Why are things creepy

Yesterday's post and the creepy countdown videos in the Pronunciation book Youtube channel, reminded me of another video I watched recently: Why are things creepy?

The video original thumbnail. Creepy? I'd say quite so.

If you're interested in a logic, fast-paced and charming analysis of the topic, I suggest you watch the video (and all the other videos on Vsauce channel for that matter! They're all brilliant). Don't worry, the rest of the video is not as creepy as the thumbnail... most of it, at least.

So what makes things creepy is the fact we can't explain why they (kind of( scare us or what looks odd about them.

There's nothing shiver inducing about a video with a black number on a white screen, but the fact a mysterious someone is telling us that something is going to happen is creepy, because we don't know who, we don't why... we don't get the context of it all. We know it's not a countdown to the end of the world (... right?), and yet we would feel more safe if only we know what was happening exactly.

Creepy things both scare me and fascinate me greatly. Maybe it's their nature.
In the above mentioned video, what caught my eye the most is the singing android. The video is more hilarious than creepy (what's with those random nature shoots?!)... but again, try to watch it all alone in the silence of the night. Believe me, it's not the last thing you want to see before going to sleep.

What fascinates me the most though it's not the android itself, but the person behind it. This person has decided to spend time and money (lots of money, the mechanical parts cost quite a lot) to build this thing. He/she has the the right knowledge to build this thing. Then this person decided to make an artistic (?) video with his android... singing. Why he decided to make it sing in the first place? Is that voice computer generated or just recorded from someone? Last but not least, how this person sleep in the same house of that thing?! (sorry android to call you thing, I'm sure you're going to have a soul too... like, in a couple of years. Don't kill me!)

By the way, I obviously can see the potential of human-like androids in the future, but they're also one of the thoughts that scares me the most. I guess I just watched too many tv series where it didn't end up very well.

(I still want that Cylon toaster gadget by the way)

Something is going to happen in 77 days

You know what I love? The internet.

Sometimes internet debates get a bit crazy, but as long as you don't take it personally (and remember that there are probably more than a few trolls out there), reading comments and replies can be fun.
I enjoy reading everything, from adorable hypothesis such as the recent Jon Negroni's The Pixar Theory, to absurd conspiracy theories about the Illuminati dictating what toys kids get in their Happy Meals (I just made up this one, but I wouldn't be surprised if someone actually wrote something like this before).

The main reason why I can enjoy such a variety of stories is that I don't believe them. Or better, I don't really care to verify how true or untrue they could be. In many cases, I probably couldn't even if I wanted to, so why not enjoying them just for what they are? Aka amazing stories!
What make them interesting is the interaction between the users and how the stories come together thanks to the ideas and suggestions of many different people, in my opinion.

There's a thing on the internet that takes advantage of this mechanism, and it's called ARG, Alternate Reality Games. In the words of wikipedia, ARGs are "interactive networked narrative that uses the real world as a platform and uses transmedia storytelling to deliver a story that may be altered by participants' ideas or actions".

So basically these games are born an idea of a person or an organization that often present the game not_as_a_game, and can be played only in collaboration with others. People discuss puzzles they've solved and share informations they've got about the game, working together to find answers.

To be honest, I felt quite stupid every time I tried to be part of those games, but you know, it's hard to get in the game when it has already started for a while, and I never had the chance to follow one of these games from the beginning. So many infos, so many puzzles already solved, so many characters to remember! But reading about them is fun anyway.

Recently, something strange happened on a Youtube channel called the Pronunciation Book. This channel opened back in April 2010 and since then it posted video regularly.

The content of these video wasn't very sensational until two weeks ago. A male voice taught the viewers the pronunciation of a specific word, following it with random example sentences. Nothing special, right? But it gained its niche of followers even during its first year, and even a parody account.

For three years videos have been posted regularly on this account, and although you could say the example sentences were a bit curious already, no one expect the even stranger countdown that started with a video titled "How to Pronounce 77".

This time, the male voice didn't even said the number, but informed us that something is going to happen in 77 days. Since then, the account has been posting a new video every day, all titled "how to pronounce [number]".

Today is number 61, and by far no theory has been confirmed. But of course, there are quite a lot of theories running around (someone compiled a useful Google Doc, if you want to catch up)!

The most plausible, in my opinion, is that it's a well planned marketing campaign for a new series, game or film. I'm curious to discover what, though.

The Daily Dots, an online magazine, suggested a Battlestar Galactica reboot. The only reason I thought about BSG while listening to the videos is... because I'm watching BSG now, XD;. And because a "Chief" is continuously named, and I was just asking myself the other day if I'll ever remember Chief's real name in BSG, because even his son is going to call him Chief, I'm sure.

Comments on the youtube channel hypothized something related to "The Hunger Games" (which I'm not familiar with), while others talked about various videogames.

My favourite hypothesis, and to be honest I don't even remember where I read it first, it the one than links the channel to Lost. I admit, I was a huge fan of the series, and Lost is not new to this kind of games. The Oceanic Airlines website was probably the first fragment of ARG I ever came in contact with; back then it wasn't linked to Lost as explicitly as it is now.
The youtube channel was opened a couple of months after Lost ended, the randomness of it fits and the graphics too in my opinion.

To be honest I don't see why or how there should be any more Lost (as I said, I say this as a fan!). It's just my favourite theory, except the one that says that in 61 days the things that's gonna happen is... the end of the coundown. Sob.

I'll definitely wait for the 24th of September, not so patiently.

Battlestar Galactica #02

I must admit it. I felt like the second season was getting a bit boring around episode... 14? 15?
I think it's mainly because of my short attention span; I just can't focus on things for too long lately...

But! Just when I lost all hopes (for my attention span, not for the show itself), I got interested again.
Well it was hard not to, with such a series finale. I was a bit exasperated, because why do these people never learn?! But most of all, why do people still trust Gaius Baltar, for f*@# sake! Sigh.

I'm sure season 3 will have a better commentary than this! XD

WIP #02

Remember when it was still too cold? Because I don't.

Battlestar Galactica #01

BAM! That's how me and this series met: it hit me, like right in the face (before it did the same with my heart).

I can say that now I get why Battlestar Galactica is so loved. It does have all the cool stuff, the CG is amazing without being just too much, I love the ships... but it's not just a "hey, let's kill these toasters and be national heroes!" kind of story, it's ultimately a story about the human nature and how we never stop making mistakes.

But again, what's right and what's wrong? You're never sure of anything (except that I would never entrust Gaius Baltar with my children --or even a cat, for that matter), you always have new questions, you always want to know how they're gonna survive because, help, everyone is going crazy and what the fuck are you thinking, people!! And all this happens... IN SPACE!

Yeah, I definitely love it.

A couple of elements I truly enjoy and like about BSG:

• The Vipers

Fabulous thing in a fabulous space

Sob, they're so cool. They make me want to play Starfox again.



• Kara "Starbuck" Thrace

<333

To be honest, at the beginning I though she was going to be that kind of female character the writers try to make look strong and "like a man" but in the end she's just a dickhead. I'm very happy to say I was completely wrong! She's amazing, she's cool, she's a bit too... ehm, passionate at times, and quite impulsive. But I really like her.

And she makes the best "what the fracking frack even, why do I still try" faces.

Poor girl.

• Lee "Apollo" Adama

Pollo pulling a Blue Steel

Sometimes a bit cocky, sometimes you just want to kick him in the balls, but! When he follows his heart can do good things. Or not so good, but I kind of grew fond of him for some reason.

We started calling him affectionately "Pollo". Literally it means "chicken" in italian, but it doesn't mean he's scared of everything. More something like... exactly what Apollo is. Sometimes foolish, but in a good way. Or at least, that's what he believes u__u.



• Karl "Helo" Agathon (I had to google his real name. Whaaat)

Hopeless and adorable

Such a good-hearted fool. Such a cute giant. Poor guy, really.



That's all for now. See you when I've finished the second season!

If the normal sweat rate of an adult is 10lt per day, at the moment mine is 20lt

England is melting and so am I.

My body can't tolerate these high temperatures, as it keeps forgetting that I come from sunny Italy.
Expat Italians often complain about the weather here, so at least I hope those people will take this as a chance to shut their mouths and finally enjoy the summer.

Complaining might be part of the human nature, but it's a bigger part of the Italian nature. I can't say I'm guilty free here. I don't really like complaining too much, but you know, in Italy it's often a way to start a conversation!
I think I noticed the difference much more since I started living in London.

To make you an example, thanks to a friend I ended up on this online magazine for fans of the Italian culture and language today. It's always intriguing to see how we are perceived by other cultures, so I decided to navigate around a bit... and when I found the language lessons I couldn't be more excited!

Being a languages fan (I wish I could speak them all... if only I had a babelfish in my ear!) and having tried to study a few of them, I'm sort of acquainted with language books. I never found many books for foreigner italian students though, so when I have the chance to read dialogues and exercises for those books I do, because believe me, they sound quite funny -- and they make you realize how ridiculous you sounded all these years while doing the same on your own foreign language books.

This language article talks about how to talk about the weather in Italian.
I quote the article: "When we learn the basic Italian weather expressions, [...] we can discuss the weather with Italians". You see, technically the sentence is (obviously) correct. It's the approach to the language that's wrong.

In Italy you don't discuss about the weather, you complain about it. The weather is never lovely, and when it is, well it was about time because it rained/was too cold/too hot/too mild all this time, damn it!

I can't say these complaints are totally unmotivated. I don't know about other parts of Italy, but Rome can't cope with any extreme weather, and by extreme I mean everything that's not "basic sunny". When it rains it's a disaster (impossible traffic if you go by car or by bus, delayed or cancelled trains... I've seen it all), let alone those rare times it snow (imagine a post-apocalyptic scenario, but with kids throwing snowballs at you. Yes, a double nightmare).

But it's also true these people complain about basically anything: food, the price of everything, travelling, the air they breathe... nothing's like home. Especially when they meet other Italians outside Italy.
"Wasn't the breakfast awful?" is a great way to bond over your toasts at the morning buffet if you're in a hotel, and "Is the bus ever going to come? I pay taxes!" is perfect for the bus stop.
If you're old enough, you can also add the classic "Ah, when I was young, these things worked better!". You know it's now true, but blaming youngsters for all that's wrong nowadays always feel good.

I hope I got away from Italy just in time not to be permanently affected by this syndrome, but I guess we'll know only in a few years time. If you ever meet me at the bus stop, complaining about youngsters and the weather, please, punch me in the face.

BBQ on Finchley Road

Has it ever happened to you? Sometimes your waiter has a very interesting face, or the person sitting in front of you in the underground has a unique choice of clothes, or someone older than a 10-year-old kid is playing with a Nintendo DS on the bus.

I appreciate when these things happen, but just appreciating is dull.
Think about it: every single person you meet has his/her own life, full of events, hobbies, and many other people. Why should you care about strangers, you might ask, and well, it's not like you need to. But when you read a novel, aren't you reading about the lives of a (usually) fictional strangers? Why should common people be less interesting.

If you ask them their lives may sound boring, but that's just because not everyone is a great storyteller. The job a good storyteller is to take all those little quirky details that makes something fun, entertaining, moving, and make you see them just like he or she sees them. A writer is not necessary a journalist.

Every time I see someone particularly interesting from some point of view, I always ask myself "what are their lives like?" and proceed to make up my own fabulous story about them.

Not that I'm convinced that anything I suppose about them is true --in most cases, nothing is. I make up their characters on my own, with no intention of being faithful to reality. It's just that creating stories is quite fun (especially when you're on a long bus travel and forgot to bring a book).

If I ever publish a book with all these short stories, I want to call it like this post: BBQ on Finchley Road. Why? Who? What even? Well it's a long story... and maybe, one day, you'll read it.

WIP #01

As I said yesterday, I don't do only ugly sketches. Here's the occasional more serious work in progress!

I love drawing fast food more than I love eating to be honest. And modelling, modelling it with clay too. I remember making this whole McDonald's set with modelling clay when I was little...

Ugly Sketches #01

Yes I love to draw and I can draw. But who says I can't sketch stuff roughly and decorate then with forgotten Photoshop filters and rainbow gradients anyway? No one! No one can stop me! Mwahaha! 

So have the first sketch of what I hope is going to be a long series: tv-man meets daftpunk. (?)