ANIME FESTIVAL ORLANDO!
Was fun! The AFO Rumble went well, I got to cosplay, and I got to see Roborob again! There will be a cosplay video, since I got a lot of good stuff out of that.
New discovery I made? I think Team Skull grunts might be my favorite "overdone" cosplay.
There's a lot at every con I see, but I don't have that same knee jerk reaction as I do with other common ones. I think it's because 1. Skull Grunts are goofy, but quite the center of attention like Deadpool or something. 2. They're meant to go together with other grunts. If you want to see something of beauty, watch two separate groups of grunts lock eyes, then break out into a "TEAM SKULL!" and dance.
JAM OF THE WEEK: "Welcome Home" by Coheed And Cambria
I'm linking a lyric video because the music video for this is boring and 2004-era metal band as shit. Also it cuts the song by 2 minutes.
Rock Band 1 was the first I ever heard anything from Coheed, they were that long prog song that sounded nothing like Rush, and more like Led Zepplin.
However, what I didn't expect was the lyrics to... enchant me the way they did. Again, I went in to "Welcome Home" cold the first time I heard it, and knew nothing about the band and the greater mythos. But there'd be a line that would catch my attention and make me wonder if it's more than just a regular "Well, then fuck you too" song.
Plus, the song is an epic journey undertaken by a sad, desperate man looking to make it out of the storm, but a-
You know what, I should just stop here.
UPCOMING SHOWS! #MtGZzz
While all the big Magic stuff is going down in GP Vegas, some of the community members are doing a thing called MtGZZZ, which is basically a bunch of us saying "Hey, we're not at GP Vegas, let's do a bunch of Magic The Gathering stuff anyway." There's going to be DnD games, people streaming XMage and MTGO, and Discord stuff. Follow the Hashtag for more info!
Mini Iwai
I will be responsible for TWO events! My concert at 3 PM, and I will be part of the 3000 Brigade Event at 6 PM. I should have a table there, but in case that falls through, I'm going to be palling around with the boys and girls from 3K before the event.
Also my favorite tradition of getting drunk and watch AMV Hells in the game room after all my obligations are fulfilled.
C and I Sutdio Summer Series
More info to come, but this is an event series of various video game music acts, and it's going to be a fun time!
For a major pop star, a lot of people have been sleeping on Ke$ha. She's wrtitten a lot of songs for other artists (her mother is also an accomplished song writer), and is a genius in her own right, having a 140 IQ, and getting a 1500 on her SATs. It's a shame that she signed a recording contract before finish High School, especially considering A. How Dr. Luke convinced her to sign her first recording contract and B. How well that all ended up for her.
I got into this song after Twill Distilled was on I'd Rather Not and did such a good job the podcast. I remember Ke$ha doing a song with Iggy Pop, and was thinking of this to collab with Twill on, since Twill's collab with John turned out so well.
Ke$ha's energy is infectious on "Dirty Love", and Iggy Pop, doesn't do much, like his other collabs,. But he still brings this kind of sexy, intense delivery to his verse.
HOLIDAY MATSURI RECAP
Oh yeah, I was at this thing. TIMELY, HUH? Nah, but seriously, I enjoyed it. Some quick hits:
-A LOOOOOOT of Team Skull cosplayers. A LOT.
-There was also some HUGE meetups for Borderlands and Overwatch.
-Instead of partaking in Saturday festivities I went to the Geek Easy to check out some music friends Jackson Parodi, Eye-Q, Sci-Fried, and Roborob.
-Sunday morning was my show, and while people came in and had fun, it was still a Sunday morning show. Afterwards, I caught Noise Complaint, who collected a shitton of the Magic cards I threw out and enjoyed the show. I also caught fellow con regulars Geekapella.
-The Iron Robot Cardboard contest was very fun, and I think my team did well despite only being 2 people:
I still have the helmet in my room.
The only disappointment is that I didn't get to show off the cosplay I've been working on, because everything fell apart THE SECOND I got out of my car. So I'm fixing some things and am going to be stress testing my stuff in the coming weeks so that for next con, I'll be ready.
Other than that, nothing really around here until March.
Instead I got Zero Time Dilemma off the eShop sale. Like most games in the Zero Escape series, they take a while to get started, but once the requisite "WE'RE STUCK SOMEWHERE?" and "ZERO IS ONE OF US?" questions end, the game gets really interesting filled with all that anime pseudoscience I know and love.
The one thing I'm not liking so far is that you can't play it through until you reach a fail state; everything is so compartmentalized. Instead of VLR's one long timeline, ZTD breaks them up into smaller sections.
THIS WEEK'S JAM: "POLKAMON" by Weird Al Yankovic
It's Weird Al, Pokemon is the clickbaity thing I'm going with here.
Lots
of interesting stuff in there, but that $30 price point without any
extra DLC is very hard to justify. I guess with the pre-order bonuses,
it's a little better, but imagine NOT being a Rock Band fanatic or
getting into it the first time and looking at that. The preorder DLC is
good, making for some great party times, so I can at least use that as
an excuse.
The problem is that I don't think the new features are worth $30 on
their own. Both are great modes, but I'll have to wait until we have
more details to see how deep they go.
Rockudrama looks stupid and ridiculous, which is exactly what I wanted from this.
The Rivals mode has me excited and if Pokemon Go is anything to go
by, people love being part of arbitrary teams. As long as the challenges
keep up like a Hearthstone or something, I can see people checking back
in daily to help out their crew.
-Fitbit: Are They The New Subject Of Numerous Thinkpieces?
Arcanon had a picture up on his instagram that showed he got 1337 steps
and I'm furious I can't embed those images into this website's CMS.
Either way, I'm glad this and Pokemon Go are helping people move around
more.
So, to make up for that, here's a picture of Fitbits and Vape Rigs:
-Echo Chamber Creepypasta: One secret episode that IU listened to at
6:66 PM it was really scary and Rhythm Bastard started screaming and
Jeff said how much he loves anime and Arcanon said how much he hated
anime and then hyperrealistic blood came out of my headphones.
-Miley Cyrus's "Can't Be Tamed"
Wow, where did all that shit come from? EDM has a habit of going from
0-60 in a matter of measures. It did chart the most interesting part of
the song, though.
It is possible to chart EDM, as evidence by Mr. Owen himself:
-Type Rider I was expecting to have a story like Braid or Limbo or
something where there was a greater story in the background, but it's
refreshing to see an edutainment game present differently than what
we're used to.
-Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing/Mario Teaches Typing were some of the
big games when I was a kid (at least that I could play while I'm in
school). Thought I question how much that really helped us with typing
since the whole "Home Row" thing never stuck. Like, as I type this it's
half muscle memory and half me looking at my keyboard and jamming shit
in as fast as I can and OH GOD I'M LOOKING AT MY HANDS WHILE TYPING I AM
NOW MANUALLY BREATHING SOMEONE HELP.
-The Daigo Parry Video we were talking about is impressive even without knowing all the mechanics:
This article as goes into detail on how this moment works, but what I
find fascinating is that Justin Wong could have won by DOING NOTHING.
In a game like Magic The Gathering, you can see the level of strategy
step by step. In Hearthstone, it also shows you the past few spells cast
so you can go back and see what happened.
But in fighting games, all of that happens at a way faster pace. If
you've ever had trouble pulling of a Shoryuoken consistently, imagine
having to not only be able to pull it off on demand, but also devote
mental energy to playing what is essentially MtG without the benefit of
stopping.
For me, this moment would be HBox's Bracket Reset at this past EVO:
No offense to Armada, who gave Hungrybox a HELL of a run for his
money and could have easily taken it, but he looks like someone or knows
someone who has unironically uttered the words "Cultural Marxism".
-Top tier meme:
-This is the Mew Card that was a promo for Pokemon The Movie 2000:
Translate: Mew w/ 30 HP 2 PSI Energy- Psychic: 40 Damage
-80's Overwatch Setlist has at least 2 not 80s songs on the playlist, but it's still got tons of fucking awesome jams: I'D RATHER NOT EPISODE 21 I see Mr. Robot all the time during WWE Raw, and the first episode got a little too close to home for me as far as his mental problems go. It's brilliant, but it got too real to me. Klingons wouldn't be that tough because of what's known as The Worf Effect.
For those of you further behind, Worf is a character on Star Trek: The Next Generation from the Klingon species. He's a warrior, but he always gets his ass kicked to show how tough the antagonist is as if to say "If they can be Worf, they must be the baddest mofo in the universe!" FUCK RONALD REAGAN The bit where we talk about Office Hours and the cafeteria sounds reasonable compared to the other shit talk about. I'D RATHER NOT EPISODE 22 60% of Twitter went with job security because, duh, millenials. 999 has 6 endings, and Virtue's Last Reward has 9. Though I think VLR has like 24 tracks. I've never read any HP Lovecraft shit, so my only "Cthulu God" knowledge comes from C'thun of Hearthstone, the Eldrazi in Magic The Gathering and Cthulu Saves The World. Benny's scenario in I Have No Mouth And I Must Scream's Good Ending, where this happens: This is article lays out all the things Finland does right in regards to schooling. Like alot of things the Scandinavian countries do, us Americans look at it and go "WHERE'S THE HARSH PENALTIES FOR FAILURE? HOW CAN WE FUCK OVER BROWN PEOPLE?" Me according to John and Andy:
Also, John is a fucking idiot, because I do not do leg day on a machine. SQUATS FOR DAYS, DEADLIFTS FOR EON, LOWER BODY GAME STRONG AS FUCK.
-FUCK YOU WESTBORO BAPTIST CHURCH JIGGLYPUFF IS MINE.
-Andrew Huang's Pokemon Song:
-For those of you interested, here's our list of 30 SNES games: Super Mario World Super Mario RPG Harvest Moon Zombies Ate My Neighbors SimCity Legend Of Zelda: Link To The Past Donkey Kong Country Final Fantasy II Final Fantasy III Super Mario Kart Battletoads Illiusion Of Gaia Chrono Trigger Super Metroid Mario Paint (Extra Add On) Mega Man
X
Super
Bomberman
Wild Guns Super Punch Out NBA Jam Earthbound Contra III: The Alien Wars DKC2: Dixie Kong's Double
Trouble
Super Castlevania IV Secret Of Mana Rock N' Roll Racing Super Street Fighter II Gradius 3 Kirby Super Star Mortal Kombat II Goof Troop Yoshi's Island Turtles In Time Pilotwings Starfox
-Captain Skyhawk was a shooter for the NES that started my love for
games with thing that are in the air combined with animals. I never
played far in the game, what I did instead was replay the first two
levels 100 times. That's the weird thing about young me: I inherited 50
games from my older brother and played the first 5 minutes for hours and
hours.
Yo, but check these graphics. DON'T THEY JUST BLOW YOUR FIVE YEAR OLD MIIIIIIND?
I'D RATHER NOT EPISODE 20
-Choice Auto-Correct Quotes: "That birch of a wife left me"
"There's a flat bunny"
"Her carves are biking"
"I'm really liking this flap house walking down the sheep"
-Books by Chick Tickle sounds like they'd be the opposite of a Chuck Tingle books.
Sorry guys, it looks like we've been beat to the punch with the YakPak. Oh wait that's a B. nvm.
Omorashi is defintelty A Thing, as evidenced in this F+ Podcast Episode.
The Yu-Gi-Oh comparison leads me to believe that Maxamillian Pegasus wasn't a corporate exec or a talented player, he just sat on a bunker's worth of booster boxes.
Personal thing: The one thing keeping me from living is the Pokemon world is because Pokemon are a hair to sapient for me to eat. Like, Cows don't die for you and nuzzle up to you and saw "Cow!". Cows and chickens don't shower me with love. They shower my stomach with tasty.
Beaker's word picture was glorious, but I figured in RL Pokemon "God" would be very difficult to catch, and 10 year old would probably fucking die.
I found this image when searching "Pac Man Neo"
Rhythm Bastard Island is like Zach Island only I'd probably open up to the public and fly around on my jetpack.
"Tightrope Dick" feels like the next in line for "Words Said By People You Can Safely Disregard", behind "cuck", "SJW", "beta", and apparently, "legbeard".
Sorry to bum you out with that, here's Janelle Monae:
MTSU, Paolo's alma mater, a 15th seed mind you, beat Michigan State, a 2nd seed. I picked Michigan State
My Final 4 is down to just one team that only wins the division.
All the 5th seeds got usurped.
I'm beating JHeff for some reason
-Joney Spencerson is the worst character I ever made and I apologize.
-In Florida, "______ was a meth lab" is a regular occurrence,
especially in one of those areas that's neighboring a poor area, which
there are a lot
-Squidward his a dab:
-The Cranberries are always on "St. Patrick's Day"/Irish Music lists
and inever get that impression from them. Yes, they are from Ireland,
but they don't make their music as "Irish" sounding as Dropkick Murphy's
or The Pogues. Then again, maybe the fact that they're FROM Ireland as
opposed to sounding like the do makes them more authentic, since the
latter two bands come from Boston and New York.
However, I'm from American, so I prefer confirming my preconceived notions vs. the actual truth.
Also, Seth MacFarlane has made fun of 90's singing on several
occasions from the movie Ted and the opening bit of the Family Guy Star
Wars movie. I get it, it sounds weird, but consider this: everything
about the 90's and its music was a big fuck you to the 80's, which Seth
MacFarlane has a major boner for.
80's singing was at the top of your lungs with your crotch thrust
forward, 90's singing was hunched over your guitar signing from the
bowels.
-So this didn't make it to the main podcast, but afterwards we talked
about our school's mascots since apparently mine (Stony Brook's "Wolfie
The Seawolf") has giant biceps and is fuckable (Jeff's words, not
mine):
Mystakin's Mascot, Penn State's Nittany Lion, wins the you trued i guess award:
-Jeff's school mascot, the Cincinatti Bearcats, wins the award for Not At All Accurate and Most Likely to End Up In Jail:
-Arcanon's School mascot wins the award of Most Likely to Have Been Someone's Ponysona:
ECHO CHAMBER EPISODE 162
-It's always interesting in post-apocalyptic settings how EVERYTHING
shuts down. Like, you'd figure the guys who run the water/electricity
would have security guards.to defend the compound or lock the doors.
Knowing cops these days, they'd RELISH any opportunity to shoot anyone
who would look mildly diseased. I'm just saying, we always see things
progress way too quickly.
-Jigglypuff wrecking everyone's shit in the Pokemon anime:
-I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream the game was basically Harlan Ellison trying to make the prequel and the sequel toI Have No Mouth and I Must Scream the short story
at the same time. It was to provide a winnable scenario because video
games, and give a reason why AM chose those five people to live with
him: because they'd be the most fun to torture. How successful was he?
Well...
For the character's backgrounds in the short story this is what we're given:
Benny had been a brilliant theorist, a college professor; now he was
little more than a semi-human, semi-simian. He had been handsome, the
machine had ruined that. He had been lucid, the machine had driven him
mad. He had been gay, and the machine had given him an organ fit for a
horse. AM had done a job on Benny.
Gorrister had been a worrier. He was a
connie, a conscientious objector; he was a peace marcher; he was a
planner, a doer, a looker-ahead. AM had turned him into a
shoulder-shrugger, had made him a little dead in his concern. AM had
robbed him.
Nimdok went off in the darkness by himself for long times. I
don't know what it was he did out there, AM never let us know. But
whatever it was, Nimdok always came back white, drained of blood,
shaken, shaking. AM had hit him hard in a special way, even if we didn't
know quite how.
And Ellen. That douche bag! AM had left her alone, had
made her more of a slut than she had ever been. All her talk of
sweetness and light, all her memories of true love, all the lies she
wanted us to believe: that she had been a virgin only twice removed
before AM grabbed her and brought her down here with us. No, AM had
given her pleasure, even if she said it wasn't nice to do.
In the game, Benny was a soldier who had betrayed his troops and was
kinda racist. It could be implied from some of the dialogue referring
to a secret the soldiers found out about could be his homosexuality, but
it's left very vague and there would have to be A LOT of finagling to
get these two to gel. A man with so many secrets with the constant
threat of being brought out to the light, AND reliving your failures
over and over again? That's pressure.
Gorrister in the game was a trucker who's wife had gone mad, and he
blames himself for it, even though his mother-in-law was the one
responsible for it. In no way does it allude to any kind of passion,
unless he was protesting/canvassing inbetween trucker drop offs. Still,
while he is a shoulder shrugger, and suicidal
Ted in the game
was more of a liar and a fraud than "normal guy who gets tortured" in
the short story. I guess his scenario is focused on him doing the right
thing and not lying? It's not too far off since Ted was the one to
sacrifice himself for the sake of the others. Ted is still scared of
having his facade shatter, and AM does lean into that,
Ellen.... hooo... Um, Yeah, I guess a woman who had a horrible life
and then was raped in an elevator and traumnatized by it would be a dick
move by a dick AI. It's defintely one of those situations where it
would be less problematic if she wasn't the only woman.
Nimdok's background was never mentioned in the short story, and I
doubt someone as megalomaniacal as AM would mind that he was a Nazi
scientist. This was more to justify to the player why AM
tortures Nimdok rather than why AM would have fun with him, His chapter
give a lot of BG on some of the more impossible stuff in the story, but
it didn't really need any. HE'S A BIG EVIL COMPUTER is reason enough.
Still, looking at all of these, Mystakin's right, these are kind of
dumb. The problem is that we bring a lot of our own stuff in with us, so
we the player is hoping to see these people deserving of their
punishment and redeem at the same time, because that's what always
happens in media.
Though my "AMs a Dick Who Likes To See People Suffer" still holds the top spot for most likely.
-Retsupurae IHNAIMS LP:
-Morphogenic Field was a concept developed by Rupert Sheldrake and is
the idea, as explained in 999, that shapes and behavioral patterns of
living organisms are transmitted to each other through a field invisible
to the human eye. This is usually done in times of great duress, and
the plot of 999 is to generate morphogenic fields by putting children in
danger so they can transmit "answers" to their siblings in a remote
location. That way, the main villain can cure his prosopagnosia, his
inability to see faces.
What Nimdok is referring to is morphogenetic fields, which
is the ability for cells to communicate with each other, as the genetic
programming of cells can be flexible. Cells in a particular field will
conform their programming to be tissue of that field. It's a slow
process and it's not "at will", but it's interesting.
-Burnout Paradise Errant Signal
-Bondage Sandshrew, another way in which the anime is FUCKING WEIRD:
It was a harness to aid in that Sandshrew's training, like isometrics
or dynamic tension,., You know, one of those things Dr. Frank N. Furter
talked about in that song from Rocky Horror Picture Show.
-Bad News: North Carolina is basically this-
Good News: Georgia smelled all that sweet, sweet money they'd lose
out on and stopped being pricks in the interim since this podcast was
recorded.
-Peter Panic has music by Grant Kirkhope which has me sold. Here's a list of all the demons in Peter Panic: HEEL TURN : WRESTLEMANIA ROUNDTABLEOther than some exciting shenanigans, nothing to really get invested over. Mostly Wrestlemania was "How are they going to puull THIS bullshit off?" I'D RATHER NOT EPISODE 3This week was my week to contribute! The ongoing theme through these is things we're afraid of centered around a theme that will bring us to the point of discovery.
What am I most scared of? Being awkward... Like, if AM were to put me through a psychodrama, it would be a party where I don't know anybody, the alcohol tastes like shit and every time I try to leave, someone goes "Where you going., bro?" Part of the inspiration for this question came when I was going into the gym for a week trial then came out with a yearly membership.I'D RATHER NOT EPISODE 4This other theme is BUGS! Also Super Powers.
#Pokemon20
HEY, WHY DIDN'T YOU DO THE ORIGINAL POKEMON THEME SONG? cuz fuck you that's why.
Jigglypuff was my favorite recurring Pokemon in the show. Looking back, my favorite episodes of the original Polemon anime weren't moments from the game, it was all the little inbetween episodes that fleshed out the world a little bit. Like the episode Jigglypuff first appeared in, and it featured a city that wasn't in the games, or the one where they visited that doctor who taught them about Pokemon evolution, where Slowpoke evolves into Slowbro. Or that episode where Bulbasaur was called to his Saurpeople and wanted to evolve but he didn't want to change his personality, or the one where Ash wanted Pikachu to evolve to beat Lt. Surge's Raichu but Pikachu was like "NO! I WANT TO DO IT FOR ALL THE PIKACHUS OUT THERE!" and then there's the one where-
ANYTHING ELSE? I've got Omni Expo this weekend, so to celebrate, here's another recap video from Holiday Matsuri!
Nothing new for a little bit, mostly this week is going to be practice for OMNI Expo, I'm going to be streaming practice sometime this week.
Other than that, this weekend was pretty good, I found a copy of Buck Bumble in the wild, and managed to find this little guy:
There are a couple things in the future that might be worth talking about, but I'm waiting to hear more about it.
Now I've got two weeks to catch up on, thankfully not a lot of ground to retread:
GODS AND MONSTERS: SLAYERS OF DECADENCE EPISODE 9
Another episode where we're out of our comfort zones with Ray playing a aggro goat demigod Landris to his trickster water god Zun Quib Slay, and me playing Explorer for the Future Fillion to my smashy-smashy War God Kindunos.
While it's not quite the finale, we did set up a REALLY good final chapter, and some groundwork is laid for Fillion to a perfectly politicking asshole.
-"I Should Have Killed You When I Had The Chance" Supercut
-"You Just Don't Get It Do You?" Supercut
-OK GO "Upside Down Inside Out
I'm fucking glad OK Go is doing these music videos. Back in the early
days of MTV, the first people to make videos were art students and
people who wanted to make weird shit, and they were the one of the first
ones on YouTube to go "FUCK YEAH! EAT OUR CONCEPTS, NEEERRRRRRDS!"
-Rock Band 2 Update brought us A LOT of good music, like "Ace Of
Spades" (the '08 rerecord where he says "But no one wants to live for
ever/but apparently I am), "Alex Chilton", "Alive", "Bad Reputation",
"Chop Suey", "Come Out And Play", "Down With The Sickness",
"Everlong"... that's only up to E. Rock Band 2's soundtrack was probably
my favorite out of the lot.
It was right at that confluence of "We haven't completely mined
everything yet" and "We have a shitton of money and promotion behind
us".
However, I think it's the soundtrack I got sick of the soonest. Like
GH3, it was the peak of it's popularity, the setlist was the most played
and there were setups EVERYWHERE. Especially "Livin' on a Prayer" and
"Anyway You Want It", two of the biggest singalong songs ever. I think
the only thing RB4 is missing now is Lego Rock Band and AC/DC, the
former I regret getting on.
-Mystakin Of The Axe v. 3 with the CORRECT flavor text
-The notion of a "Console Wars" I believe has subsided in the past
few years, primarily because everything has gotten so expensive, all the
games come out for pretty much everything. In response to that, the PC
Master Race comes out of the ashes, and the focus shifts between not who
has the better platform, but who plays their games in the best way.
The term comes from an old Zero Punctuation Review of The Witcher
(the first one), where Yahtzee states that the nature of the game's
PC-Only Nature meant it had to be very difficult and complicated.
What started as an ironic joke turned into a symbol of pride. "Look
at these snobbish assholes" became "LOOK, WE'RE SNOBBISH ASSHOLES!".
It's like if rich people introduced themselves with "As A Fat Cat
1%er..."
Also PCs are more expensive than consoles. Whereas the CONSOLE WAR
mentality was usually because you could only buy the one, PC mentality
is like "I spent more on this, why isn't this the best? I need 60 FPS!"
-Pokemon's Super Bowl Commercial
I was in the right age to get absolutely overwhelmed by the Pokemon
Machine as a kid, and this ad is peak "Sure, whatever kid, had a big ol'
adventure for yourself!" and presents a world where people can have
Pikachus for pets.
Now I want The Miz to play Giovanni in a live action Pokemon thing.
-The name of Demetri Martin's show was "Important Things With Demetri Martin". It
was all right, considering how often Comedy Central gives standup comics
a sketch show for a couple years then cancels it.
-Mystakin is one of the Authors under the Rhythm Authors banner, who Harmonix has been outsourcing some authoring work to.
Not necessarily a surprise, since Harmonix is independent studio and
has a fraction of the manpower they used to have, so reaching out to
experienced Rock Band Authors is a completely acceptable course of
action.
Rhythm Authors did a lot of songs for the Rock Band Network for some
very popular metal bands, such as A Day To Remember, Between The Buried
and Me and Five Finger Death Punch.
-Mystakin covers Single White Infidel:
-Mystakin covers Rhythm Bastard:
-Mystakin covers Arcanon:
4chan would paradoxically be NICER than most other places? Like,
they'd probably call us "gay faggots with shitty butt music" and it
feels so generic that I couldn't be offended. It's still offensive, but
it loops back around to being inoffensive since that's what they say to
everybody.
-Christian McBride: Cherokee, because I have to feature the improvised jazz solo at least once:
I find this odd, since technically this album came out in 2013... DUN DUN OPEN NOTES
The
hard separation between fast and slow is jarring, but I take it this
won the Grammy because the Pianist, Christian Sands is able to keep up
regardless. Like, the rest of the band is like "Hey, let's see if we can
fuck him up" and Christian Sands is like "Ha ha you wish motherfucker."
Or
possibly because the way Christian McBride plays bass is like a normal
guitarist busting out a solo. If this were an octave higher it would fit
right into a metal song. That guy's fingers must be swole as fuck.
What I'm saying is that it's a good song. Not one I'd have on my MP3
while I'm pumping iron in the gym, but one I enjoyed listening to
writing this recap.
-Nuclear Throne is the best class of
roguelike, because the "run" is as simple as pulling the lever on a slot
machine. Same with FTL, where a run doesn't require a major time
commitment, and if you lose, you're only out an hour at most.
-"Tacos are a renewable experience"- Rhythm Bastard
-Pro level strats with Jeff Gertsmann
-Mega64's Deadpool Movie Sketch
-So, in Magic the Gathering, there are 5 colors, each with it's own
strengths and weaknesses. I'll summarize as quickly as possible: WHITE- Usually white spells are about keeping you and your creatures alive for as long as possible. BLUE-
Usually blue spells are about playing the game on your own terms, doing
things such as making creatures weaker, or countering your opponent's
spells. BLACK- Black spells involve death of some sort, usually
either killing creatures, or interacting with your discard pile (aka
"Graveyard") RED- Red spells are about speed and direct damage, like
"Deal X damage to target creature or player" and creatures that can
attack very early on in the game. GREEN- Green spells are about big
creatures and lands, so you can make lands big creatures or get more
lands to get to your big creatures sooner.
Around the mid-2000s, Magic made characters called "Planeswalkers" that act as an embodiment of each color.
Jace,
who Jeff talked about is the blue mage, and he's the most popular
probably because A. He looks the most like what we think of a "Wizard"
and B. He's moody and brooding and all the anti-hero types in what is
basically a scrawny scene kid: Every bit of lore he's involved in goes as such: Someone tricks him, then he gets tortured, then he Protagonists his way to victory.
Garruk was the Green Planeswalker for a while, until the Innstrad block when he'd been cursed with a magic artifact. Origianlly he was going to use his magic to be a farmer, then local army wanted him, but him and his Dad were all like, "Nah, fuck that noise" and the Army killed his Dad. He then spent the next 10 years suplexing progressively larger beasts, then eating them.
Chandra is the Red Planeswalker. Guess what her magic preference is?
I agree with Jeff that her "Origin Story" is the best. She was raised on Steampunk India (Kaladesh) where her parents were Engineers but she was like "I'm gonna be King Of The Outlaws!" which is a coincidence because her parents were also working for a rebel alliance because the government was basically Reaganomics and was like "THE AETHER WILL TRICKLE DOWN!".
So when she was delivering some Aether the royal guard caught her, but she fought them off with her newly discovered fire magic. Her parents were like "That was cool and all, and we love you baby, but we need to GTFO".
They fled to a village, then the Royal Guard caught up with them and was like "Gorbachev, burn down this village. Chandra was to be excecuted in an arena, where at the last second she planeswalked away.
-Some highlights from the Sonic The Hedgehog Twitter:
Been following him ever since the Destructoid days, and he's managed to shine in and out of publications.He's the one that originally turned me on to Deadly Premonition, which made me do this:
-Shaymin:
Technically they're genderless (according to Bulbapedia) so I don't know if they can really be sluts.
-When I write these things, I try to remember everything, but all I
have here are "VIDEO GAME SKELETONS" Mystakin mentioned one that
included Undertale, but neglected Grim Fandango, yet I couldn't find it.
This list, while lacking a pop filter does include Manny Caravela.
I forgot which one he was referencing. Also a cool skeleton in video games is the one that was inside you all along uwu.
-I haven't played much of Amplitude, but the idea of a video game as a concept album is pretty awesome, the only problem being
longevity. Thankfully the other songs round out the soundtrack a bit
more, but even those are hit or miss (LOOKING AT YOU CRAZY RIDE) and are
only unlocked after repeated plays.
-The most creepiest thing about GH LIve (other than HOW EVERYONE IS
LOOKING AT YOU) are the signs in the audience: "YOU GUYS ARE COOL" "YOU
GIFT MY EARS" "BEACH PARTY" Seriously? Were these songs written by 5
year olds who only heard what a rock concert is?
As a former extra, I can only imagine how difficult all that must
have been to put together since crowds that large are like herding cats
(source: Extra shoot for the movie New Year's Day).
If they ever make more venues like that, I'd like to see them play
around with the concept: Pointing at the player when a lyric has the
word "You!" seeing the camera shake because you got smacked in the back
of the head, the bassist motioning to the sound guy to cut your sound,
etc.
-Animorphs was the fucking shit back in the day. I read all the books
I could and even watched the TV series. And Mystakin, like the fucking
dumb idiot he is, (or the game is), got the premise all wrong:
So 5 kids discover an ancient alien artifact from a species known as
the Andelites that allows them to transform into any animal they touch
(for a maximum period of 2 hours). They use this power to combat the
Yeerk, a brain parasite alien species that's pretty much the books
version of Toxoplasma, where the host are compelled to feed and recharge
(I forget the specifics) the parasites.
-Speedrun Couple is getting their own stage play/musical called
"Rushing To The End" or possibly "Backuyp Strats for Your Relationship".
Also it's a strong contender for "Segment I'd Animate If I Remembered
ANYTHING From Flash.
-Resident Evil would NEVER get made as a AAA title these days. A
spooky mansion with limited saves and obtuse puzzle sounds like
something straight out of the ever increasing indie market. It's a
surprise that more horror games try and follow in the original RE's
footsteps as opposed to the first person games like Slender.
As dumb as it is now, I would love to try and figure out some batshit
crazy chemical mixing puzzle to kill an overgrown plant, or find the
various Chess Keys or whatever.
If there's any other game that follows in RE's footsteps (puzzlewise, not horror wise) let me know!
SLAYERS OF DECADENCE EPISODE 6
I don't do these as indepth as the Echo Chamber, since there is story involved and I don't want to spoil it.
Yeah, so the main thing I forget is that we're Gods and we can pretty much do whatever. Like, we can be invisible and show up out of nowhere or hide forever. We can move shit around behind the scenes and if anyone thinks we're a ghost or gets suspicious, it doesnt matter because A. Ghosts aren't real and B. We're gods and they can't do shit.
But even as an all powerful diety I'm still an awkward dork.
Also this was another fun episode since we do some problem solving, have some fun fate shenanigans, and Kindunos gets to punch shit. Like, we started a communist revolution by making Galt's Gulch.
Kidding aside, we've been getting into some deep shit in this campaign. Like, how to raise children, how to build a community, what values we think are important, etc.
Maybe the real God-like power is that we have it within ourselves take control of our own world.
Tabletop Campaigns are usually at their best when the PCs are royally fucking everything up, like accidentally blowing up the earth, but that other shit is fine too I guess.
-Animal Crossing has always been a weird game, because who exactly is it for? Everything about the gameplay implies some kind of asynchronus multiplayer, but there's no online, and it's not quite deep enough to be this living, breathing world all on its own, ala Persona 4 (which I'll talk about next week). Online play, moving into certain people's towns can work like a guild or clan or what have you. Server side it wouldn't be too intense since you can limit it to groups of four, which is enough data to manage whenever someone does something.
You can still interact with other people as you would the Gamecube original, but now the multiplayer is way more convenient.
-Nintendo and the word New have a weird relationship. Ever since games stopped being made for the Nintendo 64 and they could stick "64" on the end of everything, they seemed to be at a loss for what to name their games. "NEW xxxxx" could only work for so long, and then what? DS worked for a while, but adding 3DS to everything seems awkward.
For something like the Mario series, it's hard to do, since subtitles aren't inherent to the Mario setting ala The Legend Of Zelda Series or Metroid (where subtitles are very common in the fantasy and sci-fi genres). I don't see why they just can't use the 3D Land/3D World thing, but then again, I'm part of Nintendo's Marketing department.
-"They buy 4 of them and try to sell them" Like this guy?
-The closest Fudruckers is in Penbrooke Pines, FL. Which is hella far away from me. Smash Burger is way closer and way better, and their fries look like Onion Rings. Also, an honorable mention goes to Steak N' Shake, which has hella good shakes.
Crystal Burgers are inferior to White Castles. Granted, they're both kinda shitty, but at least White Castle doesn't use MUSTARD on their burgers. Then you have Chick-Fil-A, which has pickles on their chicken sandwiches.
-Regarding Robin, I forgot Stephanie Brown, the first female Robin, and the fact that apparently Damien Wayne died, so technically there is no Robin anymore. I will go commit nerd Seppukku now (has sex with a girl)
-Deadpool Footage, because it's still painful a month later:
-SeaWorld's animal containment policies are a lot less strict than the zoo, since you can't exactly recreate the ocean. In places like The Bronx Zoo, where a lot of effort is put toward recreating their habitat as best as possible, whereas in an aquarium, it's just "here's a pool go nuts kids you have an extra hour in the ballpit"
-The whole thing with Twitch was summarized by Mystakin: These guys need a half-decent PR guy.
But the muting audio thing itself isn't bad, it's what it's leading to. Obviously Twitch wants to go legit so it can be bought out by someone larger, so they need the veneer of "We will totally respect all copyright, you guys!" There could be the abuse of "We don't want people knowing our game sucks" and watch a full LP of it, but then again YouTube has yet to go down that rabbit hole yet, and Twitch is more secure in that the experience is fleeting. The reduction of time in which you'll be allowed to keep highlight videos being smaller is them saying, "You can do this guys, but we're not YouTube 2.0"
It's not terrible, just inconvienient. For example, one streamer I love to fall asleep to, SGDoc, streams Magic The Gathering Online. He also plays a lot of classic rock on his Pandora Station, which he listens to while he plays (and why I love falling asleep to him). If he wanted to highlight a particularly interesting moment on his Twitch page, he wouldn't be able to, since the audio would be muted, and he couldn't explain what he just did.
The worst thing to happen to Twitch would be MLG or some other large entity steppijng and saying, "Hey, only we can stream XYZ game for official Championship purposes, because we don't want anyone else making money off our game for eSports purposes." So all the people streaming TF2, League Of Legends, DOTA, etc. would not be able to generate revenue.
-Monkey Selfies was probably one of my favorite discussion we had on the podcast. Not only was interesting and on topic, but it led us to one of my favorite tangents, which I posted below:
I'd say "I'm Sorry", but sorry implies I did something wrong.
a.k.a. The One All About Ferguson. It was an interesting discussion to say the least, Mystakin with an outsiders view, who is well versed in social justice and Arcanon having recently finished up a Citizen's class, meant to educate the public about how the
city's cops operate and why/how they do what they do, with some dept.
history thrown in.
There were times it felt a little uncomfortable, but primarily the three of us agreed on one thing: DARREN WILSON (the officer who shot Mike Brown) FUCKED UP BIG TIME
Not only shouldn't he have shot someone unarmed, but the gun doesn't come out that fast. Even then, you don't shoot someone 6 times, because, you know, there's other people around.
"Oh, be he commited a crime at some point in time before!"
Yeah, you get arrested for that, not murdered. Even then, in the case of Trayvon Martin, the shooter can't be Judge Dredd and immediately divine that he was suspended from school or whatever.
"But if you had a 300 pound, 6-4 urban feral black man coming toward you, you'd do the same thing!"
One, we don't know that yet, and two, I also wouldn't aggravate the large black man so shooting him wouldn't be an option.
As you'll hear in this week's upcoming podcast (#93), things did not calm down or get better, but there's been a lot of outreach within the community to continue schooling, provide shelter and help those in need.
Though the "Support Darren Wilson" on GoFundMe is fucking disgusting, and the only hope I have is that the person in charge will go "PSYCHE!" and contribute to the Michale Brown Memorial Fund.
There's one last thing on the matter I want to say, but I'll save it for the beginning of next week's podcast recap, since it does involve something else we spoke about at the beginning.
-Wolf from American Gladiators beating up Christian Finnegan:
-Me and Henry/Quinton Flynn from Umicon Daytona. Super nice guy, and the panel was actually pretty great. Him and a couple other voice actors in attendance were bullshitting for an hour or so, and mix in some Aquacadets with beer, and you got yourself one hell of a good time.
-Wolf from American Gladiators being relevant enough to star in Disaster Movie:
Though I do feel that Owen's suggestion for a Ghostwriter reboot would be relevant in the modern age, since you can have the ghost writer that lives in the cloud and knows everything, what with you kids and your Siris and sex robots.
Saturday's show is going to be at 8 PM, Sunday's at 3.
I will NOT have a table there, but I will have my merch for sale at both shows.
Also, I recently got me a 2DS, so if you want to battle some Pokeymans, and Pass Streets, hunt me down!
As for what I'm looking forward to at Omni Expo:
-Meeting Ryan Frye and Grifter Cosplay, two guys from my first Florida con.
-Ellen McLain and John Patrick Lowrie from ALL OF THE ORANGE BOX
-Playing some Magic
-Busting out a few rounds of Zombies!!!
-Streetpassing and Pokemon Battlin' mofos.
-Even with all of my preparation, I did manage to finish up another song, and the mailing list peeps will be getting it THIS WEEK!!! It will be up on SoundCloud after OMNI EXPO. Hopefully something comes of it, but I doubt it.
If anything, new songage by me that's not part of Status Quo Radio.
No new Echo Chamber this week, but I will put up a post game Thursday/Friday.
Since I'm not doing Echo Chamber this week, and I didn't have Pokemon X OR Y, lemme kill another bird with the other stone, also known as "Heel Turn: Fantasy Booking"!
OK, so this Sunday is Hell In A Cell in Miami, FL (that kinda rhymes), right? So here's what I think is going to happen:
Daniel Bryan vs. Randy Orton:
Hawlucha swoops in, just as Daniel Bryan is getting pinned, enabling Bryan to kick out. Hawlucha and Bryan team up to kick the shit out Randy Orton, and just as Triple H is about to come in and call interference, Shawn Michael's is all like, "Nah, it's cool," and give him the belt anyway. However, Bryan, realizing the bond he has with the Pokemon, leaves the WWE to become a Pokemon Trainer.
Alberto Del Rio vs. John Cena
It turns into a tag team match, after Ricardo Rodriguez finds a stray Hawlucha and get some revenge on his former partner in crime Alberto Del Rio. Hawlucha claws John Cena's face off and has to make a heel turn. Because he has no face, you see.
CM Punk vs. Ryback and Paul Heyman
Turns out Ryback really was a Pokemon the whole time. CM Punk then whips out his Hawlucha, and he and Heyman have a Pokemon Battle right there on the stage. It was awesome, you should have seen it. CM Punk wins and gets the Walrusbadge which lets his Pokemon use FLY outside of battle.
AJ Lee vs. Brie Bella
A solid wrestling match between two women whose athleticism impresses the crowd, and have an interesting plot buildup to this championship match. Through a long and arduous match, Jigglypuff sings and draws on everyone's face. Fuck yeah, Jugglypuff.
Rhodes Brothers vs The Sheild vs. The Usos
The Usos sound the most like a Pokemon, and The Sheild is a TV Show, but The Shield wins to keep the plotlines going. Stephanie McManon does something bossy, and I sit here cross-legged and said "You go, girl!" Also Stephanie McMahon is half lizard and half robot, and Triple H was the reanimated corpse of Hunter S. Thompson. They make out on stage and it's really gross.
Curtis Axel vs. Big E. Langston
Big E. Langston spreads so much chalk everywhere that everyone in the audience has a violent coughing fit.
Hawlucha used FLY! It was super effective (at cleaning up the chalk)! Hawlucha gets the title out of gratitude.
-According to the Bulbapedia, in the cartoon, the Pokedex Entry is "A flame burns on the tip of its tail from birth. It is said that a Charmander dies if its flame ever goes out." Basically, the rest of the entries are "if Charmander is healthy, it's flame will burn brightly", nothing about it's dying except for the one entry from Fire Red:
" From the time it is born, a flame burns at the tip of its tail. Its life would end if the flame were to go out."
-Also, according to Bulbapedia, Jeff was right, Lt. Surge does mention fighting in a war along his Pokemon. As speculated, he's from Unova (from Black and White), a region that's been torn apart by war. It also mentioned that he used Pokemon in the war. So this means one of two things:
--1. Pokemon are used in warfare
--2. Lt. Surge is a cheating dick, and used his Pokemon when everyone CLEARLY AGREED to use regular ass guns, which leads to two other speculations:
---A. Lt. Surge is still a cheating dick
---B. Pokemon, as a collective, are like that boy from the Twilight Zone episode with the psychic boy that would zap people to a cornfield.
Also, the penultimate chapter of Anime Cow Is Late For School:
Anime Cow Is Late For School Part 4: What Has Tobe Done
As the school was being destroyed by Dark Sephiroth Goku The Stampede, and Batman, and Goku and Picillo and Alphonse Elric were fighting him, Anime Cow was still late for school. but at least he finished his toast.
Goku unleashed a Kamehamaea attack and Picillo was doing his special beam cannon, Alphonse Elric said "It's no use! He's too strong!"
"We need Anime Cow and his Mystical Power to help us!" said Goku.
"I'M BATMAN!" said Batman, throwing a batarang.
"You two! Come help us!" said Piccillo pointing at Arcanon and Jeff.
"Yeah, I mean John O' Hurley was good, but- Oh" said Arcanon. "C'mon, Jeff, if we use our Monster: The Dueling cards, we can stop him"
Then Principal Rhythm Bastard and his silky smooth voice came over the loudspeaker: "Just a reminder, even though Dark Sephiroth Goku The Stampede is attacking the school, Monsters: The Dueling cards are banned from school grounds as they promote gambling"
"Oh..." sighed Arcanon.
"Those damn Kindergarters ruin everything!" yelled Jeff. "I lost 20 bucks to those little bastards!"
Suddenly Dark Sephiroth Goku The Stampede grabbed Arcanon and Jeff and slammed them against the wall using magical restraining energy which he could totally do the whole time. At the last second, Arcanon took off his glasses, and threw them at the Dark Sephiroth Goku The Stampede. Unfortunately, Batman threw a batarang and knocked them out of the way.
"I'M BATMAN!!!" whispered Batman.
"I can't move!" said Arcanon who was stuck under the magical restaingt magic that Dark Sephiroth Goku The Stampede had the whole time. "Quick, use my glasses!"
Jeff then channeled the ancient 3000 year old wolf spirit that lived inside him, and his beard reached on to the ground where Arcanon's glasses laid on the floor. His beard picked them up and put them over Dark Sephiroth Goku The Stampede's eyes. Suddenly, Dark Sephiroth Goku The Stampede saw a hellish landscape that was so horrible, I could not be bothered to describe it. He recoiled in horror and dropped the two students on the ground.
Arcanon, because he was the smart one, picked up Jeff's bottle of Dewar's, put his tie in it, lit it on fire, and threw it at Dark Sephiroth Goku The Stampede. He was on fire and was reeling backwards and crashed through a chalkboard.
Just then, Mystakin, who was late to school, but not as late as Anime Cow, went right up to Dark Sephirothe Goku The Stampede's face said The Ultimate Tsundere Insult:
"Hey... You're a Baka Gaijin!"
"OH NO! NOW I AM EMOTIONALLY HURT AS WELL!" said Dark Sephiroth Goku The Stampede. Mystakin, Arcanon and Jeff high fived each other, but they heard a laugh. "FOOLS! YOU HAVE YET TO SEE MY FINAL FORM!!!"
Suddenly, Dark Sephiroth Goku The Stampede was 20 feet tall and was glowing green and yellow and blue and was a super buff wizard.
Suddenly, Super Indendent Owen's went on the loud speaker "Attention Students, I will taking over as princibal, as Rhythm Bastard not only lets his students be late to school, but also killed all the kindegarteners and has allowed Dark Sephiroth Goku The Stampede to reach his final form. ANIME COW WHY ARE YOU LATE FOR SCHOOL?!?"
"Hey DORK Sephiroth Goku The Stampede" said Anime Cow, kicking down the classroom door. "I came here to kick ass and eat toast....
-Thatcher x Reagan x Ayn Rand is my OT3 :) ;) ==D~
-But we all know who Thatcher's really into:
No lie, this is one catchy song, and just as applicable Stateside
-Here's the song "We've Got A Bigger Problem Now"
-Regarding the 2DS:
If it's more powerful than the regular DS and we could be getting better looking portable games, I'd be down. But the thing is, I used my old DS for a music player, and for gaming on the go. I know the rest of the Echo Crew doubted it, but a closed DSLite was among the things I'd leave the house with, along with my wallet/keys/watch combo.
On the toilet, (LET'S FACE IT , WE ALL DO IT), I use the speakers, but on the bus/train/car, I'd use headphones.
Though Jeff's "$130 Pokemon Machine" does hit the nail RIGHT on the head.
-Wow, we went from Wii U to talks about about Socialism. Why does everyone hate on Socialists? They would be a lot of fun at parties.
-ANIMECOW IS LATE FOR SCHOOL PART 3:
As Goku and Piccilo fought Dark Sephrioth Goku the Stampede when they were going all Super Saiyan and stuff, thoughts clouded Arcanon's mind...
"This seems familiar... I remember... I remember it WITH MY BRAIN!!" he said as his swirly glasses swirled a lot and he remembered important things from last night...
AnimeCow, Arcanon and Jeff were hanging out at Arcanons house, watching game shows. It was Family Feud, and Steve Harvey was hosting. Somebody answered something really stupid and Steve Harvey wondered if it was too late to break from the contract that he signed.
"Man, are these people drunk?" asked Jeff. "I'd never drink EVER. TRUPUNX ARE STRAIGHTEDGE!!"
"You said it!" said Arcanon. "It would interfere with our studies! Which is the most important thing!"
"I thought it was developing the Mystical Power that we all conveniently have" said AnimeCow. "You know, the ones that help us defeat the Greatest Evil Known To Man?"
"No, all I have are these glasses that are swirling all the time" said Arcanon, taking off his swirly glasses. Unfortunately, he then saw a hellish landscape before him that was so horrifying I couldn't be bothered to write what it looked like. So then he put his glasses back on. "Ughh... Remind me to buy some weed from those kindgarteners tomorrow."
"Well, I have this wicked sweet beard!" said Jeff, who is 15, but has the beard because he is half 15, half 3000 year old wolf spirit.
Their attentions were turned back to the TV, where there was another episode of Family Feud on. but it was with Richard Karn, meaning it wasn't as good so they all played a round Monsters: The Dueling, the popular card game that is apparently the most important thing ever, and tried to forget that Home Improvement ever existed.
Meanwhile, Mystakin stood outside the house going "Baka Cow-chan...with his baka gameshows. NOT LIKE I WANTED TO WATCH THEM OR ANYTHING... HE WAS IN MY WAY"
Earlier that day...
"Hey, Stakin-sama! Want to watch game shows at Arcanon-senpai's house tonight?" asked Anime Cow.
"NO!" yelled Mystakin as he pushed AnimeCow into the lockers and stormed off.
Meanwhile...
Suddenly, a large buff wizard tapped Mystakin on the shoulder. "WHAT ARE YOU DOING YOUNG MAN?"
"Watching these gaijin watch their kawaii game shows desu! Baka Cow!"
"WHO IS THIS... COW... YOU SPEAK OF?"
"Only the biggest jerk that has the Mystical Power that can stop the greatest threat to mankind! Buttface"
"HMMM... THAT IS I, DARK SEPHIROTH GOKU THE STAMPEDE!!! THE GREATEST THREAT TO MANKIND!!!" said Dark Sephiroth Goku The Stampede, the Greatest Threat To Mankind. "AND IF I GET HIM OUT OF THE WAY... I COULD TAKE OVER THE WORLD!!!!"
"I... guess...?" said Mystakin, walking away. Dark Sephiroth Goku The Stampede laughed evilly as he hatched an evil plan.
After the game shows were over, the three friends went their separate ways. On his way out, Jeff found a bottle of Dewar's on the lawn outside. "Hey Arcanon! Is this yours?"
"No, I don't know who left it there! You can keep it!"
"Well, TRUPUNX ARE STRAIGHTEDGE, but I guess I'll take it home anyway!"
"I have to go get a good night's rest!" said AnimeCow. "I want to make sure I'm on time for school!"
However, when AnimeCow fell asleep that night, Dark Sephiroth Goku The Stampede snuck into his room, while he was completely unconcious and vulnerable, and adjusted his alarm clock so that AnimeCow would wake up later!
The next morning...
"Oh no! I'm late for school!" exclaimed AnimeCow as he put a piece of toast in his mouth.
And in the present, Dark Sephiroth Goku The Stampede was laying waste to the school, despite the best efforts of Goku, Piccillo, Alphonse Elric and Batman, who joined the battle while Arcanon was remembering stuff.