Wednesday, February 26, 2014

Eternal Violence: Part 01

So I was talking with a friend earlier about utopias. I'm going to be running a one-shot story set in a Battletech-ish world in a few weeks. It's based on a Civilization game I played. I conquered the world so world peace is on the menu.

But my friend wasn't convinced. "There are always extremists," he said. "There are always crazies."

Monday, February 24, 2014

Houma Movie Club: Zombie Hunter

So a scheduling issue pushed us back a while, but we finally talked about Zombie Hunter. It's unanimously the worst movie we've seen. It's just awful.

Friday, February 21, 2014

Minecraft Linkstorm 04: Thankfully Short


Wow, this one really got away from me guys. Please watch the video first before you read on, because this only makes the video worse after you read it. 

I did this one the way I always wanted to. I ran though the play while recording and talking and saying things wrong. Then, I recorded deliberate, clear news articles. Then, I recorded the general Minecraft bitching stuff for an even audio quality. Then I recorded the interstitial bits where I fall in a hole and say something about it. 

Then I spliced all of that together over the video, thinking breaks in the news reports would feel the same whether they were a natural break or an audio cut in. I also assumed that because I recorded all of the audio on the same laptop with the same hardware and the same software that my audio levels and background noise would sound the same. It did not. I think you can hear the seams. 

Or maybe it's all in my head because I put the seams there. Anyway, I'm sorry that this thing does not sound good (These things never look good and I assume that if you're still watching I've apologized to you all that I can about it.). 

I'm working on another method for the next one that will hopefully save time and improve the audio quality and involve recording in fullscreen so there's that.

THE LINKS!
The NSA's Secret Role in the U.S. Assassination Program:https://firstlook.org/theintercept/ar...

U.S. Suspect Probably Targeted for Drone Attack:http://nation.time.com/2014/02/10/u-s...

What We Can Actually Learn from the UK's First Weed Overdose:http://io9.com/what-can-we-actually-l...

End the Ban on Psychoactive Drug Research:http://www.scientificamerican.com/art...

Finally, a Bachelor Contestant Exposes the Show's Weird Sex Issues: http://www.slate.com/blogs/browbeat/2...

Taliban criticizes peace talks delay:http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-...

Violence Could Force Out CAR's Muslim Population:http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-afric...

Michael Jackson Fans Win One Euro for Emotional Damage:http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europ...

Game of Thrones Actor gets Stabbed in Bar Fight, Orders Another Drink: http://gawker.com/5811865/game-of-thr...

BBC Bans All-Male Panels on Comedy Shows:http://www.mirror.co.uk/tv/tv-news/bb...

Dan Harmon Walks AV Club Through Season 2 of Community:http://www.avclub.com/article/dan-har...

Big Fat Quiz is so great you guys: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pedWSC...

What Would Earth Be Like if It Was Shaped Like a Doughnut:http://io9.com/what-would-the-earth-b...

Swiss to Vote on Incomes for All:http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-25...

Wednesday, February 19, 2014

A glaring omission from yesterday...

I talked a lot about music videos yesterday, and well, I left a little something out.

Tuesday, February 18, 2014

There are 26 Things Wrong With This Video


Look, you kids today with your Mishapocalypses have a lot to deal with. I don't contest that, but if you lived in The South in 1992, "Achy Breaky Heart" was more ubiquitous and lingering than Tribble syphilis. It started line dancing, which for those of you who don't know is half-dancing and one half the world's most boring game of Twister. It is perhaps the whitest thing on Earth and it's definitely worse than an degenerative STI that only affects adorable, purring creatures from Iota Geminorum IV.

#1: "Achy Breaky Heart" (hereafter ABH-I) did all of that despite not having any sensible lyrics, no unique musical qualities, and no discernable point or message. I'm not saying it's a bad song; I'm saying it's black magic from a Stygian pit and revisiting it threatens the very fabric of reality. Unless you know where to find a paladin and a wizard in this, the year of our Lord 2014, there are scant few adventuring parties capable of undoing the damage that's being done here.

Monday, February 17, 2014

Thursday, February 13, 2014

Timewalking Archive Trap: Battle Civ Beta: Episode 11, High Noon

As you might be aware, I've recently redownloaded Civilization 2, one of the top three most addicting games ever created (the others being Minecraft and WoW). It brought up a lot of old memories and a quick search through my downloaded Xanga blog revealed that I'd already blogged about a game of Civilization 2. So enjoy this Timewalking Archive Trap from May of 2007.

Wednesday, February 12, 2014

A Little Blog About Riker & Troi


Remember when this relationship was about how two people once had a deep connection but it didn't work out and they'd moved on with their lives but continued to care deeply for one another as colleagues and friends?

I mean, Insurrection's solution of having them get together as the OTP of TNG is at least better than her getting thrown into the fridge for "All Good Things," but c'mon!

Monday, February 10, 2014

Minecraft Linkstorm Part 02

We couldn't get together for a Houma Movie Club this week. I am so eager to talk with my friends about Zombie Hunter. So eager you guys. We're going to try to reschedule, but Josh is buried in work right now and I'm going to be buried in work well into Friday.

Another one of these while I work on my city extension. The aspect ratio is screwed up and there are these little moments of silence where I had to edit out a lot of...mouth noises. It's a work in progress.

Links below the cut:

Wednesday, February 05, 2014

The new stuff


So I'm not into Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Since I was twelve, I haven't watched anything turtles except Turtles Forever. I'm not the demographic for the new movie. I'm not watching it and I barely care.

I am a comics fan who occasionally has to deal with the drooling masses descending on my hobby when something irrelevant happens and listening to Hollywood types talking about what huge fans they are before putting stories and characters I love under the knife so they're palatable for those very same drooling masses. Therefore, I am super-invested in calling out drooling morons who are suddenly deeply outraged when creators and organizers do something creative with a franchise that said morons haven't spent a dime on in decades.

Expanding a Bit on Magic Forgeries

So I talked a little bit about counterfeiting Magic cards a while back. In the interest of brevity I skipped informing you all about the shitbirds who will inexorably buy counterfeit Magic cards, their plaintive justifications for theft, and the consequences of their actions.

Why spend a post trashing these folks? These are not the type of people I like. These people are, to a man, moral Vincent Benedicts, intellectual omnishambles of self-sabotagingly stupid, determinedly socially-oblivious, and conditioned to be willfully ignorant of the consequences of their actions. I think they deserve some more attention.

And they're Magic players and the day I pass on taking a swing at Magic players, don't even check for a pulse; stick my body right in the incinerator and spread my ashes on an emo dude's penis.

My epitaph is going to be inscribed on the button fly of some skinny jeans.

While I was at The Academy, I was introduced to an old saying, "There's only one thief in The Marine Corps. Everyone else is just trying to get their shit back." Since you can't hear a smirking second lieutenant saying that, I'll state plainly that there doesn't even need to be an "original thief." The idea of someone cheating is enough to spur on/justify others cheating.