Culture on a Budget: comics

Showing posts with label comics. Show all posts

11 November 2010

XKCD - Purely Statistical Edition

Lately, I've been ravenously devouring the webcomic xkcd. It's kind of like the opposite of Cyanide and Happiness, in that the stick people are extremely intelligent instead of somewhat mindless. Both are extremely funny, and somewhat explicit, so go check them out.
The other thing I've been obsessed with lately is statistics. I'm taking my second round of stats, as it's the math of choice for psychology majors like myself. I'm amazingly good at it, too, which shocks the hell out of me, because normally I'm quite terrible at math. I think I'm better at stats because the numbers actually have a meaning behind them, rather than just arbitrarily existing. When I add two and two, I want to know what significance four has, and statistics does that for me. It's like an academic high, almost--I continuously get As on my homework and tests, and my professor has noticed this. And he's recommended me to departmental honors, which makes me feel super-awesome, being that it's my first semester here.
But, enough gloating. I wanted to share some xkcd strips with you, because they make me feel happy and smart at the same time. (Oh, and to view the strips in all of their full-sized glory, just click them!)

_{Our professor put this one up for a giggle when we started talking about the correlation coefficient!}

~Sushi

09 February 2010

Religulous: Up in Arms Againsts Belief

I can't recall who first told me about the movie Religulous, but I finally got around to watching it. I've come to this conclusion--the movie is not so much about bashing religion as it is about promoting Bill Maher. Maher wants to convince us that he's right so badly that he'll interrupt a perfectly rational person to make his own rash assumptions, finish their sentences, or make a lewd comment concerning their particular religion. And he doesn't just do it once, or ten times. He butts in over and over and over again. How am I supposed to take anything good out of this movie when all I see is a smart-ass comedian interrupt and override respected religious authorities and innocent bystanders. Some examples: accusing an "ex-gay" counselor of having an erection after giving him a hug; cracking gay jokes at the owner of a burka store; repeatedly referring to an actor playing the Lord as "Jesus," as though it were his actual name. This is a movie I do not plan to see again soon. I'm pretty sure that even Spock, who is an atheist, would be upset by the crude way this shoddy film is put together.

To make up for that tirade, here are some links on the more interesting topics that came up during the course of the film.
Jose Luis de Jesus Miranda: believes he is either Christ or the Antichrist, depending on the source
Cerne Abbas giant: If this was in America, the whole field would have been burned by now. Luckily, it's not.
The Satanic Verses, by Salman Rushdie: This book certainly caused an uproar.
Joseph Smith: The founder of Mormonism, and all its wonders.
Scientology: Just ask Tom Cruise.
The Lucifer Principle, by Howard Bloom: this book seriously pissed off pretty much everyone in the Big Three [Judaism, Christianity, and Islam]
Raelism: Very alien-centric.
Wow... I don't even have to go to church this week, I've learned so much.
~Sushi

13 October 2009

Biff! Zot! Ka-PUNCH!

Graphic novels are my drug-free stimulation of choice this year. I have utterly devoured dozens of books this month alone, and most have been of a more illustrated variety. As far as publishers go, I prefer Vertigo and Dark Horse, as well as numerous lesser-known labels and of course, manga titles. I recently finished the cine-manga for Miyazaki's Spirited Away, and I'm digging for more manga of the sort. The escape into a more interesting, and certainly more colorful world helps my depression, and it makes me feel better in general.
And, as a very fitting list, my Top 13 Favorite Comic Book Characters, somewhat in order:

1. Catwoman