I’ve recently come to the conclusion that Summer Glau has a magic belly button.

Her belly button changes in her various TV appearances, and I’m curious if the producers are using costume makeup, CGI, or maybe she had surgery?

And no, I’m not trying to mock her or objectify her body in typical Hollywood tabloid style. I’ve been a respectful fan of Summer Glau since 2002, when she starred on the beloved space western Firefly.

These days, she plays Cameron, the helpful, butt-kicking robot on the TV show Terminator: The Sarah Conner Chronicles. She’s a beautiful, sexy and talented actress AND ballet dancer. Summer Glau is totally amazing.

But… something is going on with her belly button! I think there’s a belly button conspiracy happening right under our noses, so I decided to post some comparison photos and try to get to the bottom of this navel mystery.
 

As you can see, Summer has an Outie belly button, plain as day. No big deal, really. The photo above is from 2006, during her guest appearance on the TV show The Unit.

The thing is, during this scene her belly button changes.

Here’s a picture from the same scene, and when she walks over to the guy — suddenly her Outie is gone, and she has a belly piercing instead. WTF?

 
We get to see Summer’s Innie with Piercing again during a quick shot of her in a kiddie pool.

 
But during a longer shot of the same scene, her belly button is purposefully hidden behind a newspaper. Is it to cut down on the cost of makeup/CGI?

What’s going on here? Quite a mystery, isn’t it? But wait - there’s more!

Now let’s jump to the year 2009. Just last Friday on The Sarah Conner Chronicles, we were treated to a quick scene of Summer in her underwear.

There’s no sign of her majestic Outie belly button. Where did it go?

So there you have it, Folks. Her Outie belly button has been terminated.

But how? Was it through surgery? Makeup? CGI? And how do you explain her belly button changes that occur mid-scene on The Unit? Either there’s something fishy going on, or she has a magic belly button.

If anyone has any further insight into the greatest navel mystery in history, please do share in the comments below.

These videos are quite odd. Can someone tell me what exactly is going on here?

It’s a Japanese game show involving cats in costumes, and I’m at a loss for words….

Admittedly, I’ve never seen a costume quite like this one before…kind of gives a whole new meaning to the phrase “rabbit hunter,” doesn’t it? I think it’s both cool and a little, um, disturbing. The only information I could seem to find about this costume was that the picture was posted on the internet in November of 2007 (maybe my internet research skills are rusty) but I’d sure like to know the story behind it (Elmer Fudd, beware)!

The popular online dating service eHarmony.com has published a troubling article about “Photos that Make you Look Undateable.” [link]

Their advice? If you want to find love:

1. Don’t post a picture of yourself in a bar.
2. Don’t post a picture with your Ex obviously cut out.
3. Don’t stand next to a celebrity or something expensive.
4. Don’t wear a costume.

Huh?

We get that some people really like to dress up in costumes even when it isn’t Halloween. However, while your friends may understand your penchant for dressing like the original Superman at Comic-Con, most people perusing your profile won’t.

Since when does a little cosplay interfere with finding love? And if someone is turned off by your cosplay, why would you want to date them anyway? Is the goal to get as many dates as possible, or to find someone compatible? I think we have a Quality vs. Quantity issue going on here.

eHarmony says, “When you’re putting yourself out there, it’s best to save the fun photos for later on down the road.”

So… the key to getting dates is to be fake and boring. Nice.

Funny enough, cosplay tends to be one of the more prominent subject matters here at MD. There seems to be a huge internet community that supports the practice. And, well.. since the Internet is so global the international popularity makes it much more significant.

Still, to this day cosplay is somewhat of an underground subculture that doesn’t see a lot of mainstream daylight. I’m immersed in costume information every day, so I can tend to get a fuzzy idealistic view of just how many people are interested in this sort of thing.

Today, I stumbled on the top 100 costumes as updated daily by Costumezee. Now, I’ve been told to not believe everything the intertubes pump out at me. Therefore I can be skeptical as to how Costumezee has decided these facts. But, what’s in it for them to lie on this matter? Maybe it’s true?

So why all the fuss? Well, as it turns out, “anime” costumes made the bottom of the list. I’m sure a likely explanation is the nature of cosplay, and that most good cosplay is homemade. If this list was truly accurate, the DIY stuff should go in there too. It does beg answers to some questions. How many people who are into cosplay actually make their own outfits? Is Anime and cosplay still too small to notice? Why did disco costumes make number 1!?!

I’d say, so far Anime has made leaps and bounds when it comes into crashing on the American market. Although it’s still a lesser appreciated form of entertainment in comparison to the prominence it retains in Japan, cosplay costumes should be a tad higher on the list, no? What do you think?

We talk a lot about DIY on the blog, and for good reason. Although you can find some great costumes to buy, it’s real satisfying to say you’ve made one from the ground up. After all, costumes are about getting attention and having fun. What better way to do it than by getting people curious about your sense of style and craftiness?

If you’re like most people, you don’t make anything too fancy. A lot of costume fans are intimidated by the intensity of work or creativity that goes into some of these home made outfits. So it begs the question, how worth it is it to go the extra mile and make a custom costume? In this first segment, we explore what it takes to get into DIY and feel ready to take on a big project.

Do I have the "know-how"?

A lot of people talk about costume making and how they don’t do it because they can’t sew, paint, draw, or whatever. These are legit concerns, as it seems that general creativity has to be supplemented by good craftsmanship. Ultimately, that is true but only to an extent.

A great costumer and artisan knows that thinking outside the box, using unique media, and being different from the norm are essential to making something that stands out. What do we mean? We mean, if you can’t do it one way, you can try another. Here are some tips.

• Find your own creative ability and try to exploit it - Awhile ago we talked about a mechanically savvy individual who made a Ghostbusters pack out of metal and parts he put together. No sewing, painting, or anything like that required. In the end, it had to be one of the most unique DIY projects we’ve ever seen.
• Enlist a group for brainstorming - It’s more than important to get minds rolling. Sometimes, creativity is spawned from some terribly uncreative ideas. People bouncing ideas off one another is a prime way to get this accomplished.
• Enlist help for the things you don’t do well - Making it a group project is way more fun than a tub full of silly putty. Try bringing in the people you know who are good at what they do. Artists and craftsmen always love a good project, and you can learn a lot on the way.

Ultimately, you have to ask yourself what you can and can’t do. Once you know these things, you can begin the process.

Some of the best DIY costumes we have seen weren’t necessarily amazingly crafted. What makes a wonderful DIY costume is the faithful tribute it is to your imagination. Whether you’re recreating a classic costume with exactness, doing something so strange and so funny, it’s unmatched, or whether you are trying to make people gasp in disbelief, your final effect is where the masterful nature of your craft comes out.

In the next few segments, we’ll talk more about getting into DIY. We’ll explore the planning and preparation process, what sort of things to get involved for some attention once you’ve made a costume, and finally we’ll talk to some big DIY fanatics who are pros at their craft. Stick around for more if you’d like to set your heart on DIY costumes and crafts.

I grew up on old XTC records. A multilayered experience from every side, the music is about exploration and human creativity more than anything else. To be categorized would be limiting.

The chorus of “Garden of Earthly Delights”, one of my favorite songs:

Welcome to the garden of earthly delights.
Welcome to a billion arabian nights.
This is your life and you do what you want to do,
This is your life and you spend it all.
This is your life and you do what you want to do,
Just dont hurt nobody,
And the big rewards here,
In the garden of earthly delights.

My mind runs wild on those words. It invites you open your mind completely and explore your own interest. Explore your own imagination.

The point of dressing up in a costume is to indulge this idea. To become something out of the ordinary. “Dailyness” is the prime suspect in the suppression of our most creative concepts of who we are and who we could be. Joining in the fun of dressing up is primarily driven by the desire to enter into our own garden. The meaning is different to each of us.

Enter your own garden. Around every corner you see the products of your most vivid imagination. How do you see yourself? What are you wearing? What do you look like?

Unmasking The Community is a segment where we ask you, the readers, to give us your ideas and input on some common questions surrounding the world of costumes.

Costume enthusiasts are like sports fans. They come from all types, have their own tastes, but typically appreciate all things costume. However, one trait they don’t all seem to mutually possess is the agreement on how much to spend on costumes.

Think about it for a second. You may be a Bob Mackie Barbie collector and may be willing to spend hundreds of dollars on a rare vintage Barbie costume to complete that piece of your costume. Or you may be a cosplayer and be adamant about completing your own collection without any sort of aid. It’s part of the culture.

It begs the question, how much is too much? If you’re doing a homemade project, is there a limit? What about a collection piece? What’s the limit? How much would you spend before you settled?

Do you think you could ever be fanatical enough to actually permanently wear a costume. I mean, change the way you look “surgically” to have a costume? Well, I didn’t think it would ever go as far as this new form of plastic surgery.

Apparently if you really like the “elf” look, you can have your ears surgically changed to have points infused in them. Perfect for Renaissance Faires, Cosplays, D&D Meetings, or anything else fantasy-esque. According to site Massively.com, the page is almost “certainly” a fake. You could have had me fooled. I can see the fanatics lining up now for a chance to be a part of this one. It’s a bit over the top in my opinion, but who ever said that mattered.

How much would you take to get this done to yourself?

This weekend I was talking to a friend of mine about relationships. She told me that when it comes to fashion, women primarily dress up to impress each other, not men. The first thing to hit my mind was, “huh”?

According to her philosophy, getting “cute” for a guy isn’t that hard because men aren’t picky. But women want to be noticed for their fashion sense, and it’s other women that will notice. Of course, this probably doesn’t apply to ALL women, but it’s a new notion for me. I proceeded to explain to her that if men didn’t have to impress women, then they’d be wearing clothes until the fabrics ran thin and there was no other option. Can’t compare apples to oranges, right?

So then what about with costumes? I look back on the costumes I’ve dressed up in, and they’ve always been to get a laugh or comment from someone else. I figured, “well, Halloween is all about dressing up to get attention, right?” For the most part, this is true. BUT, not everyone dresses up only on Halloween. Then I had the question in my mind as to whether people make their costumes to impress others or just for themselves.

With a pen and paper in hand, I did a small survey of people in my local area. According to the 100 people, I found that 66% of them claimed they dress up just to impress themselves. They don’t seem to care what others think. They just like to do something that they thought would be cool, and if people like it, that’s fine. Hmm, interesting..

My resources were limited, but I did hit some forums on the Internet to ask people why they like to dress up.  I had similar results. So then what about everyone reading this blog? Who do you do it for?

“there are three jihadi terrorists registered and two elite jihadist terrorist groups in Second Life and they use the site for recruiting and training. This is on top of the Second Life Liberation Army. “

In light of the Second Life comment I made earlier, I thought I’d address this current news story that’s abuzz in the virtual world space. According to articles located in Slashdot, P2Pnet, and other techie news sources these virtual worlds like Second Life are becoming a hotbed for terrorist groups to train and enable sympathetics to become recruited.

As opinions shoot back and forth, I have to wonder what the other groups think about this. By other groups I mean people who use Second Life for profit and positive interaction. The real world implications are vast, but is there any way for people to stop this kind of open, virtual world extremism? There has already been a case of “virtual terrorism” in Second Life recently in efforts to make a point. But what happens when these issues cross over into the real world?

Real World Control over A Fake Environment

I mean no harm in saying fake, but in comparison to what life really is, Second Life is an alternate reality. As such is the case, how do you police a virtual world? As it stands, the debate over Internet governance weighs so heavily in favor of total decentralization that it would mean the same thing. Having any kind of policing in a world like Second Life would indicate that some form of government would have to exist. Who would this government be? Is Linden Labs responsible for not only governing the technological implementation and advancement, but also the social behavior of its residents?

And that’s not the end of the problem either. At this point the biggest draw to Second Life has been its free and open format. It allows people to access and do whatever they want, within the technical limitations of the environment. This culture has developed so far that any truncation of “virtual rights” would alienate the users as a whole. How would Linden Labs or anyone else ever enforce restrictions? How true are these allegations anyway?

Behind a Virtual Mask

This isn’t the first time that things like this have popped up about terrorism on the Internet. Terrorist groups have been known to assemble on the Internet as a form of cheap and effective communication. We have such a hard time cracking down on kids taking the new Avril Lavigne song, so it makes sense that extremists see this crack in the armor as a chance to exploit and promote their ideals.

So what does this say about people using the Internet to mask who they are and be something else? The virtual community provides so much positive and forward thinking but also engenders some of these large problems? Does this anonymity lend more to negativity than it does to progress and positive global thinking?

It’s a shame that there are a few that ruin it for the whole, but issues like these don’t go unnoticed. As the electronic frontier gets pushed further into unrecognizable territory, opponents speak out more in defense to the electronic community. Yet, the modern rush doesn’t slow down. Government leaders all over are petitioning for a stranglehold on these technologies in order to regulate just how much of this extreme information gets tossed around. On the other hand, the people speak out against government in defense of their rights. Techies are typically afraid that ulterior motives propel governments to seize large scale communication rights for their own gain.

As for you and I, how do we maintain the right to participate and live anonymously with strangers? Is there ever going to be a way to facilitate positive global communication with strangers without the demons inside coming out of the small minority who want to use it for negative gain?

I’ve always been a creative type, and as such have tried to come up with some clever ideas for costumes. Last Halloween, I didn’t have much time to put anything together. As a college student, my resources of money and items to use were so limited. This being so, I just had to try whatever I could get my hands on.  The previous year, I went to a costume party as “The Front Yard” and it was a disaster. I thought it looked great, but it seems that most people just didn’t even understand what I was trying to do with it.

T-minus about 45 minutes to the party I decided to go as a “stay at home dad”. I guess it was funny in context. I got a robe, put an apron on over it, slipped on an oven mitt, and strapped a toy baby on my hip like I was carrying it around while I prepared a meal in my morning clothes. The problem is, since I didn’t have time to get things together some of the parts that I used to make up the whole were not quite in good condition. I even took a sharpie to the white apron and wrote “real men cook fantastic cassaroles” just to add to the absurdness of the costume.

Well, as you can imagine, things didn’t work out so well. I didn’t realize that the writing on the apron wasn’t centered, so it ended up hovering just below my bellybutton. That caused for some trouble. I also didn’t have the tie to the robe, so it ended up being open all night and I had some very uncharacteristic clothes on under it. To make matters worse, the method I used to hoist the baby to my hip was pretty shoddy and broke. After awhile I just looked rediculous and had to take it all off at the party I attended.

It’s no good to skimp, that’s for sure. You gotta know when to be cheap and when to spring for the best costume pieces money can buy. There’s also a lot to be said for planning ahead so that you can put things together nicely. I failed in those departments and the costume was a bit of a disaster. Come to think of it, should I even be writing this blog!?

So what about you? What kind of limits do you think are good for making a quality but affordable costume?