Monday, December 31, 2012

Stuff O' 2012

2012 is almost over. Here's some stuff about it I liked.


Game O' 2012- Frog Fractions. Just play it. I hate this stupid spoilerphobic media culture we live in but to say literally anything about Frog Fractions besides "you should play it" would ruin it.

http://twinbeardstudios.com/frog-fractions



Movie O' 2012- TBD. I just haven't seen enough stuff to make this decision. Lincoln, Argo, Skyfall, The Dark Knight Rises, Looper, The Master, all great movies but with stuff like Django Unchained and Zero Dark Thirty still out there unseen I feel my opinion isn't fully informed yet.



Jam O' 2012- Skyfall Instrumental. It's a great song no matter what but the instrumental is perfect writing music for a top secret project I'm working on that may never actually turn into anything.



Show O' 2012- "Veep." Between this, In the Loop, and "The Thick of It," Armando Iannucci has proven that anything he makes about politics, no matter what country or position is targeted, will be brilliant and hilarious.

Book O' 2012- Books?




Pam Grier

Monday, December 17, 2012

I'm Still Here



Hey it’s the holiday season and what not so now I have time to blog and do other secret stuff again. Isn't that great?

I’m keeping this first post short because it’s my blog to do what I want with. However, I do have a few things to say about that tragedy that’s been in the news these days. Obviously a guy who’d write an article like this isn't too sentimental but come on, this is different. Maybe it was seeing all the kids in the airport on the way back home. Maybe it was seeing Lincoln and how politics can actually get stuff done sometimes. In any case, there are way better places to read about this issue than on this vanity blog but if articles like this don’t make it clear enough, I’m really liberal and I have an opinion about this.

People say this shouldn't be a political issue but it is. To say we shouldn't be talking about this on a policy level only enables the forces that allow things like this to keep happening. People blame violent movies and games while saying plenty of other things besides guns kill people like knives and cars. The difference is movies and games entertain, knives cut vegetables and cars get you from here to there. Guns are only for killing people. For me, to be against at least restricting them a little more is incomprehensible at this point.

 We have to talk about this.

Monday, November 26, 2012

Time well wasted

Hey guys, once again I'm being swamped with essays and finals and Followers stuff and whatnot so there probably won't be any original blog posts for a little bit.

Who am I kidding I've just been playing Curiosity.


Monday, November 19, 2012

U Better Believe It


Good news everyone! I have a Wii U now. It’s pretty cool but if you want my full impressions you’ll have to wait and probably check out another website. BUT, right here right now on this blog I’m giving you guys one sentence impressions of the games I’ve gotten to try out so far.

New Super Mario Bros. U- YOU CAN TAP ON THE SCREEN TO MESS WITH MARIO AND THAT’S AWESOME.

Assassin’s Creed III- THERE’S A LOT OF SUBTITLED NATIVE AMERICAN LANGUAGE AND YOU CAN PLAY IT IN BED AND THAT’S AWESOME.

Nintendoland- THEY REMEMEBRED THAT TAKAMARU IS A THING AND YOU CAN DRESS UP YOUR MII AS SAMUS AND THAT’S AWESOME.

Call of Duty Black Ops II- THIS DUDE IS IN IT AND THAT’S AWESOME(?)

Scribblenauuts Unlimited- New features like the open world and item creation system expand on the original concept in some pretty fun and interesting ways.

WII U IS AWESOME!

Monday, November 12, 2012

That time of the year

No post this week because here's all the stuff going on with me.

1. exams

2. papers

3. Followers, yeah still

4. Wii U

5. reviews

6. see 1

In the meantime enjoy this awesome Funny or Die Bond parody.



Tuesday, October 16, 2012

Uh Oh Politics: Awareness

“What? Oh yeah, there’s like an election happening. It’s an important one too like the President or the Supreme Court or something. I guess I should pay attention this time. What?” – like half of America every four years.

Due to this predictable cycle of vague political awareness increasing throughout the country, everyone that can stand to make a few bucks always rushes in to capitalize on the general confusion. I for one think it’s fascinating.

Tuesday, October 9, 2012

Bond Bonus Bit: Baby you’re the Best

Adele’s “Skyfall” theme song is now available and it’s awesome and everyone should listen to it.


Plus, it’s as good a reason as any for me to name my other favorite James Bond songs, in no particular order.

Wednesday, September 26, 2012

Old Stuff Part 9- Glueman Origins




Newsflash! I was a weird little kid who did a lot of weird little stuff. How else would expect something like 300 pages of Pie Planet comic strips to be made? What I’m sharing today though is perhaps the first recorded example of my strange desire to wed creativity that borders on non-sequitur with stupidly elaborate story arcs. I’m talking about the comics I drew in like 1st grade: The Quest of Glueman and Crew. It would’ve been "The Adventure" instead of "The Quest" but I didn’t know how to spell that at the time.

Friday, September 21, 2012

Tuesday, September 18, 2012

What If I Told You...

After some Very Serious political posts it's time for me to write about dumb internet stuff again. Actually, getting the internet up and running here in Spice World (my new apartment) was such a hassle it made me more grateful for the virtually limitless amount of information we have available at our finger tips online. However, what if I told you that the web held more information than you thought?

The Deep Web a.k.a.DeepNet a.k.a. The Invisible Web a.k.a. The Undernet a.k.a. The Hidden Web basically refers to all online information not accessible via search engines and other tools used by us pedestrian "surface web" dwellers. It's usually boring stuff like sites with private logins and domains that doesn't use HTTP but how great and ominous is the term "Deep Web?" It sounds like some H.P. Lovecraft nether realm. Top internet scientists estimate that around 300,000 sites and over 7,500 terabytes of data exist on the Deep Web and they are constantly working on new ways to crawl this forbidden space. Amazing.

Of course, this shouldn't be confused with the equally spooky Dark Internet which is made up of computers simply cut off from the larger World Wide Web. This also shouldn't be confused with 4chan which is just a dark part of the internet.

What a great stupid world we live in.

Friday, September 7, 2012

Stuff I Did This Week/Uh Oh Politics: 9/7/2012/DNC 2012 Edition vs. Capcom



I was at the Democratic National Convention this week and wrote some stuff.


Day One: Yes We Can, Again

Day Two: It's Kind of a Big Deal

Day Three: What's Next for New Jersey?


I find it funny that this year I didn't have a press pass but did way more actual journalism than four years ago.


Also I reviewed this game.

Motor World Car Factory Review


Also I played Bastion and The World Ends With You on the iPad. They're pretty good.




#MoneyDoesn'tExist




Tuesday, September 4, 2012

Uh Oh Politics: Stuff I'm Doing at the 2012 DNC

http://www.nj.com/gloucester-county/index.ssf/2012/09/pro-obama_blogger_prepares_for.html

Four years ago at the last Democratic National Convention I got the chance to blog about my experiences there for my local newspaper The Gloucester County Times. I'm still convinced that bit of journalism is what got me into Medill in the first place. Anyway, I'm doing it again and the first blog entry is posted here. Check out www.nj.com for more updates throughout the week.

Friday, August 31, 2012

Stuff I Did This Week 8/31/2012

First, I'm helping relaunch HearMii.com and we're looking for new team members. Want to try your hand at games writing? Send some samples to HearMii@gmail.com.

Also now there's Pie Planet fan art, courtesy of Andrea Schmitz. Wrap your head around that.



Golden Ninja HD Review

SongPop Review

Nom Nation Review 


You guys should actually check out Nom Nation. It's the first editor's choice I've given and it's free.

Tuesday, August 14, 2012

Bond Book Bits: The Beginning

This should get some regular content going for a while. I was watching Live and Let Die aka “James Bond vs. Black People” the other day and between that and the upcoming Skyfall, I just started thinking a lot about James Bond. This led to me reading the James Bond short story collections “For Your Eyes Only” and “Octopussy and The Living Daylights” which has now led to me briefly discussing them on this blog “Love Me Some Lovecraft” style.

I decided to go with the short stories because

1. I’m lazy… when it comes to reading.

2. Many of them were based on scripts for a failed James Bond TV show and that seemed interesting.

3. The James Bond movies are so episodic anyway, reading a bunch of short stories in that universe seemed like a good fit.

So let’s get started.

Tuesday, August 7, 2012

Game Reviews



Although I still won’t be reviewing video games on this particular site any time soon (which means I fortunately don’t have to try to make any sense of the latest Kingdom Hearts release) that doesn’t mean I can’t review other kinds of games. With the Olympics going on I’ve been thinking about Sports more often than usual. I then realized that reviewing them as if they were like any other game would be a really fun, fascinating, trollish thought experiment especially for someone like me how doesn’t understand or care about the vast majority of sports. So here you go.

Monday, July 30, 2012

I’ve Got Nothing



I spent a good long time trying to come up with a topic for this week but sorry, I’ve got nothing.

Monday, July 23, 2012

In Which I Come to Terms with Comic Book Movies


I don’t read comics. I sort of know a lot about them but trying to maintain decades’ worth of inter-connected fictions has created worlds as impenetrable as they are ridiculous. I used to watch a lot of comic book cartoons though and I still do watch a lot of comic book movies. They give the interesting characters and ideas a more comprehensible place to shine. However, now that this summer’s Avengers, Spider-Man, Batman triumvirate has come and gone, I find myself far less excited for the future of the genre.

Wednesday, July 18, 2012

Woop Woop!

Every region has awful people. However, what makes awful people awful is sometimes inherent to the region they come from. Just like the “Jersey Shore” gang can only come from my home state, the meth-addled, wrestling-loving, magnet-studying clown family that is the Juggalos can only come from the Midwest where the Faygo flows like water.


For the past like dozen years, this group of freethinking fans of the Insane Clown Posse and their Psychopathic Records label has been putting together this music/freshness festival called “The Gathering of the Juggalos” where they can escape the mainstream and play the neden game to their heart’s content. While I’ve been aware of these ninjas for some time now, when they put out the truly spectacular infomercial for last’s year gathering, they skyrocketed up my “ironic appreciation” list right alongside James Franco and “Monster High.” The latest infomercial has now arrived so I’ve decided to share my thoughts in list form for you guys to peep.


Tuesday, July 10, 2012

NYC Humblebrags

Quick update, now that Pie Planet is done the new schedule is recaps on Fridays and originals on Tuesdays, like this one.

Based on my interests and career aspirations, it’s pretty inevitable that I’ll end up living on the west coast. However, I’ll still always be an east coast native and therefore will always have love for New York City. After visiting the city this past weekend to meet up with some friends, I remembered that every time I go there, it’s awesome for an entirely different reason. So I decided to write them down.


Wednesday, July 4, 2012

Monday, July 2, 2012

Uh Oh Politics: Summer Daze

I went to the White House this weekend for a New Jersey Community Leaders summit or something and it was actually a pretty good discussion. Speakers included various special assistants to President Obama including Liz Fowler, the architect behind the recently passed (and thank God they did by the way) health reform laws. To top it all off, I got to tour the White House itself after waiting outside in absurdly hot weather. The funny thing is though, I’m not actually allowed to go into much more detail than that seeing as I’m the press and not really a “NJ Community Leader.” Whatever, this was just the inspiration and jumping off point for the real point of this article: the lovable insanity of summertime politics.

Monday, June 25, 2012

Great Job!

Continuing this Jimmies theme, here’s a video that hilariously rustled mine when I first saw it a few weeks ago.

It’s from "Check It Out! With Dr. Steve Brule," a spin-off of "Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job!" and it’s very much in line with the duo’s notoriously divisive style of comedy. Upon watching it a few more times however, it struck me how perfectly this sketch encapsulates what makes that humor work, in my opinion anyway.