discover how the ingredients found in processed foods are grown, mined (yes, mined), and manipulated into what America eats.”

Avatar The Last Airbender the American anime series of awesomeness is going to be made into a live action movie which I'm hoping will be good. I'm waiting to actually see the movie before making any real judgments but as I watched the trailer on Youtube I noticed a common theme on every trailer in the comments. And so I did a little research and it kind of irritated me that people are making what I believe are rash and harsh judgments based on a 1min and 40 seconds of trailer so I ended up writing this up which provides information that some people are either unaware of or are blatantly ignoring.

People are all up in arms because there are white actors/actresses playing characters in a movie based on a American Anime that’s based on South Asian, East Asian, and Western culture. Yes, Western as well as Asian. Something most fans either don’t know or the ignore. Despite the fact that the cast is a mix of Caucasian, Muslim, Persian Jewish, Māori, American, British, and New Zealand people are saying the movie is being white-washed as in all the characters are white… o.0? Except, in reality they’re not all Caucasian.

Aang: Noah Ringer, on wiki it says: (Ringer obtained the role of Aang after submitting a homemade DVD of himself practicing the sport of taekwondo. " "Ringer keeps his head shaved and is an expert in martial arts. When asked why he shaves his head, by a USA Today writer, he responded, "It keeps me cool when I'm doing tae kwon do.")

Sounds alright so far. Ringer’s an unknown, I think this is his first film but personally I prefer that over having someone well known in the role.

Zuko: Dev Patel according to wiki: (Dev Patel, set to play Zuko in The Last Airbender, has also earned his black belt in taekwondo before he turned to acting. Even though he is seven years older and a foot taller, Patel states that in a martial arts match between the two, "Noah would knock me flat on my back.")

Patel btw is Indian-British. Personally I'm just glad Jesse McCartney is not going to be Zuko after all (he was replaced) scheduling conflicts or something. Oh, look whose not Caucasian or American, not any more at least.

As for the rest of the cast:

Sokka: Jackson Rathbone, (Caucasian) who according to wiki “was born in Singapore and has lived in places ranging from Indonesia to Midland, Texas.”

Admiral Zhao: Aasif Mandvi, who according to wiki “was born in Mumbai, India to a Muslim family. He grew up in Bradford, England until his family moved to Tampa, Florida when he was 16.”

Uncle Iroh: Shaun Toub, who according to wiki is “of Persian Jewish background, was born in Tehran, Iran and raised in Manchester, England (his family left Iran before the 1979 revolution). At the age of fourteen, he moved to Switzerland and after a two year stay, he crossed the Atlantic to Nashua, New Hampshire to finish his last year of high school.” And he currently lives in LA, USA.

Fire Lord Ozai: Cliff Curtis, who according to wiki “was born in Rotorua, in the North Island of New Zealand” and “is of Maori descent and his tribal affiliations are Te Arawa and Ngati Hauiti.” Also “As a boy he studied Mau rākau, a traditional Maori form of taiaha fighting with Maori elder Mita Mohi on Mokoia Island”

Suki: Jessica Andres… no information found on her so far.

Honestly I can see where people are coming from, but I hate that people are so focused on the perception that everybody’s white in this movie (which is incorrect), and are ignoring that there is western influence as well as East Asian, and South Asian in “Avatar the Last Airbender“. That it’s an American produced show not Japanese, and that the Director of the so called white-washed live action film is M. Night Shyamalan whose Indian-American and the co-creators of the series are Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko who are both Caucasian (as far as I can tell) and American.

So let’s see: The Caucasian American co-creators of the Asian/Western world of Avatar the Last Airbender are not racist obviously as they created the show. But M. Night Shyamalan whose Indian-American is being racist by… you know I’m not even going to try to figure out how that would work.
But wait…
According to wiki: “Avatar co-creators Mike DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko voiced their opinion within an interview regarding M. Night Shyamalan writing, directing and producing the film. The two displayed much enthusiasm over Shyamalan's decision for the adaptation, stating that they admire his work and, in turn, he respects their material.”

People are saying the cast is unfair to Asian-Americans, maybe so, or maybe not. After all if someone was cast as Aang over Ringer not because he was the best choice but because he was Asian… well that would be racist… dur.

Which reminds me about something I heard about some African American girl saying having African zombies in Africa is racist and zombies should only be white. Er, sweetheart that’s racist. Zombies do not discriminate. They don’t care what ethnicity, what race, what culture, what sex, what age, what religion, what sexuality, what your mental IQ is, or how healthy you are. Oh and they don’t care if your disabled or not either.

As far as reception in Asian countries… well I don’t know. Other than the fact that Japan does not consider Avatar the Last Airbender to be Animation because it’s not Japanese.

I understand how annoying it can be, and where this idea is coming from but people aren’t looking at all that facts. I saw Forbidden Kingdom, I didn’t like it and I thought it was stupid, I mean a young white American has to go back to feudal Japan and save the frekin world. Then there was Dragon Wars… which makes me twitch every time I think about it. That movie is so god awful I mimed killing myself while watching it in the theatre. Without getting into the many many reasons that movie should burn in video hell, I will say that it involved Asian people being reincarnated into Caucasians. And somehow driving in the dessert in American will land you in sacred unknown parts of Korean… Now those are some bad movies, but let’s give Airbender a frickin chance before blowing everything out of proportion.

People are entitled to their own opinions. You have yours. I have mine. These may differ. The truth is what it is regardless of whether either of us will ever know the truth. I hope I haven’t deeply offended anyone with this. It’s just that I would hate for the potential of this movie to be ruin not by the actors/actresses, not by the script, not by the editing, not by the director, not by the producers, but by the potential fans who have decided without watching it that it can possible be a good movie because it doesn’t feature a cast full of talented Asian actors/actresses. Because of a misconception: white-washed. I don’t see how a cast this diverse can be considered white-washed. Not all Asian, but not all Caucasian either. As for the lack of Inuit’s in the film… well to be honest I can’t think of any Inuit actors/actresses but there’s probably some somewhere. Whether or not they would want any part of the film, or would work out for any of the characters well that I really don’t know. As for the so far lack of African-Americans, Africans, British-Africans, et cetera well… I could say that there are no “black” characters as far as I know anyway in Avatar the Last Airbender and it’s predominately Asian/western but the “based on-Asian/western” characters are being played by a verity of races and culture. So I don’t know, but maybe in the film there will be. Or maybe in the future films. Who knows.

Hate to post and run but some poptarts are calling my name. I'll check my messages later.

Twenty-four years ago today I was born. Man, I don't feel 24yrs old. Then again I don't feel like a teeanger either, not that I'd want to. I didn't even like being a teenager when I was one. But anyways, I had a pretty good day despite the light rain and overcast sky.
I didn't really want anything for my birthday, although my dad did give me money. Which I'm doing the responsible thing and using it to go see my denist so nothing exciting there. But I spent some time with my mom and she had me pick out a oouple things. Two nice shirts, and two old bargain bin movies (The Karate Kid and The Truman show). I'm such a film geek.
But the best find of the day was Bo Burnham's CD which was apparently put out by Comedy Central Records (I didn't know they produced CD, though that makes sense. I've seen a few comedians put out CD's, mostly recordings of their jokes.) If you are reading this and have no idea who the hell Bo Burnham is, just go to youtube and search. He's a youtube celebrity. I wouldn't recommened listen to his music with kids in the room though.

Finished cleaning up my Gallery for now. Moved some stuff to Scrapbook and tinkered with the new features on devaint art that I just realised were there. If this is the first time visting my page, please take a look at my Cumberland Falls Gallery Collection: [link] and/or my Country Living Gallery: [link] As I think they hold most of my best pieces. Especally Cumberland Falls.

Anywhos, I looked through some of the deviantions that have pilled up, and will get through the rest asap. Also I'm going to try and write up a list of photograph ideas to try and get out of my funk so hopefully I'll have some new stuff to pimp instead of the same old stuff. LOL.

That's all for now folks. (I miss the Looney Tunes, Bugs was ahead of his time.)

Since I've submitted anything. I have a few pics I might put up sometime, but I haven't really been inspired lately. At least not photograhy wise. Once summer hits I'll probably feel the inspiration hit and I'll update. Right now I'm just going through and cleaning up my gallery. Taking down some less than stellar photo and such.