I don’t know about you, but I’m into the craft of making my own things. I like sewing, building and growing things.

In the last couple years, I’ve branched out into household and personal care kinds of things too. I make my own spray cleaner and facial moisturizer. The other day I tried my hand a lotion bars and they turned out great! This week, for Video Friday, I thought it would be great to see how soap was made. Real soap, mind you, not just adding dye and scent to pre-made  soap base.

Man, now I really want to try making soap! Before YOU try it, however, be sure to get/use the proper safety equipment and give your parents a heads-up.

Telstar Handball, Tennis and Hockey! Three games with the graphics of one! Almost! Mmm, boy, those were the days! No really, those were the days. We really were excited by those ridiculous rectangles because,

“Holy crap! I’m making things happen on the TV!”

If that all makes you laugh, good. Just keep in mind that those where also the days when TVs looked like this: And (in my house) the TV remote looked like this:

Yes, that’s really me.

So think of that the next time you play games like this:

TV Photo Attribution:
By Joxemai (Own work) [CC-BY-SA-3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

This article deals with the following premises:

1. I have entirely too much time on my hands. (I believe this will be proven as the article continues.)
2. Superman’s powers have been greatly misunderstood for decades.

People talk about the many powers that Superman displays, but I have only ever seen him actually demonstrate two distinct powers. The first is a limited yet versatile Psychokinesis, the second is a limited and nearly as versatile ESP. Yes I can already hear the fans screaming, “Noooo!!! He has heat vision and x-ray vision and he can fly and he’s super strong and bullet proof and has super cold breath and can hear a pin drop in Antarctica!”

All right then, let me try to defend my position and then you can call me whatever you’d like.

Everyone knows that Superman’s powers come from Earth’s yellow sun. They practically hammer us with that fact in every issue. But what are the mechanics of this, and why would those powers have developed in the Kryptonian race? We all know that evolution doesn’t sit around in dank basements, going on and on to its friends about how cool it would be to have something that looks just like the things it put on that one planet, but with all kinds of powers and stuff , but only if that new thing goes where the other things that look just like it live. At least I hope we all realize that.

First, we have to look at Krypton. Krypton orbits a dying sun and is frequently disturbed by severe tectonic stresses. So, let us assume that over time, many of the species of Krypton died out, possibly long enough into the past that most people think of species diversity as a myth. But those species died out slowly, and the remaining lifeforms developed ways of collecting/metabolizing the (already dying) sun’s energy to replace what was no longer available from the food chain.

The tectonic stresses were caused by hyper-dense materials being drawn into the planet’s core, the materials may have been cast off by the sun or simply fallen on Krypton by coincidence, (but that isn’t really relevant except as it affected the biosphere.)

The primary effect early on was a tremendous increase in Krypton’s gravity, causing life upon it to develop new abilities to deal with increases in the weight of everything around them. Once again, the limited solar energy of a dying sun came to its peoples’ rescue, as telekinesis began to appear sporadically among the remaining Kryptonians. Unfortunately, there is very little energy to be had at this stage of the sun’s decay, just enough that those who developed this new ability could survive, while those that did not, could not.

The ESP-related powers may have developed during the same period to combat other hazards that are not as clear from the evidence so far presented.

So, Kal-El arrives on Earth, having been saved by his father’s ability to interpret the obvious. (Don’t knock that ability, if you think about it surprisingly few have it.) Now, unlike his ancestors who had only a pale and dying sun to draw from, young Kal has a bright, powerful sun that radiates huge amounts of energy upon the surface of its life-bearing world. His body begins to store that energy to fuel its power needs. But the rigors of life on krypton are absent on earth. The gravity isn’t oppressive. Food is not a rare and hard to come by commodity. And it is very quiet, tectonically speaking, (at least compared to a planet that was on the verge of blowing up.)

So, the powers that developed to make life possible on Krypton, have no real outlet here on Earth, but they have an abundant source of energy to fuel them; so they expand beyond all reason.

Here are Superman’s described powers and how they tie into the abilities I’ve listed:

1. Super strength. This one is an obvious application of TK (telekinesis) but for some reason, he has to touch what he affects with his power. This would also allow him to perform some of the (blatantly impossible) feats of strength we see in comics. Since his muscles don’t actually lift the item, (his mental focus does) he can spread the lift over a large enough surface area that the item doesn’t disintegrate.

2. Super breath. We can either believe that superman has a bizarre (and generally pointless) valving system, that allows him to quickly draw in enough atmosphere which he then compresses to liquid in his lungs, or we can assume that he is able to use his TK to pull large amounts of air into his vicinity and then push it towards his target, using additional power to slow the molecular motion of the air mass. I bet you can guess which one I think is more logical.

3. Invulnerability. A simple telekinetic force-field  If it was genuine invulnerability, he would be incredibly dense and leave footprints in asphalt.

4. Heat vision. Pyrokinesis explains this. Although why he has to heat the air between his eyes and his target is a mystery, but it’s more believable than a naturally occurring ocular system, capable of generating a multi-gigawatt laser in someone’s head.

5. Flight. Again a simple application of TK.

6. X-ray vision. This is typical Clairvoyance. The reason for his inability to see through lead is likely psychological. If he was actually using radiation, he would be killing most of his friends through radioactive contamination. Lois Lane would have taken massive doses over the years, and biology being what it is, Lana Lang would have probably taken an equally massive dose during Clark Kent’s teen years.

7. Super hearing. The full gamut of enhanced hearing is again simply an application of the Extra Sensory Perception family of abilities, in this case, more appropriately termed as Clairaudience.

8. Telescopic and Microscopic vision. Again basic applications of Extra Sensory Perception.

9. Super speed. This power seems to be a combination of the ESP family and Telekinesis; the precognitive ability of the ESP allows him to take into account near future events, the TK is then used to move himself at apparent near-light speeds.

By using this system we also see how Kryptonite could affect Superman’s powers, even eventually proving fatal. The radiation of the Kryptonite either blocks a Kryptonian’s ability to access the energy stored in their bodies, or replaces it with an unusable form of energy. In either case, over millennia of evolution on Krypton, their bodies have become dependent on stored solar energy. Without it, they begin to die.

Alternately, if Superman’s powers work as advertised, and Kryptonian muscles are simply more powerful than human muscles, (as outlined in Larry Niven’s “Man of steel, Woman of Kleenex”) then we have to wonder why his hands do not simply smash through heavy, yet fragile objects like jumbo jets and space shuttles. Even with a lifetime of training, he would occasionally be caught off guard and his Kryptonian muscles would wreak havoc. Sorry about that Jimmy, you weren’t using that arm for anything, were you?

Images:
Superman Cartoon: 1941-42
George Reeves: The Adventures of Superman, 1952-58
Superman, Wonder Woman and the Martian Manhunter: Justice League cartoon, 2001-04

Okay, so my posting schedule here is still a bit scattered. It’s not for lack of interest, I assure you. (In fact, it’s making me a little crazy, not getting to post all the things I have in mind.) Alas, I have deadlines for freelance work that are eating up a significant amount of my time, (not to mention the ongoing search for a full-time gig.) I gotta pay the bills, ya know?

However, I am working on balancing out the scheduling, and will have the content flowing here regularly again soon.

For now, I have a weensie video of my own back porch so that you might see that I am doing something other than meeting nebulous deadlines, sitting around in my pajamas and eating bonbons. Enjoy!

Here, I looked it up for you: Dragon Carrots and Paris Market Carrots

Welcome once again to another Video Friday! This week we’re looking at the brilliant Vi Hart. Normally, she waxes eloquently on mathematics, but these videos are far more philosophical. I hope you enjoy them and I hope you all have a great weekend!

Here’s the list of winners of my incredibly lazy, slack-fest of a contest: Contest Shmontest!  (Though, I think I spelled it “schmontest” in the email. Yeah, I need more coffee.) Thanks to everyone who participated, and congrats to all the winners!

There will be another contest soon, so stay tuned! And the winners are…

Michelle MoonCatcher
Alric RavenSinger
tabitha DarkSword
Destiny MistShard
Gilroy Ash
Rowan WinterBringer
James DragonCatcher
Aluar SilverDust
Scarlet Dragon
Isaac LotusFlame
Amy DeathSword
Dakota DragonHaven
Miranda LightSpear
Catherine
Alejandro Story
Autumn StarWalker
Sabrina NightShade
Ian StormStaff
Scarlet WildBlade
Destiny SpiritStalker

All winners have been notified by email.

Stoopid ordinary circumstances, making me think for myself.
So, we’re going bare minimum this time. No puzzle, no riddles, no complicated image search, nuthin’. Add a response to this post. Include the following information:

-Your Main Wizard’s Name
-Your email address
-Give me a number between 1 and 100 (Yes, seriously.)

I will pick the winners using my standard, randomly generated magic. As usual, your private email/info WILL NOT BE MADE PUBLIC. I moderate everything here, so no worries.

Now, the important part, WHAT CAN YOU WIN? I’m glad you asked! You can win ONE CODE for either 5,000 crowns, or for one random permanent, Wizard101 mount from the following list:

Brown Warg
Great Hornocerous
Grey Warg
Hippogriff
Ostrich
Camel

Everyone got that? Good! Now get going! CONTEST ENDS SUNDAY APRIL 21 AT 11:59pm.

ETA: CONTEST CLOSED! Give me a few days to sort out the many, many entries. Winners will be notified by email.

I come to you from the depths of Sinus Purgatory. My cold rages on, as do my extra deadlines. Yes, I’ve been busy and it has, alas, meant that I haven’t been as attentive to this blog as we all would like.

But fear not! I have here a quick list of what is going on and what is to come:

1. My cold can’t last forever. I’m already better than I was yesterday.

2. My extra deadlines are only temporary. I’ll go back to a less labor-intensive schedule soon.

3. That contest I’ve been promising is Imminent! perhaps even this very weekend, so stay tuned.

4. I have a new computer! After 9 years of loyal service, my old rig is finally getting the rest it deserves. This has also been taking up my time the last few days, but the transferring of files and the acclimating to a new OS is just about done.

5. Today is Friday! Video below. I’ve been on a bit of a Dr. Who kick lately, so please enjoy some John Barrowman (aka Captain Jack) goodness.  :D

Have a great weekend, everyone!

Well, the things, they are a’happening here at Casa de Mythspent. The first you already know about, we moved! I hope  you’re all enjoying our shiny new location. More features are being added all the time, so feel free to look in the medicine cabinet and have a ramble through the closets. You never know what you might find.

The second bit of news is that I’m inheriting a second column over at MMORPG.com. Woohoo! What this means is, I’ll have a column going live (and more importantly to me, a deadline to meet) EVERY WEEK. I’ll also be doing at least one game review there a month as well. Whew! Busy!

It also means that I’m going to have to be a whole lot more organized about how/when I post here. Video Friday is a set thing, but beyond that… Well, it’s going to take some thought. But hey, new site, new schedule, right? Right!

In any case, it’s going to be a bit of a tap dance until I get it all sorted, so please bear with me.

Woo! Pirate101 is racing along, and at long last, we have stitching.  No more mismatched garb, no sir. from now on, we can flaunt our piratical fashions with pride!

In honor of Ms. Eloise Merryweather and her arrival on Skull Island, this week’s video selection is all about stitching; that is to say, it’s all about the clothes. Arr!

Enjoy!