Filipina Cosplay Sisters Alodia and Ashley to Judge Chilean Cosplay Competition

Having both been Spanish colonies from the sixteenth century to the nineteenth century, Chile and the Philippines share many cultural commonalities. One of those commonalities is the Hispanic passion for performing arts, as evidenced by the richness of zarzuela theatre and the flamboyance of flamenco dance. Combine the influence of Spanish culture over four centuries with the worldwide spread of otaku culture in this century, and both countries end up with a strong cosplay culture.

In a confluence of old and new cultural commonalities, Filipina cosplay sisters Alodia and Ashley Gosiengfiao have been invited to judge the Akiba Festival cosplay competition in Chile.

Fittingly enough, Alodia and Ashley themselves have Spanish blood from their equally gorgeous mother Mariglor. Their middle name is itself very Iberian: “Arraiza”. If you happen to be in Chile on October 31, come to the Teatro Cariola and witness transpacific international cooperation through costumed roleplaying geekery.

Google Celebrates Pac-Man’s 30th Anniversary with a Playable Logo

Anyone who knows anything about the history of video games knows about Namco’s classic arcade game Pac-Man. It’s one of only three video games on display at the Smithsonian, along with Pong and Dragon’s Lair. The pizza-shaped pellet-gobbling hero, a literal icon in the video game industry, marks his thirtieth birthday today. Just in time to cap off the excitement of the Google I/O 2010 developer conference, Google celebrates Pac-Man’s birthday by turning its front page logo into a fully playable version of the arcade classic.

Google has a long tradition of altering its front page logo to commemorate events. In fact, Google has a name for those logo alterations: Google Doodles. Pac-Man now stars in the first-ever playable Google Doodle. Click here to continue reading “Google Celebrates Pac-Man’s 30th Anniversary with a Playable Logo”…