Spring Blog Break

Hello my fellow blog readers, I've been going non-stop for almost a year now and haven't taken a break.  I'm exhausted, my brain's exhausted, hell everything's exhausted. 


I'm going to take some time off from Facebook and BLADE 7184.  I hope to return refreshed and re-energized to do what I love most - writing and posting these ridiculous blogs for you.  I probably annoy most of you, who knows?  Lol.

While I'm off, I'll be working on mine and Ryan's Koi Pond and doing some gardening, but most importantly I'll be spending more time with the person I love most.  Blogging takes a lot of our "togetherness" away, and I would like to spend more of that with him.

Please feel free to catch up on any of my past issues or topics by using the Google search bar right up there /\/\/\, clicking the logos on the right or left hand side, using the "Favorite Categories" links, or simply "Search Blade7184 by date."

Hope you have a wonderful Easter, and don't go fooling anyone, we know you love Obama.     

~ Peter aka Blade7184

Saturday Morning Coffee Break: The Wedding Dance

If you haven't had your coffee this morning, go grab a cup, and come back to watch this short film.  It was absolutely amazing.  I have been wanting to share this video since it was released last month, but I needed to find the right time.  And today's the perfect day.  So, even if you don't drink coffee I hope you enjoy today's Saturday Morning Coffee Break.  Oh, and grab your tissue box too.

On Valentine's Day last month, Elliot London, a 31-yr old director trying to make it in Hollywood, released this three-minute film titled, "The Wedding Dance".  It has a surprise ending and truly hits close to home for so many Gay Americans.  You can read more about Elliot on his Vimeo page and learn more about his dreams and aspirations to help the LGBT community.  Learn about his growing up poor, being an only child, and terrified of the day when his fellow classmates would find out his deepest, darkest secret - that he was gay.

I'm here wishing you great success Elliot, and hope your dreams come true. ~ Peter aka Blade7184

If you wish to look back at some previous issues, click my logo below and enjoy.  Make sure to check out Saturday Morning Coffee Break every Saturday for another classic or current gay short film.

Credits for Elliot London's short film, The Wedding Dance are after the jump.  Feel free to visit the links he has provided or you can visit his YouTube page for this information as well.

Only in America

You gotta love it, it is too hilarious not to.

America's Drunkest Singles

Now, we all know the Irish love to drink their lives away, but so do American's - especially American single men and women.  Check out this pretty cool chart that describes which cities are light drinkers, heavy drinkers, drinkers by religion affiliation, gender and education.

In recognition of St. Patrick’s Day and all those who’ll be drinking green beer this Saturday, we decided to take a look at how the drinking habits of singles vary across the United States.

The infographic below shows the cities with the highest and lowest percentages of self-identified drinking levels, based on how people answer the “How much do you drink?” profile question. Surprised that Vegas is home to the highest percentage of light drinkers? What about D.C. being the highest? Tell us in the comments.

Also, if you haven’t yet, take our poll and tell us: “Has too much drinking ever ruined a first date?” We’ll post the results this week. by Erin Scottberg

Happy St. Patrick's Day!!!

You didn't think I'd forget my most loyal readers, did you?  LOL.  Happy St. Patrick's day my friends and hope these hot guys can make you smile :-).  Make sure you wear green, and don't party too hard.

 Want to see more hot guys in green?  Check them out after the jump...

Laugh of the Day: Lie Detector

Dane only has one chance to make a stellar first impression. Good thing there's a lie detector present at his job interview! *BEEP* He's screwed. And he's going to find out just how much the truth really hurts.

I was a little hesitant to watch this at first, but as the interview went on it got more and more hilarious.  Old lie detectors have you connected to all kinds of belts, nodes, and crap like that, but not with the lie detector 3000, it's programmed to go off whenever you tell a lie.  So if you lie about the size of your penis, the shows you currently watch, or if you've stolen from previous employers, things can get ugly, or hired. LOL.

directed by PAUL EMERSON
written by DANE HANSON and MIKE HEIM
dp RICH YODSUKAR
cast MIKE HEIM, DANE HANSON, and DANNY GUTIERREZ
produced by GOOD RIDE MACHINE

Quoted - Martin Luther King, Jr. on Loving Your Enemies

“Now there is a final reason I think that Jesus says, "Love your enemies." It is this: that love has within it a redemptive power. And there is a power there that eventually transforms individuals. Just keep being friendly to that person. Just keep loving them, and they can’t stand it too long. Oh, they react in many ways in the beginning. They react with guilt feelings, and sometimes they’ll hate you a little more at that transition period, but just keep loving them. And by the power of your love they will break down under the load. That’s love, you see. It is redemptive, and this is why Jesus says love. There’s something about love that builds up and is creative. There is something about hate that tears down and is destructive. So love your enemies.” 

~ Martin Luther King Jr. from his speech, A Knock at Midnight

Cyanide and Happiness: Charles' Relationship 2

I don't think Charles' relationship is going to well...

View the 1st Charles' Relationship comic here

Japanese Trailer of The Avengers

Well you've already seen the American version, so how does the Japanese version look like?  Let's just say, it has tons of new footage, including some new shots of the S.H.I.E.L.D. Helicarrier.  Take a look for yourself...
 

YouTube Description:  Marvel's "The Avengers" is the Super Hero team up of a lifetime, featuring iconic Marvel Super Heroes Iron Man, The Incredible Hulk, Thor, Captain America, Hawkeye and Black Widow. When an unexpected enemy emerges that threatens global safety and security, NickFury, Director of the international peacekeeping agency known as S.H.I.E.L.D., finds himself in need of a team to pull the world back from the brink of disaster. Spanning the globe, a daring recruitment effort begins.

I Quote That - All The Same

Oh, how true... and I wouldn't have it any other way.  I love you my precious Ry.

Crimes of the Century - No. 15 - America's Biggest Art Heist

AMERICA'S BIGGEST ART HEIST, 1990

 

This is the second time I have mentioned art as one of the "Crimes of the Century," and rightly so.  While the second issue of the series focused on the most famous art heist in the world, the theft of the Mona Lisa in 1911.  Today we look at the largest, most expensive art heist in the world.  And it happened on American soil, only 22 years ago.

In the coming weeks, as you read through the 25 crimes Time Magazine has selected, you will wonder which of them will remain in the popular, perhaps even the artistic imagination in the years to come? How will they be retold and with what kinds of lessons and cautions in mind? Here's the 15th issue of Time's infamous list of 24 notorious crimes.  How do you think they will fare?

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Isabella Stewart Gardner was an heiress andthe wife of a rich man. And so she went shopping, buying an eclectic but extravagant collection of artwork on sprees through Europe in the early 20th century. Among her treasures were a Vermeer ("The Concert") and a Rembrandt ("Storm on the Sea of Galilee"), two certified masterpieces. When she died in 1924, Gardner stipulated that the small but exquisite museum in Boston she had built to house her treasures should have nothing new added to it; nor should any of the art be repositioned. Both rules were violated on March 18, 1990, when two men dressed as Boston cops waltzed into the museum after 1 a.m., tied up the guards, shut off the alarm system and took off with the Vermeer, the Rembrandt and several less valuable pieces. The police at one point estimated the value of the stolen goods at $300 million. It is still listed as the biggest American art robbery on the FBI's website. That's because nothing has been recovered. 

 

In the 17 years since the theft, there may have been one tantalizing glimpse of the Rembrandt when unknown men brought a Boston Herald reporter to a warehouse where he saw what he believed was the "Sea of Galilee." But otherwise, the fear is that the thieves grabbed what they could, sometimes crudely, and may now not know what to do with their haul. The Vermeer, one of only 32 known works by the artist in existence, may be worth at least $70 million, and so beautifully famous that it is unsellable on the open market. So the greatest art heist in American history may have been a botch, a tragedy so terrible that the thieves may have to destroy the very treasures they stole in order to conceal their guilt.

TIME Magazine posted this article online several years ago, along with a list of 24 additional notorious crimes that I have been posting and will continue to post every Saturday on my blog.  Hope you enjoy.

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To read the previous 14 crimes - click my logo below.

 

Congress vs. Planned Parenthood

Qbo The Robot Sees Its Own Reflection and Recognizes It

Meet Qbo, the robot.  Created by Francisco Paz, Qbo is able to use recognition software in conjunction with pre-programmed responses to recognize its own image.

In the video below, the lime-green Qbo transits to the "Object Recognition" state from its internal state machine, to learn to recognize its mirror image, as if it were a regular object. Technically, how does Qbo do it?

According to it's YouTube Description:

The "Object Recognition" state is implemented to execute simultaneously different ROS nodes: one responsible for the head and base movement; another to select an object from the image using the stereoscopic vision; another to recognize objects or learn new ones. The object recognition algorithm uses "SURF" descriptors and the "Bags of Words" approach (through the OpenCV library), and stores images in Qbo's internal storage system.

Qbo has several stored answers and behaviors in an internal knowledge base, that we upgrade as the projects evolves, to make questions or orders to Qbo such as "What it this? or "Do this". Qbo interprets the object "Myself" as a an ordinary object, for which it has special answers in its internal knowledge base such as "Woah. I'm learning myself" or "Oh. This is me. Nice". Qbo selects its reflection in the mirror in the image that he sees using the stereoscopic vision, and one of our engineers interacts (speaks) to him so that Qbo can learn to recognize himself as another object. For direct interaction, Qbo uses the open-source software Julius for speech recognition (in the video, you see how Qbo receives the order to turn around, and he responds to it by moving its base 90 degrees), and Festival for voice synthesis.

Things That Make You Go Hmmm... Star Wars vs. Facebook

So this is how they did it...

Things that make you go hmmm...

"To My Unborn Child... I'll put a bullet in your damn skull" (if you turn out gay)

This hate talk comes from a parent or an idiot who wants to be a parent.  Everyone knows that Twitter is the place to be nowadays, and sometimes things can get a little personal, sometimes a little too personal.  "To My Unborn Child" has become a recent topic of discussion on Twitter.  Unfortunately, it turned into a disgusting ranting space for anti-gay bigots. 

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The Twitter account @Homophobes (which retweets public homophobic tweets to its 4,500 followers) created a post at Storify (a site where users can bundle tweets onto one page and add commentary to create a story) to document over 100 tweets of mostly young men and women saying they would murder their future child if he or she was gay. [source]

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I honestly don't know where to being with this to tell you the truth.  All I know is that this is who you're voting for, remember that.  Yes, I'm bringing politics into this, and for those who think that this has nothing to do with it, it most certainly does.  When you have candidates running for President who want to strip you of your dignity and your life, politics are involved.  When you have a candidate running for President who says he will stop at nothing to have every gay right overturned, you might as well put a bullet in our heads.  But you know what, why don't we just turn back the hands of time and be like Iran and parts of Africa and start killing our gay children. These imbeciles/parents don't seem to mind it.  Hell, one goes so far as to say "To My Unborn Child, I will kill you if you turn gay, (I support the gays, but will never be one, neither nor my unborn baby)."

Let me put it to you in simple terms, voting for the REDs says you are supporting their causes, and until you realize this, you are fighting against everything your cousin, brother, sister, friend, co-worker, mother, father, grandmother, grandfather, uncle, aunt, niece, nephew, grandson, grandaughter - the list goes on.  You are fighting against everything they have accomplished, and are still trying to.  All we want is equal rights for everyone, and the right to love who we want.  I know what you're going to say, "Oh, I can be a RED and not support everything they stand for."  Yeah, and I can say the same thing too, "I can vote for a Democrat and not support everything they do."  Only difference is, they are not trying to take away your rights and your freedoms.  If you vote for a RED - you are supporting them, you are giving them the key to the White House, which will eventually take away the rights from the people you love.

This blog post may have sounded repetitive, but I don't care, I need to make it clear to you people.  And don't even start saying you're Christian if you're tweeting shit like this.  Hell, if you're thinking or wishing it, you're just as guilty.

Cyanide and Happiness: Doctor Time

Must Watch: Extreme Mountain Biker

Yeah, the thought of mountain bike riding always sounded like a lot of fun, but after watching this video, not so much.  Well, maybe if it wasn't quite so fast. One wrong move and this bike ride, would have turned into an ambulance ride.
Check out this truly insane video of Alejandro Paz, from Perú. He's a downhill mountain biker and current Peruvian National Champion. The video was shot in San Pedro de Casta, Lima, Peru, 3,200m above sea level. The trail begins at Marcahuasi, a famous touristic attraction of great historical relevance to the pre-Incan culture. Perú is a extraordinary country for Extreme sports. The video was shot in the normal frame rate and speed.

Post Secret Fridays - Issue 099

PostSecret is an ongoing community art project where people mail in their secrets anonymously on one side of a homemade postcard.

 See More Secrets. Follow PostSecret on Twitter.

Want to see older Post Secret Friday issues? 
Click my Post Secret Logo Below.

Disney Prince of the Week 010

Over the last 10 weeks I have been posting a Disney Prince of the Week.  Can you guess the movie and the name of the character who played this week's Prince? 

While he's not technically a Prince in the movie, the artist considers him the girl counter-part of a Disney Animated movie.  Hence in the eyes of the artist, he's a Prince of Disney.

80 Artists Have Used Them Before

Do you really think Justin Bieber was the first one to annoy you with the words, "Baby, Baby, Baby"?  Um No.  In the following video alone, there are 80 artists who have used them before.  Can you name them all?  Probably not, but you'll get a kick out of watching the video - it is pretty cool.  

So I think it's not so much that Bieber used the words, you just don't like him. LOL.

Quick-Pic 003: Dave Franco in 80's Garb

James Franco's brother Dave is one handsome, handsome man. Yum!

Just Sayn'

hahahaha

Movies to Watch: Rock of Ages

What gay boy doesn't like movie musicals?  I can name one off the top of my head, but he shall remain nameless :-). 

Of course, my most favorite movie musical of all time is Grease, but alongside that, I love The Little Shop of Horrors, West Side Story, The Rocky Horror Picture Show, Evita, Nine, Moulin Rouge!, Chicago, Rent, Burlesque, and yes, even Grease 2.  And there's even the animated ones, but the list would be too long to proceed, so I'll get to the point I'm trying to make. 

I can't say that I have ever been more excited about a movie musical release, than the one coming out this summer.  Honestly... I was too young to get excited about the release of Grease, and I waited patiently for the release of Burlesque on DVD to finally watch it.  But this summer, "Rock of Ages" is going to rock the hell out of movie theaters for the first time in a very looooooong time.  I'm super excited about this movie.  I guess because the genre of music is from the 80's and the cast singing them are going to be fantastic.  Rock of Ages is based on the Broadway musical of the same name.

Directed by So You Think You Can Dance judge, Adam Shankman, the movie stars Tom Cruise, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Alec Baldwin, Paul Giamatti, Russell Brand, Julianne Hough, Mary J. Blige, Bryan Cranston, Malin Ackerman, and features songs from Journey, Bon Jovi, Pat Benatar, REO Speedwagon, Foreigner, and many, many more!  How could this movie possibly go wrong?  Check out the superb cast and movie trailer below, and judge for yourself.  Will you be watching?

Kiss of the Week - Issue No. 016

What a Hot Mess: Slippery When Wet

LMAO, and this is why you don't "Drop It Like It's Hot" on a wet sink. OMG, What a hot mess!

Cyanide and Happiness: Two

I know, I know. It's just wrong!  LMAO!

It's Purely Animal - Issue No. 55 - BeetleCam is Back

Update:  When I initially wrote this blog, I made some errors that were unintentional.  If you read that post, I am deeply sorry.  I have now made the corrections and have given credit, where credit is due.

For those who have no idea what a BeetleCam is, it is a remote control buggy with a DSLR camera mounted on top. Will Burrard-Lucas from the UK created this little machine in 2009 in order take close-up, wide angle photographs of African animals. 

Will, alongside his brother, Matt have won several prestigious awards and have appeared in countless magazines and websites over the years. Feel free to check out their site and blog at www.burrard-lucas.com.  They have a pretty impressive portfolio.

In 2009, Will and Matt embarked on a project that quickly became a news and internet sensation,  "The BeetleCam Project," where they took photographs of African wildlife using their little robotic creation. 

Not completely satisfied with their work, they went back in 2011, and came back with a new "BeetleCam is Back" teaser, which you can check out below - its pretty darn cool. You can also find out more about their initial project, "The Adventures of BeetleCam", in a blog posted by will on April 19, 2010.  

A Guide to Raising Your Hand in Class

How many of you have ever been annoyed by someone who raises their hand in class?  Oh, I remember those days.  Lord, I feared for my life. LOL.  Not that I raised my hand in class a lot.

Actually I never did in grade school - I was too shy.  But in college, oh my, you couldn't keep my mouth shut, and classmates were not too happy with my "very liberal" mouth.

Well, now you have a simple guide to help in deciding whether you should, or should not speak up.

click to enlarge

What If You're Superheroes Were Hip?

If you're a superhero fan, you'll love these great images, but they're not only creative pieces of art, they are Hipster Superheroes!  Yep, these superheroes are hip and no one will tell them otherwise.  Hipster Superheroes are derived from the creative geniuses over at College Humor and I have also included a video down below.

You have a hip Iron Man, Professor Xavier, Spidey, Hulk, Aquaman, Batman, and yes, even a hip Wonder Woman.