#and some wacky humour that may be not aged well (?)

[nthflower]

I will play old world blues next and I actually have no expectations so it will be a surprise.

It's okay if it's even kinda fun and not aggressively racist tho other flaws are tolerable that's fallout franchise after all.

[hellzyeahthewebwieldingavenger]

Spider-Gwen: Ghost Spider #4 Thoughts

 The very, very, very end of Spider-Geddon and...a surprisingly great issue!

Covering this comic is very strange for me because I’m coming at it from two places mentally speaking.

Firstly I’m jumping into the fourth and final tie in issue to an event comic having not read the prior three issues.

Secondly I’m jumping into Spider-Gwen, a series I abandoned long ago, back in volume 2 issue #10 to be precise, which was published over 2 years before this issue was. It also had an entirely different writer/artist team back then.

Frankly I picked this up purely because I knew Mayday and some RYV characters were going to be in it. In that regard the issue was rather pointless, they cameo and do little else.

However I’m actually glad I bothered with the comic all the same. I was expecting this to be fluff and filler at best. An insufferable worshipping of Gwen Stacy, as so many comics (including Spider-Gwen itself) was when Spider-Gwen got big back in 2014-2016.

To my delight that wasn’t the case.

I admit to being rather lost with some plot points such as Gwen having a symbiote (this was brought up in Spider-Geddon #2 but it was unexplained there too) and how exactly Gwen can transverse dimensions.

However the rest of the issue was mostly good. Now I read Secret Wars: Spider-Verse, Web Warriors and Spider-Geddon #0-5 but I didn’t read any other Spider-Gwen or Ghost Spider issues so to me Gwen’s sense of loss over Noir and Spidey-UK felt rather unearned and cheap. It wasn’t that I didn’t think she’s be upset over losing a comrade but the deep sense of loss and words towards little habits within their respective relationships didn’t ring true to me. However that may have come up in issues I didn’t read so I’m willing to be corrected on that.

But based upon my reading Gwen feeling as sad as she did was a bit of a stretch. I also felt the milking of Spidey-UK’s death from a reader point of view was questionable because...did anyone honestly love that character? Spider-Man Noir I can understand, he has a fanbase (and this issue hammered home how asinine a decision it was to kill him back at the start of this event) but Billy Braddock? Who cares really? He was used for some cheap pathos in Web Warriors and that was about it. Now that being said I did love the idea behind him being buried in Lady Spider’s dimension as she was English (although if memory serves that was never confirmed outright, she may have simply lived in 1800s New York). I did wonder where the Hell Lady Spider was throughout this event though.

The addressing of Noir’s death though was much more necessary and as stupid as it was to kill him I do give Marvel credit for having an issue which addresses that. His fans deserved at least that much, particularly I think the Noir/Felicia shippers who are undoubtedly out there. I also very much appreciated how May, MJ and Felicia had different reactions to his death respectively.

Another great thing was that the general addressing of grief, sadness and death in the issue felt respectful. It felt real even though as I said the specifics of Gwen’s relationship with Noir and Spidey-UK didn’t quite ring true. It’s like it would’ve been perfect dialogue and execution if used for another character’s death.  A small detail I especially  liked in this regard was Gwen’s drumming as a coping mechanism. One of my major complaints in Latour’s issues was how Gwen’s hobbies and passions were underused and underdeveloped. She was a drummer but that didn’t factor that much into the stories I read. So to see McGuire embrace that is as welcome as Miles’ artistic talents in ITSV.

Now I admit, those of you who recall my thoughts on Latour’s Spider-Gwen book might be calling me a hypocrite here. Because another of my frequent complaints was how doom and gloom and glum Gwen typically was in that series from the outset, yet here I’m praising that.

I think the distinction is this. Latour came out the gate defining Gwen as grieving and guilt ridden, reeling from a tragedy that happened an undisclosed amount of time ago (but still making with the yuks and gags). Not only was this tonal whiplash but it also was a shitty way to set up a new ongoing series. It began world building for Gwen in media-res of extenuating circumstances and circumstances which were incredibly derivative of Peter Parker.

Where McGuire succeeds in this issue is by having not only a distinctly different tragedy but also the benefit of this occurring both after Gwen’s world has been built up and in the aftermath of a huge event. It’s totally realistic and earned that there would be a mourning for fallen warriors after a war. It’d be disrespectful for that not to be the case; in fact it’s kind of disrespectful that that mourning happens in a tie-in issue not the main book!

By having this issue actually deal with the aftermath it re-contextualizes the prior issues of the event. Spider-Geddon as a whole was definitely a bloated poorly written inconsistent mess. But this issue as a coda treats it with the weight the main book never had. There is an emotional realism to the story even though we are dealing with something as wacky as inter-dimensional travel and totem vampires.

This emotional realism is pulled off so well you even feel a little something for Karn’s death, you even feel bad he died alone and so violently even though again, no one is a fan of that character. No one gives a shit about him.

Part of this realism comes from McGuire from this one issue apparently being an inherently better writer than Latour ever was, at least for Spider-Gwen. Latour in all this works I’ve read emphasises style, and wants you to ‘watch’ the story unfold rather than feel like you are right there with the characters. You can ‘see’ Spider-gwen is upset but McGuire takes you inside her head and writes her grief from the inside out. Latour might’ve used internal narration but he rarely pulled this off, probably because he was too busy making a clown show on the side with stupid ass Spider-Ham cameos, wacky humour about the Bodega Bandit or building up Evil Daredevil instead of you know, the ACTUAL main character.

His Spider-Gwen work felt a lot like watching things sort of just happened rather than experiencing things unfolding like in this issue.

What further enhances this story is the deliberate or accidental metatext behind the story. No I am not talking about how Stan Lee had recently died when the issue came out, though that did make me tear up thinking about it.

Gwen has been rebranded Ghost Spider (though her recap page doesn’t quite admit that weirdly) and this is an issue about Gwen dealing with ghosts, dealing with death, spreading the grim news as a reluctant messenger of death. That angle just works in this issue and if embraced would work brilliantly as a new element to the character to latch onto. In no small part because, as the issue itself acknowledges, Gwen Stacy’s legacy is inherently linked to death.

That might be admittedly a radical departure from the punk rock youth vibe the series began with, but not only was that rather squandered by Latour (with bullshit like Hipster Electro and Hipster Kraven the Hunter, go fuck yourself seriously!) but at the end of the day that vibe is perhaps rather...shallow...for an ongoing character...??????

Other elements of the issue I liked was the artwork. It’s not much like what Rodriguez was going, which was I admit very distinct and gave Spider-Gwen’s series a unique identity. But this art is still lovely and works very well for the subject matter. What is particularly nice was the different period outfits Gwen adopted as she made her travels through the multiverse. Also, though this isn’t strictly ‘art’ per se, the word balloons at Karn’s funeral have a cool moment where everyone speaks a salute to Karn and the combined word balloons look like a spider. That was just a cool touch.

My final note is that McGuire has one of the best Peter Parker moments I’ve seen in a long time, and considering the quality of Spencer’s run that is not damning with faint praise (as it would’ve been just over a year ago). In the scene Spider-Gwen and 616 Peter discuss Gwen needing some time off and Gwen asks if that is selfish. On the one hand this is a little bit derivative of Peter Parker, King of Guilt and Responsibility. On the other hand I guess most heroes would ask this of themselves. Peter Parker surprisingly gives a very mature answer.

Now this answer is very much in character and logical for Peter, but it’s also something too often writers neglect in favour of writing Peter in a repetitive manner that renders him a caricature. Peter acknowledges it is selfish but that that is not wrong, He says the world will always need saving but the heroes get to pick their battles and have to sometimes rest, that indeed they deserve it.

Though a mere moment in a story not about him McGuire writes a Peter Parker who truly feels like a mature adult, that feels like the Peter who is truly the sum of his experiences.

Were this teenage or college aged Peter he wouldn’t have been likely to say that. If it was friggin Slott’s Peter Parker definitely not (even though he’d have still gone to play with Miles in the park rather than do his actual job). But a Peter Parker who’s insanely experienced and knows his limits? Yes absolutely he’d know he’s entitled to down time and more importantly needs it. It’s demonstrative of how guilt is present in his character and yet is not the defining trait. Responsibility is, and there is a responsibility to himself. Spidey-UK even echoes such a sentiment earlier in the story.

So with all that said I must admit this issue was a tremendous triumph from where I’m standing, I’d recommend you read it and would go so far as to call it the best issue of Spider-Gwen I’ve ever read sans her debut.

Does it change my feelings for Spider-Geddon as a whole?

No, it still sucked and was still pointless beyond resurrecting MC2 Peter (which in my book makes it worth it, sorry Spidey Noir fans, I’m sure he’ll be back eventually) but this last issue took it out on an unquestionable high note.

[cynical-sirius]

Hey! I’m going around asking the gc members this one by one! How would you explain every member of the gc???

OKAY Y'ALL, PREPARE FOR ME TO HAPPY-RANT ABOUT SOME OF MY FAVOURITE PEOPLE EVER I HAVE PUT THEM IN ALPHABETICAL ORDER BECAUSE I HAD NO IDEA WHAT OTHER ORDER TO PUT THEM IN!!!

THESE PEOPLE ARE ALL AMAZING AND Y'ALL SHOULD DEFINITELY FOLLOW THEM IF YOU DON’T ALREADY.

 ANYWAYS, HERE’S OUR GROUP OF GAYS:

Abbie aka @eyeofahurricaneart - did y'all know that this girl literally lives AROUND THE CORNER FROM MY PARENTS’ HOUSE yet we’ve never met? (I go to uni 3 hours away). Abbie is so sweet and kind and a damn talented artist!! She’s only been able to join calls briefly but she is a treasure and I love her. (Also we have a mutual friend who has told me that she has the best singing voice so at some point I’m gonna get her to sing for me). Literally drank tea on the skype call like the british stereotype she is. Her insta name is literally a pun. So much love.

Anca aka @rthemis - BITCH WHERE YOU BEEN RECENTLY?!?! I haven’t heard an update about her life in a while which makes me sad because her life is literally a fanfic that I am very much subscribed to. She is so caring. Did you know she literally has a pinterest board for each of her friends where she posts things that remind her of them??? She is also such an Enjolras she cares so much and I love her for it. She literally acted ‘extra gay’ around a bunch of homophobes just to piss them off and adfhksglshgl I love her for it.

 Bea aka @probablybeatricetbh - We have literally never DMd!! I’m gonna change that after this post because wtf she’s so amazing. She is so woke and brilliant and although she hasn’t joined the calls recently was such an asset when she did!! This girl literally got detention for ranting about gender neutral bathrooms - World Ain’t Ready Enj anyone?? I love her a lot, as everyone should!

Eve aka @poneezi - Man, this girl is wacky and I love her. She once told this story about a snail that was just so weird and wonderful and perfectly encapsulates her as a person.  She doesn’t join calls as much as I’d like but she’s so great when she does!!! I’m pretty sure we have the same sense of humour too - I remember the first time we spoke on call we literally told the same joke at the same time (although now I can’t even remember what the joke was lol). SO much love.

Jaël aka @yeah-tea - oh my god where do I begin? She keeps animal skulls that she skins herself and a taxidermy crow that she made (that I named Russell Crowe) which would normally be huge warning signs for me to be scared of a person, but she’s also a fiercly loyal hufflepuff with a heart of gold who just loves everyone around her and she just has the most beautiful and pure soul ever and I love her so so so much!!! Hopefully going to meet her soon which I am so fucking excited for!!!

Jenny aka @charliedemarcoo - This girl somehow manages to turn a group of dysfunctional gays into a group of Jolys screaming “NO DON’T DO THAT IT’S DANGEROUS” (I mean wtf she snorted chilli powder I cannot even). She is literally 13 and yet I don’t notice an age difference?? (Although that may be because I’m immature rather than because she’s mature lol). She sends chocolates in the mail and is so cute and I love her. Just a wildcard all over tbh - yesterday she fucking went down a slip and slide made of rainwater down a staircase??? We will all die an early death from how much she worries us. She also wrote a ‘keyboard smash’ translation of her letter for Kyle. I love her. A lot.

Kyle aka @eposettemyass - This gal literally is the reason we all know each other!! So thank you for that, Kyle!! She is so brilliant and amazing!! She literally just got into a great uni and I am so so so proud of her. The recipient of the aforementioned keyboard smash letter because she is a useless gay who cannot convey emotions without a keyboard smash. AMAZING SINGER TOO LIKE WTF?!?!?!?! She literally grimaced the day she found out I was a gemini (it was over Skype - I saw her face) which I normally wouldn’t be offended by except thefact that I am literally the most stereotypical gemini ever. Loooove youuuu.

@shitpostingfromthebarricade - This girl is my rock. Literally. I do not know where I’d be without her. Also whenever I want to talk about some super obscure fanfic that I’ve read, she always seems to have read it??? (See: 10 Things AU, Cheers Darlin’, etc). She literally holds the chat together: she initiates the calls (literally, this week she wasn’t around to start the call so it started 2 and a half hours late - where would we be without you dude seriously), she is just by far the unorganised organiser in a group of unorganised gays. Probably the one I’ve spoken to most and I feel like she knows me pretty well and I know her pretty well. Always there to talk!!! Love you 😘😘😘

Anyways those are my gays and I love them ❤️❤️❤️ (ps I have not proofread this at all so prepare for there to be a load of mistakes in it)

[oosteven-universe]

The Gingerdead Man Meets Evil Bong #2

The Gingerdead Man Meets Evil Bong #2 Action Lab Entertainment/Full Moon Presents 2018 Written by Brockton McKinney Illustrated by Sergio Rios Coloured by Rosa “Rosakaz” Rantila Lettered by Micah Myers      Gingerdead Man returns from his exile in Bong World, but the Candy Wizard has granted him a terrible wish! To make matters even worse, the evil Synthia has returned with her VHS Misfits, a group of cyborgs compiled from Gingerdead Man’s previous victims! Now it’s up to Eebee the Evil Bong and Lana the shopkeeper to roll up their problems and smoke out the truth!     I do not advocate the usage of psychotropic drugs but man a part of me wishes I still dropped acid or did shrooms because I will be damned it that wouldn’t completely trip me the effe out. Already this is beyond hysterical and we finally see the tiny cookie dough penis on the Gingerdead Man, c’mon its dough y’all could’ve been more imaginative and creative with it. Why is it so awkward of uncomfortable for men to draw and show off someone, or something’s manhood?     I think as I get older I find a greater appreciation for this kind of off the rails vulgar humour. Because while it may be a seventeen year old boys mindset it’s also got some depth to it that goes beyond the surface and it entire effect that Brockton brings to this really makes it what it is. The characterisation the way the potty mouth spews uncooked raw marijuana dough is perfectly timed and delivered by these characters in ways that are flawless. This is the kind of writing that actors kill over roles for it’s just that damn good and if you don’t think so look back at Betty White in Lake Placid lol.  Also that the entire universe seems out to get him well that just means it's a race against time to see who gets to whom first!   Now I want to see Purple Pieman and Dick Dastardly in wacky racer.     I want to say that the way the book is structured and the overall ebb & flow were surprisingly good but I can’t. Brockton has shown us time and again that’s he one helluva excellent and creative writer. Just the fact that this book exists and it’s not some cheesy ass mockery made just sell off the names involved but is a viable story that mixes way too many familiar themes (or franchises) and still manages to make this the kind of adult horror comedy that the Scary Movie franchise would die to emulate.     I wasn’t even sure that any of these characters would come to my attention let alone become an active part in my vernacular. Yet here we are and I cannot imagine life without these characters any longer. So regardless of the stoner flicks of your youth this is one that will you back to those days fondly and if you never touched anything of that sort (boring much? Just kidding but wow) the pacing, the delivery of and just the sheer amount of adult oriented humour will get you to crack more than a smile. Not to mention Synthia and her team making a dramatic return after being totally bushwhacked by Gingerdead Man in the first volume.     I love the interiors here, yes penis rant above included. I mean it has the all-ages aspect to it when we clearly know otherwise. Yes I want more backgrounds being used I mean they are in a head shoppe and I am still underwhelmed by what we do and don’t see. I will give major credit and kudos on the V.H.S. Misfits character design and implementation. The utilisation of the page layouts and how we see the angles and perspective in the panels shows a really solid eye for storytelling. Also the fact that can see how expertly the linework has been manipulated through its varying weights to show off some nice attention to the details is wonderfully done. ​     There are those companies who make films because they love what they do. Full Moon is one of them they all aren’t cult classics or even beloved by the mainstream world. They do what they do and sometimes they hit a home-run and others they strike out. Brockton and Sergio make an excellent pair and with Rozakaz and Micah rounding out the team they manage to elevate stoner bathroom humour to a level that’s acceptable even in high society.

[jeremys-blogs]

Eizouken: Great Character Design

For as long as I can remember, I have had an utter love of animation. Not just watching the final product play out in theatres or on TV, but finding out about the process of it all. How animation works, what techniques exist, looking at differing styles and understanding the ideas behind why certain appearances and looks were chosen. As such, it should comes as no surprise that a particular recent anime crossed my radar some time ago, since it existed as a love letter to the field of animation; Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken! This show, centered around three girls who share a passion for creating their own anime, has been an utter delight to watch, and what fascinates me most about it is that it is effectively an anime about how anime gets made. The practical decisions behind it, the thought process, all that good stuff. Sometimes entire scenes will involve the three girls focusing on what they need to do to set a scene or just to get a character to move, and in those moments I am utterly enraptured. That, plus the fact that it's funny as Hell, makes it an absolute must for anyone who wants an anime that's just different from anything they've likely seen before from the medium, as cliché as that may be to say.

Now, as tempting as it is for me to simply gush about the humour and the great backgrounds and all the rest of it, what I really want to talk about is the designs given to our three leading ladies. Because, and I don't think I'm exaggerating when I say this, but Asakusa, Kanamori and Mizusaki are probably some of the most uniquely-designed characters I've seen in anime in a long time. Now, I realise that a medium like anime has no shortage of weird and wonderful character designs out there, but the astonishing thing with this show and this cast is that it's a group of school girls. And I'm not sure if you've noticed, but anime that focus on characters like that tend not to get too adventurous when it comes to appearances. Oh, there are plenty of shows where the girls in question are likeable or funny, don't get me wrong, but you'll likely notice that they tend to be a bit uniform in their looks a lot of the time, no pun intended. Height, face types, body shapes, a lot of those things and more will be virtually identical to one another, with variation only noticeable in things like hairstyles and eye colours. Now Eizouken, on the other hand, seems to revel in breaking out of that particular mould and make these girls as distinct and varied as they can.

Of course, as with any great character design, the appearance of said characters needs to give some idea of who they are as people. A member of the audience need only glance at one of those they see on screen and, at least in part, have a grasp on what kind of character they're dealing with. Our main character Asakusa, for instance, is the shortest of the group, with big eyes and a somewhat tomboyish way of standing and moving a lot of the time, giving off the distinct impression of being, if not the youngest, then the most childlike of the three girls. Her larger-than-normal eyes give the sense of this being a literal wide-eyed idealist with a big imagination, which we see her display at numerous points of the show, as she's easily the most devout anime fan of the three. But despite her eagerness for that medium we also have moments of her looking like she wants to shrink away, showing off the shyness she has when around people outside her core group of friends, emphasised by her large hat, which would of course be good for breaking eye contact with others if you just tilted your head slightly. Overall, this is the design of a girl with lots of energy packed into a very small container, but also one you can tell straight away is awkward and at least a little bumbling, to the point of being perhaps the most cartoony of the main characters.

Up next is fan-favourite Kanamori, and with her we have the group's resident cynic and realist. Someone incredibly business-minded who acts more seriously than the rest, often exasperated by her colleague's more wacky antics. As such her design just perfectly reflects that, as her standard look is one with a smile-less, almost tired-looking appearance. As the tallest of the girls, and maybe even the tallest student at their school as a whole, she looks sort of out-of-place among virtually any crowd shot we get, but that height, much like with Asakusa's, gives the feel of age about her, even though she's the same as the other girls. But whereas Asakusa's height gave the impression of youth and perhaps innocence, Kanamori's height gives the feel of maturity, like she's the oldest and is more experiences than the rest. Out of all the girls, hers is the design that looks the most at-odds with those of other school anime, as she would, if placed in those other shows, most likely be seen as "the unappealing girl". The kind all the boys would be afraid of being paired up with at the school dance or something. So it's actually pretty great and encouraging as far as I'm concerned that she wound up being the audience's favourite when this show came out. Because if nothing else, its showed there was a want out there for schoolgirl characters in anime who could differ from the norm.

Last, but certainly not least, we have our final girl, Misusaki. And here, you might expect me to not have anything interesting to say about her, since she doesn't look anywhere near as unconventionally-designed as the other girls, but that very fact is actually what makes her design so clever. Because on the surface, she's easily the most anime-esque of our main trio, looking like she'd fit in with dozens of other school-based anime. But the thing about her character is that she's meant to be an aspiring model and actress, leading to her being "the pretty one" of the group. As such her appearance, despite probably looking ordinary in other anime, actually makes her stand out when you see her with Asakusa and Kanamori. You look at her, with no discernible quirks to her design like Kanamori's height or Asakusa's childlike face, and your mind instantly clicks that this is the character we're meant to view as more attractive in the typical sense. Average (by anime standards) being placed alongside unconventional immediately makes the average look great by comparison, as visual shorthand for beauty. But even with that main objective, there's enough to that ordinary look to give the idea of her being a largely cheerful and upbeat type, like her frequent smiles.

With this being the kind of anime that it is, there is one thing that needs discussion before I go any further, and unfortunately it's something I'm rather loathe to talk about. That being that none of the girls in this show are in any way objectified or sexualised over the course of the show. Now, that might seem obvious, since they're all underage, but as sad as it is to say that's not always a given with anime centred around schools. And yes, I realise that things like age of consent rules are different over there than they are over here in the west, but the bottom line is that anime has had a very uncomfortable relationship with this sort of thing, and it pleases me that Eizouken doesn't go anywhere near that kind of portrayal of the three girls. It's especially good considering that one of the girls is an outright model, someone whose job it is to look good for others, yet outside of those moments when we see her in modelling classes and the like, Mizusaki is never posed or framed in any way that would suggest that animators are trying to draw the eye to her. This was a character that, in many a school anime, would have been ripe for that kind of objectification, yet they refrain, which I'm hugely relieved about.

If you were to ask for further proof of just why the character designs in Eizouken are good, then there's one final thing we need to consider about them. I'm no artist, but when it comes to design there's one term I've often heard about, and that's the silhouette principal. The long and short of it is, the more easily you can identify a given character's identity from their outline or silhouette, the stronger their design is. For instance, take Mickey Mouse, Pikachu or Bugs Bunny. All clear outlines, all easily recognised. Now, if we try the same technique to our three Eizouken girls, we find we have just as much ease in identifying. Take away all but their outline and there's no debate over which one is which. Now, obviously this kind of method is best suited for animation, since we have things like exaggeration in their appearance that you wouldn't be able to get away with in live action, but even within animation, and anime specifically, we can see that effort has gone into making the girls look different from one another. Take an anime you love, perhaps another school-based one, and try to apply this principal to the cast of it. If you find you have a hard time telling one person from another, then we can probably say that the designs there aren't those shows' strong-suit.

By now I hope I've convinced anyone reading this that Eizouken is great on its visuals and character aesthetics. But thankfully, as I said at the start, it has far more than just that going for it, from its funny moments to the incredible love the creators had for the field of animation. Now, as someone who has grown up with the likes of Studio Ghibli, I'm well aware that there are better-looking and better-animated works out there, just as there are funnier comedies and so on. And I know too that Eizouken isn't going to be anyone's cup of tea, so there's a chance it's not going to be winning any "best anime ever" awards. But for me, this is one of those rare titles that just hits all of the right spots for me. If nothing else, its main cast, while small, certainly qualify for the most interesting collection I've seen in TV anime for a while, and when all else fails at least they're still around to carry the show. As of this writing I have no idea if Eizouken will be getting a second season or some OVA movie to tide me over, but even if this is the last I ever see of this world and these three great girls, then at least I can be content knowing that it was a fun ride 😊

[awed-frog]

Hi .. going through tough times right now and I'm so anxious that I couldn't do think anything else right now. It is fine if you can't reply me, can you suggest me few books that can help me cope up? Books that makes me feel better. Thank you ..

Hi there, I’m so sorry you’re not feeling well, and I truly hope you’ll feel better soon. Just hang in there, okay?❤

So, unfortunately I don’t know a lot about self-help books, if that was what you were asking for, but I can rec you a few things that have helped me or made me laugh or made me happy.

If you’re into that, there are many multi-book fantasy series that’ll suck you in and keep you busy for a few weeks (or months). Try The Belgariad, A Song of Ice and Fire, His Dark Materials, The Painted Man, The First Law, the Bartimaeus Sequence, Philip Pullman’s Sally Lockart’s books and the Discworld Series. 

(Depending on your age, the bolded titles could be a bit dark, so use your common sense, okay? If you’re not comfortable with something, stop reading.)

Something else I couldn’t stop put down till the very end over the past few years: JK Rowling’s adult books (The Casual Vacancy and the Cormoran Strike stories), Karen Joy Fowler’s The Jane Austen Book Club, Muriel Barbery’s The Elegance of the Hedgehog, Susanna Clarke’s Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell and Liane Moriarty’s novels - again, these are not necessarily cheerful books, but they’re very well written and seem to physically push you out of your own life for a while, if that’s what you need.

If you’re looking for something that’s funny - well, it’s harder to help you out, because humour changes so much from person to person, but here are a few books that are guaranteed to make people laugh - just read a few pages before buying them so you can decide if they’re suited to you or not:

Gerald Durrell, My Family and Other Animals (you probably know about this one - an account of the time the Durrell family spent in Corfu during WW2 - but it’s a personal favourite, so I’m including it)

David Sedaris (just pick anything - he writes these short stories about his life, and somehow it’s always so damn funny)

Douglas Adams, A Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (unfortunately, doesn’t do much for me, but many of my friends are absolute devotees)

Helen Fielding, Bridget Jones’ Diary (depending on how old you are, it may feel a bit off to you, but I really enjoyed it)

David Foster Wallace, A Supposedly Fun Thing I’ll Never Do Again: Essays and Arguments (like Sedaris’, this is a memoir written in short stories - I really liked it)

If you’d rather something that felt familiar, Stephen Colbert, Tina Fey, Mindy Kaling and others all wrote books that have been described as hilarious - here’s a list by the Huffington Post.

There’s also a couple of non fiction books that may make you feel better or distract you - and all of these are very readable, I promise - definitely not those boring academic things that make you curse the invention of paper. Try Desmond Morris’ The Naked Woman (an anthropological study on the female body), Jon Ronson’s The Men Who Stare at Goats (about the CIA’s wacky experiments in the 1970s), Levitt and Dubner’s Freakonomics (you can also listen to their podcast for free), Yuval Noah Harari’s Homo Deus (a brilliant analysis of who we are and who we’ll be in the 21st century) and Steven Pinker’s The Better Angels of Our Nature (a study on how, surprisingly, our world is actually getting better).

Last category: inspirational books of some kind or another.

Paulo Coelho’s The Alchemist 

Shunryu Suzuki’s Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind

Richard Bach’s Jonathan Livingston Seagull

Herman Hesse’s Siddartha

Cheryl Strayed’s Wild

Martha Gellhorn, Travels with Myself and Another

Joan Didion, The Year of Magical Thinking

Robert Pirsig’s Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance

Something you should definitely add to the list are books you enjoyed as a child or a teen, and also - sorry to butt in with unrequested life tips, but for me, what seems to work are those things you always see everywhere - keep your room tidy, make your bed, make an effort with your appearance, take a walk outside (if possible near trees or rivers), exercise (dancing alone in your room totally counts), go to bed and wake up every day around the same time, and try your hand at yoga or meditation. Now, the trouble is, of course, that these are all things we really don’t want to do when we’re blue, but they actually help? I’d recommend Headspace, a meditation app - the first two weeks are free, and the guy has this soothing voice and this interesting way of guiding you through it and explain how your own mind works. 

And finally, a piece of advice that first given to me years ago, when I was grieving a friend’s death: negative feelings are a normal part of the human experience, and instead of fighting back, let them come. Acknowledge that this is how you feel right now, and allow yourself to be sad, or angry, or anxious. Just remember this is not permanent, because nothing is. It’s like waves, this person once said to me - they come all they way to the beach and then they roll back. They’re not who you are, they don’t define you in any way, they just - are. So, really - take it one day at a time and remember the wave will roll back, okay? - because that’s what waves do.

[growinstablog]

60+ May Social Media Ideas – Videos, GIFs and more!

Need some May Social Media Ideas? In this post we share a packed list of Social Media Holidays for May, with bucketloads of social videos, GIFs and more! You’ll never run out of May content ideas again!

Tulips by Sunlike, Shutterstock

BY DONNA MORITZ | 12TH APRIL, 2019 | CONTAINS AFFILIATE LINKS

Posts on this blog may contain affiliate links, which means we receive a small commission at no cost to you if you purchase through a link. 

We’ve rounded up a list of popular and international holidays as well as some weird and wacky celebration days for May.

You won’t run out of ideas with our May Social Media ideas – from daily to weekly and even monthly celebrations in May. Bookmark this post and keep it for later reference on an annual basis. 

What Comes With The May Social Media Ideas?

Here’s what we’ve included with our May Social Media Ideas:

a handy infographic to use as a quick reference guide for the main holidays for the month of May. 

Ideas for what to create in terms of visuals and how to create them – focusing on videos and GIFs…anything that moves, but of course you can use this post for static images and visuals too. Use your imagination!

tools and resources for creating visual content, using the Social Media Holidays as your inspiration. Refer back to this calendar at any time!

Tips for Scheduling Your May Content

Creating content can be time consuming. The key is to schedule it ahead of time. Here are a few tips to make it easier for you! .

If you follow the tips and ideas in this post you can literally have a month’s worth of content created and scheduled out in no time at all. And if you’re feeling lazy, we’ve got some videos and GIFs you can use right away to share! Try these tips for videos and GIFs:

Use templates. I’ve recommended a bunch of tools at the end of this post and they include templates to help you design. Let the templates guide you! Why spend ages creating a design if you are not a designer? The designer has already done all the hard work creating templates for you – leverage them and use them to create something custom. Edit just the text or photo or colors, and not every single element of the design… the more you change the more chance you have of messing it up if you’re a non-designer. (sorry, but it’s true and that goes for me too!). 

Create visual content in batches. If you’re going to get into your creative space, make it worthwhile…. create a bunch of things at once – videos, GIFs, even regular images. With batching you are creating 5-10-20 pieces of content, not just one. Once you start creating you’ll be on a roll, so it’s much quicker to create more than one. Then you can free your time up for other important tasks.

Create short social video for social media post – the focus of this post is more about short, easy consumed videos, vs long form YouTube video content (although that is also awesome). Think shorter, 15-30 second videos. Get more tips for creating 15 second videos, in this post.

Create content we can easily consume. This includes quotes, tips and funny observational humour posts – great for engagement, especially on Facebook where we tend to scroll through and consume content quickly.

Add more Personality with GIFs – Whether creating your own GIFs (I’ve added tips below for doing just that) or sharing one of millions of GIFs in the Giphy library, you’ll add humour and personality with a GIF. Add them to your social media posts, emails or blog posts.

Quick Guide Infographic to March Social Media Ideas & Holidays

We’ve put together a quick reference guide to some of the important May Social Media Holidays. So, now you can share it or save it to Pinterest for later reference:

Want the full 2019 Social Media Holiday Infographic? Click here.

Tips for using this post filled with May Social Media Ideas

Create a Social Video – create a Top 5 list or a how-to video. Go behind the scenes of your business (where it relates to the holiday in question), create a tutorial, or make a quote video. Get creative around the days we’ve shared below. Is it Star Wars Day? Share some fun at your office if you dress up for May the 4th. Or share some Star Wars Facts. Use a video tool like Wave to help you.

Create a fun GIF that reflects the day or holiday in question.  Or share a GIF direct from Giphy to add some humour and fun!

Create a static image around the holiday -it could be a quote, a saying, a meme, tip, or photo that celebrates the day or image with or without a text overlay.

In this post, we will be focusing on social video, GIFs and animations but you can use all of this information to create still images too. You are only limited by your imagination! Let’s jump in:

May Social Media Ideas and Holidays – Calendar Days

I’ve included at least one holiday “day” for every day in our May list of social media ideas and holidays. I’ve also included hashtags, tools, tips and resources for creating visual content in 2019. This post will be updated annually to check dates. We’ll also add content as we create or discover it. So keep it bookmarked to refer back to! 

1. May Day – celebrated around the world on the 1st May this is a spring time festival. Use #MayDay to celebrate or post about it. And if it’s not Spring in your part of the world then go for National Chocolate Parfait Day instead! Find out more here.

2. National Play Your Ukelele Day – Share content featuring some chill ukelele tunes. It’s also National Password Day on the 1st Thursday in May, so it’s a good time to remind your audience to update their passwords with a tool like Lastpass .. or maybe share this fun way of creating unique passwords:

Check out templates like this in Wave! Or grab my tips at the end of this post!

Oh and if you love Ukelele Music, Wave has thousands of audio clips ready to use …including some fun ukelele tunes!

3. Space Day – Talk about all things Space on #SpaceDay, held annually on May 3rd. Remember that NASA has cool Space GIFs if you need to share something out of this world:

NASA has GIFs for Jupiter, Mars and all the Space things!

If you’re not into Space then it’s also WordSmith Day (#WordSmithDay) observed annually on May 3rd. Share some wise words, poetry or quotes from your favourite Wordsmith! Note: a Wordsmith refers to a person who works with words; a skilled writer. Refer to No 14 for a WordSmith quote.

4. Star Wars Day– If you haven’t been living under a rock every year, you would know about Star Wars Day. It’s celebrated every year on May the 4th so go crazy posting about your favourite Star Wars characters, quotes or movies. May the 4th Be With You! Use the hashtags #StarWarsDay & #MayThe4thBeWithYou and find out more from Lucas Films here.

5. Cinco De Mayo – Every 5th May is CincoDeMayo, a Mexican holiday but celebrated in a bigger way in the US. Create content around all things Mexico, Margaritas and Tacos! #CincoDeMayo

6. Tourist Appreciation Day – as an avid tourist I’m all for appreciating tourists. I’ve also had the fortunate experience of speaking at tourism events and for tourism organisations around the world. This is a great opportunity to celebrate the humble tourist and promote local operators! Partner up with other local operators and thank your tourists (and locals) while promoting each other’s businesses!

7. National Cosmopolitan Day

Bring out your inner Carrie Bradshaw and embrace this classic cocktail on National Cosmo Day. Cheers! 

PS here’s a few more “cocktail days of celebration”. And check out this account on Giphy by designer Marina Esmeraldo – she has great original cocktail GIFs!

8. National Receptionists Day – Celebrate your can’t-do-without receptionist or office manager today. Maybe let him or her take over your Instagram Stories or Facebook account with some behind-the-scenes content or tips for your industry! Find out more here.

9. Europe Day – From castles to churches to beaches, snow-topped mountains, museums and colorful languages. Today is a day to post about Europe. Use the hashtag #EuropeDay.

10. National Shrimp Day – Shrimp, Prawns, Bubba Gump… today is about all things crustacean and shrimp! Shrimp cocktail anyone?

11. Brunch for Lunch Day – always observed the day before Mother’s Day #BrunchforLunch is another excuse to have brunch with your Mum – or just to have Brunch. There can never be too much brunch.

12. Mother’s Day – Today is Mother’s Day in Australian and the US. #MothersDay is one of the biggest days of the year worldwide in the hospitality industry. And even if you are not in the hospitality industry it’s a great day to celebrate Mums. It’s also National Limerick Day so you might feel creatively inclined to write a Limerick? Here’s how:

13. Top Gun Day #TopGunDay is all about feeling the need… the need for speed. If you are a fan of the movie Top Gun, or maybe your audience is, then today is the day to reminisce about Goose and Maverick! Share a movie clip or GIF! Find out more here. Today is also National Cocktail Day. Bottoms Up!

14. Dylan Thomas Day #DylanThomas is a celebrated Welsh Poet and Writer. Share a quote by Dylan Thomas. Or just a quote about the power of the written word.

15. International Day of Families – Today is all about celebrating the family – in any shape, form or size. This is an official Unesco day of celebration. Find out more here. It’s also National Chocolate Chip Day, which might be the perfect snack to enjoy with your family. Or wine.

16. National Biographer’s Day – Have you read a great biography? Maybe your audience has. Ask them! The 16th May is Biographer’s Day to commemorate the anniversary of the day that Samuel Johnson met his biographer James Boswell in London – on the 16th – in 1763. It’s a day to honor our biographers and talk about their works… the books we love to read about people in history – a written account of another person’s life, not to be confused with an autobiography.

17. Endangered Species Day – it’s a day for talking about Endangered Species and the protection of the animals we all love. Find out more here.

International Virtual Assistants Day – if you work online then there’s a good chance you’ve used the services of a Virtual Assistant sometime. I know that many parts of my business couldn’t surivive without them over the years. If you have a virtual assistant on your team, celebrate them today or feature them on your Instagram Stories! Maybe do a serial story takeover if you have more than one VA to feature!

18. World Whisky Day

A day of global whisky appreciation and perhaps a wee dram! Find out more about World Whisky Day here. If you’re wondering what the difference between Whisky and Whiskey is – it’s just the country of origin. The Scots use Whisky and the Irish use Whiskey.

https://giphy.com/stickers/jamesonirishwhiskey-jameson-whiskey-irish-RejF5RDUYcnPB5kNZb

Speaking of the Irish, Jameson Irish Whiskey have a great GIF account, packed with great GIFs and GIF Stickers (like the one above) that you can use for Whisky/Whiskey Day.

It’s also International Museum DayWe’re not sure if drinking Whisky at a museum is politically correct but it sure would make it fun!

19. Devils Food Cake Day – who doesn’t love a classic chocolate cake? Known as Devil’s Food Cake in the US (and we can see why!). Here’s how to make a devilishly killer Devil’s Food Cake:

20. World Bee Day – If you didn’t know already, bees have had a hard time of it lately with disease killing off huge colonies the world over. It’s rather scary given that bees are responsible for the pollenation of a a huge percentage of our food crops, so we need to protect them for more than honey.

Put simply, without bees, we’d probably starve, so they are important little critters. Find out more about protecting bees here and share some bee related content around World Bee Day so we can all do our part to protect them.

Today is also National Be a Millionaire Day.

21. International Dinosaur Day – is held annually on 21st May around the world at various sites, museums and exhibitions. Please note that there are various other local Dinosaur days held throughout the year in different countries but this one is the international date.

22. International Sherlock Holmes Day– All things Dr Watson and Mr Holmes are celebrated annually on 22nd May. Find out more here. It’s celebrated on the birthday of the author of the Sherlock Holme’s books – Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Perhaps a quote from the famous Dr Holmes is in order?

23. World Turtle Day – today is all about the turtle and a popular day worldwide to celebrate our ocean wildlife. Find out more here.

24. Asparagus Day! Yes, Asparagus has a day – love it or hate it. Find out more here.

25. Geek Pride Day – Are you a proud Geek? Today is the day to promote geek culture celebrated annually on the 25th May. It’s also National Wine Day in the US, so geek out while drinking wine.

26. World Paper Airplane Day – Paper planes have held our fascination over decades and today is World Paper Airplane Day. I don’t know about you but this guy has some mad paper plane making skills – watch the video and share it with your audience!

27. Memorial Day US –  #MemorialDay is one of the biggest holidays in the US and marks the day to recognise the women and men who have served in the military – so we’ve added it to our May Social Media Ideas. It’s also a day that is mostly spent around lakes and cabins … as it’s one of the first official holidays of the summer. Use the hashtag #MDW (for Memorial Day Weekend) or #MemorialDay and fire up your BBQ!

28. Hamburger Day – Need we say more? Who doesn’t love a Hamburger? Now there’s a day on which to love it! As if we really need a day for that ;o) #HamburgerDay

Denyse Mitterhofer has some great food GIFs on her Giphy Channel!

29. National Biscuit Day – this is all about the sweet variety of biscuit found in countries like Australia, New Zealand and Great Britain. Time to break open your packet of Tim Tams!

PaperClip Day– #PaperclipDay is because we can’t do without them, or at least for years it’s been that way… probably less so now that we are so much more paperless. Themes around paper supplies and organisation could also work for posts around Paperclip Day.

30. World MS Day – Knowing many friends who are livng with Multiple Sclerosis this is an important day on the annual calendar for me. Find out more about World MS Day here and use the hashtags #WorldMSDay #MyInvisibleMS this year.

31. World No Tobacco Day #NoTobaccoDay is a day initiated by the World Health Organisation, about the impact that tabacco has on the health of our community the world over. Use the hashtag #NoTobaccoDay in your posts to support the goal of reduced tobacco consumption and stricter controls for tobacco. On a sweeter note it’s also World Macaron Day.

May Social Media Ideas and Holidays – Calendar Months

Here’s a quick list of May month-long holidays to dive into to find week-long social media ideas:

National Barbecue Month

Get Caught Reading Month

National Salsa Month

National Bike Month

National Hamburger Month

National Photography Month

May Social Media Ideas and Holidays – Calendar Weeks

Here’s a quick list of weeks celebrated in May to dive into to find week-long social media ideas:

National Nurses Week – first full week of the month of May

Sleep Awareness Week – held from the 10th to 16th May in 2019.

Wildflower Week – held in the first complete week in May annually

National Police Week (US) – SundayMay 12th to SaturdayMay 18th in 2019.

National Bike Week (bike to work) – 13th to 19th May

Emergency Medical Services Week (US) – May 19th to 25th in 2019

Video and Animation Tools for Creating Video Content

Here’s a list of tools for you to find Video content ideas to create videos or GIFs quickly and easily for your social media channels.

1. Wave.Video

Wave is is my go-to video tool for creating easy-to-share social video. The thing I love about Wave is their template library, huge library of image and video assets (included in your monthly membership), moveable text and the ability to add stickers to your content.

They also have a massive audio library with easy editing tools for you to use. I could go on and on! Check out the recent review I wrote in my blog post wrap-up of my session at Social Media Marketing World. I did a walk-through of my favourite Instagram Tools like Wave including new functionality from Wave’s latest update:

2. Giphy

Giphy is the best source online for finding GIFs to share from their GIF library. Simply go to their website and search on the hashtags that you want to find GIFs for. Get creative with your hashtag combinations and you’ll find all sorts of gems!  I also have a branded Giphy Channel and will be sharing my GIFs in these monthly posts so you’ll find some fun ones in there to share too. You can find out more about Giphy in this post and in this post.

Hot Tip:  You can also access any of the Giphy creations from Twitter, Facebook or Instagram Stories! Simply use the Giphy/GIF search and enter in the hashtag you want to use. Because I have a Giphy Channel if you enter in #SociallySorted on Instagram Stories you can find all of my GIF Stickers too!

3. GifMaker

This is one my favourite GIF editing tools. It’s super easy to edit, crop, create GIFs from images. I love that they also let you host GIFs on their platform – which is great for quick GIFs that you want to create and share on your website or in an email (when maybe you don’t want to host them publicly on Giphy).

4. Stop Motion Animation

A new tool I’ve discovered that is GREAT for creating short stop-motion animation videos is Life Lapse. Check it out in this post and you can download it here ready to use for creating social videos to post on Instagram, Facebook, websites and more!

Want more Social Media Content Calendar ideas?

Check out our complete 12-month calendar for 2020 in this post:

Over to You

Do you schedule your content ahead? What are your Favourite May Social Media holidays and have we missed any?

Tulips by Sunlike, Shutterstock

More

https://growinsta.xyz/60-may-social-media-ideas-videos-gifs-and-more/

[mexcine]

Thor: Ragnarok (2017) review

It’d been quite a while since I’d seen a new film (for various reasons, but chiefly because nothing really appealed to me enough to overcome the force of sweet, sweet inertia), but I broke my fast with Thor: Ragnarok.  The verdict: pretty entertaining.  Also confusing.  I often complain about the tendency in newer “series” movies to assume the audience has pre-existing knowledge of the previous entries in the series (and by extrapolation, of the “universe” in which the movie takes place), but in the case of Thor: Ragnarok almost the opposite occurs--you might actually be better off if you had no previous Thor or Avengers experience, since the contradictions and loose ends might not be as glaring.  How did Thor get where he is when the film begins? It's been 2 years since Age of Ultron?  What's Thor been doing all that time? Where did Hulk come from? What's he been doing? What are the other Avengers up to? What is Black Widow talking about?  Oh hai, Dr. Strange!

As I may have mentioned before, I was a somewhat serious comic book fan (mostly Marvel-centric, “The Avengers” and “Captain America” were my favourites) from roughly 1966 until 1973; after that, nothing. So I’ve little or no knowledge of the major character changes which have occurred over the last 4+ decades.  Occasionally I get curious enough to do a bit of web-surfing, but not often.  After Thor: Ragnarok I’m left wondering if the comic book Thor got a buzz-cut, lost his hammer, and had his eye poked out?  Oops, spoilers, sorry.

Thor was always a problematic character for me (and Marvel compounded the confusion by later adding Hercules to the Avengers): he’s the “God of Thunder,” which places him in the supernatural realm, but his fellow Marvel characters were mostly “scientific” superheroes (either by birth or as the result of science).  Also, was Marvel tacitly acknowledging the primacy of the ancient Norse religion? Most monotheistic religions (Christianity, Judaism, Islam) reject the idea of “other” gods (and I’m not sure if, for example, Hindus recognise gods outside of their own belief system, but I doubt it).  So is Thor really a “god”?  Sure seems like it in the Sixties comics, anyway.

The Marvel Universe films (possibly taking a cue from later comics, of which I’m blissfully ignorant) still refer to Thor as the “God of Thunder” (in Thor: Ragnarok, Thor is irritated when the Grandmaster repeatedly calls him the “Lord of Thunder”), Hela is the “Goddess of Death,” and so forth, but they’re not really actual gods, they’re some sort of magical aliens from another space-dimension or whatever.  I wonder if conservative religious audiences are somehow offended by the “god” nomenclature, or if they just go with the flow.

Anyway, Thor: Ragnarok revolves around Thor’s attempt to get back to Asgard so he can save his people from his half-sister Hela, who sports a Hela-va set of antlers and has a horde of horned warriors all set to do some ragnaroking-and-rolling at the expense of the Asgardians (who, apparently, aren’t all gods and goddesses--most of them look like everyday schlubs and don’t seem to have magic powers).  Problem is, Thor, Loki, and the Hulk are stuck on a garbage planet run by the flamboyant Grandmaster (not to be confused with Grandmaster Flash), who runs a gladiatorial arena.  Will Thor, Loki, the Hulk and Valkyrie (an Asgardian who just happens to be one of the Grandmaster’s talent scouts) escape in time to save Asgard from a Hela-cious beat-down?  Is the Hulk green?

As virtually every other reviewer has noted, Thor: Ragnarok is a dramatic, epic fruitcake liberally stuffed with comedic fruits and nuts.  Some of these are isolated bon mots, others are sitcom-style situational humour, and there are few in-jokes (like Liam Hemsworth and Matt Damon playing Thor and Loki in a hokey Asgardian play), but this raises the question: do these frequent flashes of funny add to or detract from the film?  I'll have to say...add to…although admittedly the death of Odin, the death and destruction wreaked by Hela, and other serious, tragic moments seem just a trifle out of place when they're immediately preceded and/or followed by wacky Thor-Hulk antics.  How are we to take the film seriously when it doesn't take itself seriously?  But, as I noted, on the whole the inclusion of a hefty dose of wit is welcome.  I'd have certainly enjoyed Thor: Ragnarok less if all of the wisecracks had been eliminated.  I’m conflicted.

The diametrically-opposed characters of Thor and Hela are quite good, with Chris Hemsworth and Cate Blanchett each handling their roles effectively; Hemsworth a sardonic hero, Blanchett a heinous villain. Less effective is Tom Hiddleston as Loki, because he's shunted off to the side in a subsidiary role and has relatively little to do.  I didn't go back and look at the earlier Avengers films, but it seems to me that the Hulk's face has been altered to more closely resemble Bruce Banner (Mark Ruffalo): this is kind of neat and logical, but at the same time doesn't feel right for some reason.  Non-CGI Ruffalo is adequate as Banner although--as in the case of Loki--he's not that prominent and is overshadowed by Thor (well, the film is called Thor: Ragnarok and not Thor and Hulk: Big Battle in Space).   Tessa Thompson plays Valkyrie in her best Michelle Rodriguez-mode, and is satisfactory in a rather stereotypically-conceived and -scripted role.   Also along for the ride are Karl Urban (not bad), Jeff Goldblum (amusing), and Anthony Hopkins (great line: “What are you, god of hammers?”), Idris Elba, and Benedict Cumberbatch (each cashing a check for relatively minor appearances).

All of the production values are fine: nice production design, special effects, and so forth.  The impact of the Led Zeppelin song which accompanies the final confrontation between Hela's Hench-Army and the Defenders of Asgard (or, as Thor calls them, the Revengers) is diluted by the fact that the same song was used in the trailer, thus there's no fist-pump generating surprise.

Just over 2 hours long, but it doesn't seem like it (sure, it could have easily been trimmed by 20 minutes or so, but I suppose audiences feel cheated if they don’t get 2 hours of movie, minimum).  Thor: Ragnarok is fine.  Not great, not profound, but fun.

[surrealitykrp-blog]

hello listeners —

today we’ve received a notice about kwon eunbyul, the 22 year old college student and part-time library staff. you might have seen her around east iri when she’s not being the gate keeper for the machine. if you haven’t, fear not and stay tuned for the briefing.

                                          and as always, welcome to iri

—  and now, the profile

faceclaim: oh seunghee oc name: kwon eunbyul age: 22 positive traits: inquisitive, self-reliant, prudent neutral traits: proud, outspoken, headstrong negative traits: hypercritical, argumentative, irascible occupation: business student at lee ilsook college, part-time sejong library staff housing: east iri affiliation: gatekeeper for the machine

— and now, the development

THE MYSTERY OF IRI:

if there’s one thing that ticks eunbyul off the most, it’s tardiness – be it by others or even by herself. the unpredictable reshuffling of locations around town is nothing more than a huge inconvenience to her as she goes through her day-to-day routine of walking to the college campus, and in the later part of the day, the sejong library.

unfortunately, there isn’t much to be done about it.

suppose she finds herself going towards the arcade instead of her marketing class at noon, she’ll just have to grit her teeth, send a quick email to her lecturer, and catch up with the rest of the lesson via online tutorials. if she shows up to the library 45 minutes later than usual, she’ll have to trust the other library staff to assume that she’s been delayed due to a congestion near the city center.

there have been multiple times in which she’d snapped at an unfamiliar face from the next apartment unit just because – it’s not that she means to be unreasonably grouchy, but when your cute neighbour is being randomly replaced with acne-ridden, hormonal teenagers and nasty elderly women that give you the stinky eye just because you happened to play your music a little too loudly one night, you’d find yourself at least a little bit upset, too.

THE DUALITY OF MANKIND:

eunbyul’s pride acts as both her vice and virtue. whilst she carries herself with dignity and confidence, she also has the tendency to be less than willing to appear vulnerable in front of others. it is rare for anyone to truly know what she is feeling, unless they are dominantly positive emotions that don’t expose her weaknesses. as a result of that, eunbyul only really lets her guard down for certain people.

from a distance, her air of self-assuredness may come off in equal amounts awe-inspiring and intimidating. she is known to look unapproachable, but once acquainted with her, many will find her quite amiable with a good sense of humour, though at times it can be at the expense of others. despite her sharp-tongued jabs, though, she is generally very supportive of her friends and will go to great lengths to show them how much she cares for their endeavours.

— and now, the biography

the city center of iri was where kwon eunbyul was born on a luminous moonlit night on 9th december, 1995. the firstborn of the renowned kwon family, she grew up under the joint care of a visionary father who ran one of the most flourishing green tea companies in the area, and a somewhat skittish but doting mother who was more than happy to play housewife to her diligent husband.

as a child, eunbyul demonstrated a sense of calculated valour as she explored the town – most times, she went alone, to the dismay of her protective mother. her earliest memory was of her at age 7, walking downtown with a juice box in one hand as she headed into old man sangjun’s antique shop. the musty smell probed at her delicate nose, but the intriguing contents of the store distracted her from the itch in her sinuses. old man sangjun became an immediate friend of hers, and from then on, ‘odds and ends’ became her favourite haunt.

the trimmed hedges and wired fences of the city center weren’t enough to keep eunbyul from stepping out into the whirlwind of bizarreness that is iri and all its distinctive regions – not that she’d ever had to walk too far to experience something as unusual as the blue hour, even in the comfort of her own neighbourhood.

despite her unbridled curiosity, eunbyul’s innate sensibility kept her from being too naive – for instance, she knew better than to listen to the voices in the whispering forest the one time she decided to go hiking there after school hours. that trait, as well as her self-dependency, could perhaps be traced back to her father’s own demeanour. but along with those came her quick temper, which only served to put a strain on her relationship with her overbearing mother in her teenage years. although she did well in school, her mother was still adamant on restraining her from the so-called ‘dangers’ of the unpredictable town, both normal and paranormal.

in some kind of act of rebellion against her protectiveness, eunbyul stayed out more, snuck out more, screwed around more. luckily for her, she was always well-aware of her limits – that is, up until a fateful night spent with a boy, when she’d discovered something strange about herself. it kept her up for many more hours than when she’d heard a crying sound near the swing set at samak park just a week before.

it, being: she didn’t enjoy sex – she despised it, in fact – the very same act eunbyul had heard being glorified through whispers in the halls of iri high school, through hushed conversations in carefully decorated bedrooms of other girls her age. for the first time in her life, she’d felt off-balance, insecure of herself.

(slowly but surely, eunbyul eventually came to the conclusion that when you’ve grown up in such a wacky town like iri, there was bound to be at least one odd thing that sets you apart from others around you.)

unruly adolescent years aside, eunbyul ended high school at the age of 18. during the graduation ceremony, there was talk amongst her peers circling around the rumour of the dreaded 19 – the age wherein those hailing from higher ranking families would receive a mysterious letter inviting them to some sort of secret society. at the time, eunbyul had dismissed it as one of the many myths surrounding the town, but she couldn’t deny that the shifty glances directed towards her that day made her feel uneasy, though she didn’t give them the satisfaction of letting it show.

shortly after leaving school, eunbyul was set to attend the lee ilsook college as a business major student. packing her bags and moving away from her home in the city center and into an apartment in east iri, she was finally free of her mother’s clutches, finding herself at ease in her own solitary nature. in order to be less dependent on her parents, she started working part time at the sejong library to support her own finances.

little did she know that that turned out to be a huge variable in her current role for the machine. true to the previously mentioned ‘myth’, eunbyul had returned to her apartment on her 19th birthday to find a letter on her bed outlining details of a secret meeting that was to be held in a room that only she had access to as a staff of the library. accepting the invitation, she began as a wary accomplice. after two years of being an initiate, however, eunbyul has found a solid role as the gatekeeper in the organisation and is now fiercely dedicated to its cause.

[taylorm2298-blog]

Inspirations

These are some of the inspirations of other games and media I have looked at for this project.

Ori and the Blind Forest

Ori and the Blind Forest (Moon Studios, 2015) is a game I have looked at for inspiration for our project for a number of reasons. First off though very different in story overall it starts off very similar to how Eliza starts off. (”SPOILER WARNING”) In the game there are two main characters, Ori (the small creature) and Naru (the larger creature), Naru is a character who acts as a motherly figure towards Ori but early on in the game she passes away leaving Ori all alone. This is very similar to our game as the death of Naru to Ori is similar to that of Eliza’s parents to Eliza as they have also passed away leaving Eliza somewhat alone (until later on in Eliza’s case). I feel this was good to look at as we can see how each character deals with the death of their parents or parental figure and how they move on within life, it could help with the storytelling and character personality aspects of the game.

Though the art style is completely different from that of Eliza I have to mention that the art style in Ori and the Blind Forest is absolutely breathtaking. What we can as inspiration though is some of the designs present within the game, mainly of how the forest looks as we have a woodland hills area in our game and this is a game I will look at when designing the woodland hills area of the game as there is a lot of detail within both the foreground and background of the game at all times.

Kiki's Delivery Service

Kiki’s Delivery Service (Kiki’s Delivery Service, 1989) is an animated film I looked at as inspirations for some of our main characters, Eliza and Marbles in particular. I like the designs of the characters in Kiki’s Delivery Service as they’re simple but also stand out. For example, Kiki, above, has a simple design and simple clothing but stands out thanks to the red hair band / bow and that the colourful world which contrasts with her dark dress. This is the sort of thing I was thinking of for Eliza as we don’t want her over designed but need her to stand out at the same time, especially against the gothic world we’re going with.

The fact Kiki also owns a cat is a nice coincidence as well and having a black cat as Eliza’s pet is an idea which has been floating around. The cat, Jiji, has a simple design as well so there isn’t too much to talk about there but Jiji is a very loyal cat within the film which Marbles also is to Eliza.

Both Eliza and Kiki’s Delivery Service are also coming of age stories each in their own rights just with some major differences within plot as well as tone somewhat. Kiki is also a witch which though not directly connected, relates the the gothic style we’ve chosen for Eliza.

Kiki also looks to be around a similar age to that of Eliza (maybe a bit younger) as well which further adds to the similarities of both.

Both are also suitable for young audiences with Kiki’s Delivery Service being rated a U and Eliza being rated PEGI 7+

Little Witch Academia

Little Witch Academia (Little Witch Academia, 2013) is a short animated film I looked at as inspiration for our project as similar to Kiki’s Delivery Service is a film about a young girl (who is also a witch) finding her way in life, training to become a witch. Again, I have looked at the character designs from this film as I feel they are simple but effective designs and are easy on the eyes as they don’t overwhelm you. The main character of Little Witch Academia, Atsuko Kagari or Akko is also a similar age to that of Eliza or at least close which is why I think this was another good film to look at.

As I mentioned when talking about Kiki’s Delivery Service, the focus on the main character being a witch, relates to the gothic style we’re going with. Little Witch Academia focuses more on the witch side of things though with more serious training as well as there being an enemy to fight which isn’t present in Kiki’s Delivery Service but is more present within ours as though there isn’t any witch training there are enemies within the game and even though (as far as I know at the time of writing) there isn’t any combat, Eliza will still overcome them.

I feel Little Witch Academia in a lot of regards is very similar to the Harry Potter series (the first two books / films mostly) in regards to story, tone and characters in certain aspects. Harry Potter is another series I feel would be a good inspiration to look at for our project.

Psychonauts

Psychonauts (Double Fine Productions, 2005) is one of the most perfect games I have found to look at for inspiration for our project. First of the art style of the game, it screams what our art style is like, being Tim Burton-esque but with its own unique flair to it to make it stand out. The game I’d say has a good mix between dark and creepy as well as light and humourous which is what our game is aiming and striving towards full and throughout as they both have themes which older audiences may understand but keeping it suitable for younger audiences to view and play at the same time.

I feel the designs of the characters in this game we can use as inspiration for some of our more fantasy, non-human characters as they’re very wacky and standout a lot. It also has a dark world though it has its nice, calm areas as well, it’s not all doom and gloom within the game.

The game is also a 3D, 3rd Person, Action - Adventure game which is the same genre as ours, another reason I felt this was a great game to look at.

[hellzyeahthewebwieldingavenger]

ASM v5 #14/815 Thoughts

SPOILERS

Unfortunately this is another issue I’m not that thrilled with, just like last time and just like my problems with issue #2. However in case you didn’t recall I actually somewhat re-evaluated my thoughts on issue #2.

 My criticisms of issue #2 still stand but I’m a little more accepting in this issue when it comes to perhaps the most controversial aspect of the story, the Lizard family.

 When you really look at Spencer’s run over all thus far there is very much a through line about second chances; rather appropriate for the guy who wrote Secret Empire.

Peter and MJ have a second chance. Peter’s education is being given a second chance. Peter is giving Felicia and Jameson and Boomerang a second chance.

Peter knows Connors is not a bad person, knows his acts of evil occurred under influence of the Lizard over whom he has had little control and Peter has shown sympathy towards him and similar people (e.g. Vermin) who’ve done truly horrific things because of those animalistic personalities their possess.

So Peter giving Curt a second chance when he seems to be in control, seems to have some version of his old life back and is trying to make amends (and has actively sought to help him personally) I think is believable.

And if Peter feels that way I think MJ has enough faith in him to give it a second try too.

Problems crop up when it comes to the Martha and Billy clones though.

Remember these people were Peter and MJ’s friends! They went out together they went to Billy’s birthday. They mourned their deaths.

Seeing them alive and mutated should be a BIG deal and it’s treated with unrealistic blasé casualness.

It’d be one thing if the Connors and Parkers were not close and they merely intellectually knew these guys were clones. From that POV you could argue Peter and Mj are just trying to be polite and recognize that if Curt is healthier and happier with these clones whom he treats as the real deal then what harm is there in just leaving the topic alone and accepting them.

But...that’s not the case. MJ and Martha were friends, Peter knew Billy and found his mutilated dead body. Seeing them both alive and mutated and knowing their not the real versions of the characters should emotionally affect them both, it should make them feel uncomfortable on some level.

 If nothing else that’s a fascinating moment to explore. But instead we smash cut to them all hanging out in the sewers having dinner together as though it was nothing.

 Now sure this is more of Spencer’s comedy sensibilities coming in because that visual and that scenario is innately absurd.

 But it’s an instance where the humour and absurdity really takes you out of the story. Both for the reasons I spoke about above and also because frankly...this moment just doesn’t belong in a Spider-Man story.

 Spencer has been so much better than Slott at keeping Spider-Man grounded and although wacky things have happened they’re been much more forgivable or served a deeper point. Normally I’d lambast splitting Peter and Spider-Man into 2 separate people as too wacky for Spider-Man, but because it served the purposes of character reconstruction it wound up being great.

 Here though its just absurd and aggressively unrealistic for a Spider-Man story for no deeper purpose. Not just the visual of a family of Lizard people chowing down with the Parkers but also the fact that they’re literally in a sewer doing it and everyone is so casual about it.

 It’s just...stupid and ruins your immersion in the story. Its too absurd a thing for readers to just take on face value in a Spider-Man story, like a Ninja Turtles story, maybe an F4 story maybe, but this no.

Especially with MJ of all people casually climbing into a sewer for dinner. I’m not saying MJ is a delicate flower nor someone who can’t go low rent when she needs to but like there is accepting the low rent option and then there is this lady who is glamorous to a certain extent and likes being so willingly climbing into a friggin sewer to eat with a reforming cannibal lizard person and lizard clones of 2 dead people. Sorry, suspension of disbelief doesn’t stretch that far.

 Another reductive aspect of the story is the continual looming shadow of Parker Industries. As mentioned in older posts we need to either properly address and fix this so nobody mentions it again or else just hardcore ignore it, not bring it up as a legitimate story element but also kind of ignore it too.

 You also have the bullshit ‘mid-twenties’ line which is absolutely untrue and you should just No. Prize a reason for MJ to say that.

 But other than that I’ve got nothing bad to really say about this issue. Nothing at all. Really. Nothing. It’s all absolu-...well you know there is one teeny tiny thing.

 THE ART IS UTTERLY TRASH!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 You know, I re-read some 1990s Generation X comics recently along with their Age of Apocalypse counterparts, Generation Next. And the art in the latter was weaker than the former for sure.

 But holy crap both of them looked sooooooooooooooooooooooooooo much better than Shed which itself looked soooooo much better than this hot garbage.

 Bachalo’s art is at least readable in this story in ways it often was not in Shed but nevertheless it looks so scruffy and sketchy and just plain ugly.

 I never thought I’d MISS Humberto Ramos but my God. There are points where people faces in the distance look like they’ve got just dots for eyes and dashes. Everyone is so off model and unattractive and the art over all is grey, dark, washed out. A gross contrast to the art by Ramos and Ottley.

 Its not even like the change is in service of a major tonal shift or anything. The tone of the story thus far isn’t grimer or darker than what we had before. We didn’t go into the sewers because we’re dealing with some grim and gross story, we went there for absurdity.

 I mean there is a REASON Ottley did the cover for this issue and why the Spider-Office pulled out some stock art by Paolo Rivera for next issue’s cover. Its because they were acutely aware that anyone looking at Bachalo on the stands would never pick up these books on impulse.

 It doesn’t help when we reuse some stock art by Ottley for one of the recap panels. That one panel is better than the rest of the art in the book.

 Although it raises another potential criticsm. Even during Spencer’s debut arc we saw art recycled a little (Black Cat from issue #1 was reused later as Peter’s phone picture for her). And the prior 2 issues reused art as well as I recall. Now those aren’t that big of a deal but here it again takes you out of the book because Ottley is at least reusing his own art who’s style therefore matches up. Here Bachalo doesn’t match us at all and it comes off as lazy.

 Now there were GOOD things in the issue too.

 Peter and Mj together, talking.

 Resolving the Rhino’s seeming return to villainy from older issues.

 Aunt May being feisty and perhaps for the first time calling out a male suitor.

 The clever safety device Peter gave her, even if it is perhaps too sci-fi.

 Furthering along the Taskmaster/Black Ant/Kraven and ESU subplots in a very organic way.

 Spencer at least addressing why Aunt May isn’t rolling in the money after her rich husband died.

 Aunt May’s kindness

 Spider-Man and Rhino’s newfound friendship/working relationship.

I don’t wanna say this is a bad issue but also...it has got genuinely bad things IN it....

[sportsfan4748]

2/frightening full of weird & nasty Ass black magic that's full of mentally ill chronic paranoid schizophrenics who are suffering what I've been through over the past 46+ months of shit & abuse & threats & blackmail & garbage treatment from the CIA who are the world's real devil collectively as an entire group of people but on the bright side the CIA as an organizational group of entire collective 50,000 estimated very intelligent & good & decent(probably) men & women who are employees of the CIA likely also are probably the real God from the Holy Bible as well, at least it's possible because the CIA has an incredible array & arsenal of amazing& incredible mind blowing powers in which yes indeed some of the potential powers in which the CIA may lead on that they have the power to do & pull off may in fact just be tricks, f-f-f-foolin' attempts & is CIA deception & manipulative tactics, plots, ploys & schemes in play & the CIA makes almost all of their deception & manipulation tricks of f-f-f-foolin' gullible people of any & all ages a real display of seemingly ingenius incredible feats & real magic that can amaze people & leave people astonished at how the CIA could possibly pull off certain tricks & f-f-f-foolin' attempts on people but in my opinion I wouldn't at all be surprised if the CIA can do many or possibly damn near all of the over 5000 amazing & incredible magic tricks which will blow anyone away with sheer amazement & astonishing incredible talent & wonderfully crafted beauty of the world of magic being perfected by the by far the best & most talented & intelligent magicians on wonderlust & unbelievability possibly really done & pulled off successfully by the CIA in more cases than not of the over 5000 real life fantasy game spells, curses, diseases & cures from all types of mostly played by teenagers fantasy reality board games like Dungeons & Dragons & many other similar type of games played by teenagers & mainly young adults but I'm sure that many older adults are familiar with the Dungeons & Dragons game which I believe has been around in some capacity & available for public game playing since 1977 or so & likely many other similar type of fantasy reality typr of games followed in the years proceeding release of Dungeons & Dragons first edition. I know that the CIA does have some incredibly amazing powers & I know that personally speaking that the CIA has most likely saved my life on probably many more than only a few occasions during my first 47+ years as a boy & man in the real & normal regular world of the Napanee, Ontario, Canada & area & the fake fantasy reality version of a magic filled crazy, goofy, scary & spooky version of the to scale Napanee, Ontario, Canada area which upon a not paying close attention person's eye is quite a bit different in stangeness, oddity, weirdness, spookyness, freaky, goofy, paranoia causing bad actors and/or possibly all either controlled people and/or possibly are all pre-programmed style of crazy weird people who act, talk, move, drive, run, converse, mingle & hang out like a bunch of appeared to be style of human robots who all say things, drive places, drive like, move like, go, do, walk, run, show up, meet up with you by chance(but it isn't by chance, it's pre-set up by the CIA) or that the game player in my shoes who feels like I was in control of myself most of the last 28 months or so & beyond but I know that the CIA controlled me to say, do, act out in anger, rage out, tell dirty jokes, scream at the CIA, cut people up, swear like a drunken sailor who hates being at sea & suffers from sea sickness, be very angry, mean, bitter & pissed off & disappointed but be funnier than I normally am & would normally be as funny & have such a wacky sense of humour like, or perhaps my every spoken, written, yelled, screamed & every dirty joke that I told, every angry outburst, every fit of rage & all of my blow my lid insane goofy nasty swearing rants of cleverly crafted & creatively used display of foul language that spewed out of my dirty split tongued mouth was very..

[entergamingxp]

Ian’s top ten best PSVR games of 2019 • Eurogamer.net

Welcome one and all to this year’s exciting instalment of the Ian’s VR Corner Top Ten list where I’ll be going over my ten favourite PSVR games of 2019. As per usual, the following list is completely my opinion and it only features games that I myself have played, so if I’ve missed out one of your favourites, chances are it’s either because I thought it was a bit bobbins, or that I just didn’t have time to give it a go. Either way, please do share the love for your favourite PSVR games of 2019 in the comments below and hopefully, together, we can inspire others to try them out too.

You can check out the video version of this list just below these words where you can watch footage of each game featured or, if reading is more your thing, you’ll find my entire top ten list just under that.

10 – Ghost Giant

Anyone who has watched the Ghost Giant episode of Ian’s VR Corner will know that I had a fair few issues with the game’s motion controls, or more specifically, the fiddliness of picking things up that were just a little too far out of reach. Thankfully, there’s a lot more to Ghost Giant than just its control scheme and I was able to push past those faults and appreciate the emotionally charged story at its core.

In terms of production values, Ghost Giant is way up there and it actually shares a lot of similarities with Moss, one of my favourite games of 2018. The level of detail in Ghost Giant is incredible and the paper-craft dioramas that make up the levels look stunning in VR. It almost feels like you’re sat, centre stage in your very own Tim Burton movie, able to reach in and touch and interact with every inch of the world.

I didn’t just enjoy playing around and exploring these ultra detailed, model villages though, I was also enthralled by the life and personality of the characters that were expertly animated and voice acted. If you can look past the unwieldy interactions caused by the less than accurate Move controllers you’ll find a beating heart which is full of sweetness and sadness and there lies a story that will stick with you for a long, long time.

9 – Everybody’s Golf VR

Someone famous once said that golf is a good walk spoiled, so it’s probably a good job then that Everybody’s Golf VR is a completely stationary experience. By cutting out all those boring strolls it means the game and its players can concentrate on pure, unadulterated virtual golfing across three gorgeous, 18 hole courses.

As the name would suggest, Everybody’s Golf is indeed for everybody. That means seasoned golfers will instantly be able to enjoy batting their balls around while newcomers can make use of an incredibly intuitive in-game interface to practice swings and judge the power and angle of each shot before going all in for a hole in one. The tracking of the Move controller is pretty much spot on with Everybody’s Golf VR and I didn’t notice any kind of drift or inaccuracy at all. Holding a single Move controller with two hands like you would the grip on a club feels just like you’re holding the real thing and this adds a lovely sense of immersion to the already relaxed vibe of the game.

While Everybody’s Golf VR is slightly watered down compared to other games from the series, especially when it comes to the lack of multiplayer, it does feel like a perfect fit for PSVR and it’s an ideal starting point for any golf enthusiasts out there who may be nervous about trying VR for the first time.

8 – Falcon Age

It’s hard not to fall in love with Falcon Age after mere minutes of playing it and a lot of that has to do with your cute as hell companion, whom I decided to name, Pudding. Pudding is a falcon that you raise from a squeaking ball of feathers into a fully grown, mech murdering bird of prey and it’s pretty safe to say that caring for Pudding is probably the closest I’ve probably come to treating a VR animal as if it were a real-life living being.

Falcon Age is a rather compact open-world affair in which you stick it to awful robotic industrialists one act of sabotage and rebellion at a time. You head out into this world with a neat whip-baton thing in one hand and Pudding on your other, and you can send pudding to attack things, collect things, yank things about and then hold them up while you give them a good shoeing.

Just having Pudding there on your fist makes you think about it on a very emotional level. Seeing Pudding get hungry was enough to make me want to learn the rudiments of the cooking system, but pulling spikes out of her after a fight genuinely made me furious in a way a dog owner might be if someone mistreated their beloved pooch while they were out on a walk. This is a game about nurturing, about trust, about friendship and loyalty and about having an awesome Falcon friend who’ll do your bidding and smash evil robots for you. I love you, Pudding.

7 – Sairento VR

You know that bit in The Matrix when Keanu Reeves goes, “I know Kung Fu!”? Well I had a few moments of realisation just like that during my first hands-on session with the PSVR port of Sairento VR. Don’t go into Sairento VR expecting to be a badass from the off though. There’s an incredibly steep learning curve here and there’s a lot of things you’ll need to learn in order to feel comfortable when navigating the levels.

In fact, this game should definitely be thought of as being on the extreme end of the comfort scale because it expects you to do double jumps, bounce off or run along walls and scale great heights. All whilst swinging swords, shooting guns and triggering super cool slow mo super powers. The first couple of levels really ease you into things, but by the third, the action is relentless and enemies come at you rapidly, shooting and hitting you from all angles.

This onslaught can be terribly frustrating at first but it forces you to learn quickly and it won’t be long before you’re chaining leaps and bounds together with slow-motion headshots and slick slide kills where you split opponents in two with your blade. When everything does start to click, the combat becomes so absorbing that it’s easy to forget about the normal world that exists outside of your headset. That’s why it’s well worth putting in the hours to practice your skills because when everything is going your way and you’re flowing through the levels, Sairento VR is one hell of an experience.

6 – Spooky’s Jump Scare Mansion HD Renovation

Spooky’s Jump Scare Mansion HD Renovation is the first game in the world to have ever made me swear at a piece of toast and for that it instantly gets a thumbs up from me.

This VR remake of the cult classic PC horror game sees you trapped inside an ever changing maze comprised of 1000 different rooms, each one potentially home to a jump scare or two. Despite the budget look to the graphics and a rather slow start, I was surprised by just how scary Spooky’s Jump Scare Mansion could be. Being stalked through the rooms by some of the games more unsettling specimens would honestly be bad enough in the flat version of the game, but in VR it’s panic inducing as you can almost feel their physical presence gaining on you as you try to escape.

That feeling of being chased never gets old either, as the rooms, locations and your pursuers keep changing in unexpected and unpredictable ways. Basically it’s like dropping acid and going to a Halloween Horror Fright Night even at Thorpe Park, except you won’t need to drop acid and there won’t be a massive queue to get in. Now hurry up and release this in the EU please, Albino Moose Games!

5 – Trover Saves the Universe

If you didn’t already know, Trover Saves the Universe is made by Squanch Games, a development studio run by Justin Roiland of Rick and Morty fame. So, if that kind of wacky, sweary, tasteless and self-referential sci-fi humour is your bag, Trover Saves the Universe will have you covered. In spit and poop, mainly…

Playing a bit like an Astrobot for adults, Trover Saves the Universe sees you galavanting around the galaxy, intruding on the often disgusting inhabitants of Alien worlds, all whilst trying to rescue your two pet dogs from the eye sockets of the evil Glorkon who is hell bent on destroying life as we know it.

There’s a fairly big game here and it basically includes everything you’d expect from a standard 3D platformer like combat, jumping, bounce pads, puzzles and item collecting. Everything in Trover has this dark and disgusting Roiland twist to it though and this leaves you constantly surprised and occasionally sickened by the events that occur. The bonkers scenarios and the imaginative characters that live within them are often either comically creepy or absurdly annoying and as such, fans of Rick and Morty are bound to be in VR heaven with Trover. For some, this constant barrage of weird humour may be a little too overwhelming and that’s totally understandable, but I played it through twice because I’m also super weird.

4 – Borderlands 2 VR

Technically Borderlands 2 VR came out in 2018, but it appeared on the Playstation store so late in December that my Top Ten list for that year had already been published. In fact, I didn’t even feature it on Ian’s VR Corner until January when I came back from my Christmas holidays so its inclusion on this list totally counts. Totally.

Far from being a short spin-off experience, Borderlands 2 VR is a complete conversion of the flat game, featuring the full 25+ hour campaign. Plus, after the release of the free Bad Ass MegaFun DLC pack in September of this year, it also includes the four add on story missions and a bunch of upgrade packs too. That’s a lotta bang for your buck indeed!

I had a lot of fun when Borderlands 2 VR first came out, but when Aim controller support was added in another update, the game just got better. Being able to hold, admire and shoot any of the bazillion guns that are available to you in VR while holding the aim controller just adds to the immersion and it makes shooting all those Bullymongs and bandits feel super satisfying. Borderlands 2 VR is an incredibly well produced title that looks beautiful in 3D so it’s well worth revisiting if you’ve played the game before in flat version. If this is your first trip to Pandora however, this is a must buy that’ll keep you busy for ages. WUB, WUB, WUB!

3 – Ace Combat 7

I’m absolutely terrified of flying in real life but flying in VR? Well that is a completely different story, especially when it comes to Ace Combat 7’s VR levels. There may only be three unique missions available in the VR portion of the game but when they’re this gorgeous, this exhilarating and this immersive, you’ll find plenty of excuses to replay them. I mean, I certainly did!

There’s just so much to love here, from the ultra detailed, interactive inheritors of the cockpits and the adrenaline pumping intensity of the VR dog-fights, through to the way that water droplets roll across your aircraft’s canopy as you leave thick cloud cover and burst out into the sunlight and thunder your way towards yours foes.

The sense of speed, power and of just ‘being there in the moment’ is truly exceptional here, so it’s a damn shame that Ace Combat 7’s biggest fault is that only a small portion of the game is playable in VR. Please, Bandai Namco, give us a full VR campaign and I promise you, I’ll buy it twice! Ace Combat 7 may have come out right at the start of 2019 but I still think about its VR missions regularly and I pull out my HOTAS and strap myself into my jumpseat whenever I get the chance.

2 – No Man’s Sky Beyond

No Man’s Sky Beyond is almost the perfect VR game. It’s infinite, it’s incredibly immersive and if it wasn’t for the low resolution of the visuals, I could quite easily spend a large portion of my life just pootling around the galaxy digging through planets for valuable minerals like some kind of space age mole man.

The experience of exploring the universe in No Man’s Sky in VR is every bit as jaw dropping and massive as you could have hoped for but the ever present blur does kill the magnificence a bit. All those stunning vistas and the mysterious alien flora and fauna that you may remember from the flat version now look like indistinct smudges on the horizon and this works towards dampening that awesome sense of discovery that made the exploration so compelling.

Get past that though as you’ll find that the rest of the game is an absolute joy to play. The sense of scale in VR is amazing and the ability to fly around from planet to planet and galaxy to galaxy while being encased in the game is incomparable to anything else I’ve played in VR. This is a straight up, never-ending VR adventure and depending on your patience for the survival genre, you could easily end up spending countless hours exploring brand new world after brand new world. No Man’s Sky Beyond is an amazing achievement and I’d recommend it to anyone with a VR headset, if only to get a taste of what VR adventures could be like in the future, if the platform continues to grow and expand.

1 – Blood and Truth

Right now, at the point of writing this feature, everyone in the world is getting excited about a brand new James Bond trailer. Everyone that is except me, because this year, thanks to Blood and Truth, I was James Bond.

The beauty of Blood and Truth though is that I wasn’t just James Bond, I was actually loads of things. I was a soldier in a warzone, a cockney gangster literally riding shotgun in a sports car and I was even some kind of parkour hitman, dodging machine gun fire from a helicopter as I legged it across the floors of a barely built block of flats before throwing myself through some plate glass windows as I shot enemies in the face during some glorious scenes of slow-motion gun-fu.

In Blood and Truth you are the star of your very own action movie, no more passively watching the action unfold on a flat screen, oh no. Here you’re right there in the thick of it, catching and throwing back live grenades, dual wielding pistols and generally living out all of those action movie fantasies that you never thought would come true. There’s an excellent supporting cast who’re brought to life by some top notch voice acting and motion capture and this serves to give you a real connection to the characters in some of the slower paced scenes, while each action set piece is just varied enough to make you constantly gasp out loud with the thrill of it all.

The gunplay is excellent too and while the on rails nature of the gameplay could be seen as a turn off for some, it keeps the pace rattling along and allows the developers to do some really clever and unexpected things with VR. If you own a PSVR you need this game and that’s the bloody truth of it.

And that, my lovely friends, is that! Hopefully you enjoyed this look back at my favourite PSVR games of 2019 but if I did miss any of your favourites out, do remember to tell us about them in the comments! Before I wander off to snaffle some pre-Christmas mince pies, I’d just like to say a big thank you to each and everyone of you for the continued support you’ve been giving my VR coverage. Can you believe Ian’s VR Corner has been going for over a year and a half now? Crazy!

Here’s hoping things get even more exciting for VR in 2020, whether that’s for PSVR or for the wider range of headsets, because if 2019 has proven anything at all, it’s that VR just keeps getting bigger and better and it’s definitely not going to go away any time soon! If this list is the first you’ve seen of my VR coverage by the way, Ian’s VR Corner happens every Sunday on this channel so do pop on over and subscribe for more VR videos whenever they’re uploaded. Oh and of course, do have a lovely Christmas and a wonderful new year!

from EnterGamingXP https://entergamingxp.com/2019/12/ians-top-ten-best-psvr-games-of-2019-%e2%80%a2-eurogamer-net/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=ians-top-ten-best-psvr-games-of-2019-%25e2%2580%25a2-eurogamer-net

[terryblount]

Borderlands 3 – Review

Borderlands arguably kicked off the looter-shooter genre. And in the current console generation, there’s plenty of those to go by. Now five years (or three if you count The Pre-Sequel) since its latest outing, Borderlands 3 is here.

With smart changes, upping the content load, and retaining most of the core gameplay almost to a T, Borderlands 3 is like what you’d expect: more Borderlands. Though saying only that is underselling it how great it is still.

Presentation

Borderlands 3 carries the same signature cel-shaded-ish design it is so famous for. The colourful characters and the drab wastelands do get some nice pop with all the black outlines and dashes on them. Yet, the game still suffers the same issue of textures loading too slowly.

The UI is tidier and with a nice font choice. If only there’s a way to increase the small font size.

The guns overall look even better. The different gun manufacturers have even more pronounced styles based on what brand it is. And it still lends a nice surprise seeing from a super angular Hyperion to the old-school Wild West-style of a Jakobs gun in your very frequent loot drops.

Not only do the guns look distinct, so are the sounds. You can hear the sci-fi-ness of the Maliwan guns spooling before it wreaks havoc. Some Tediore models deteriorate into an 8-bit gun noise as the magazine empties. The explosive sticky pellets from a Torgue shotgun pops in a satisfying crackle.

While you’ll be hearing the guns blazing through the speakers most of the time, the soundtrack that hums diligently in the background of Borderlands 3 is sublime. Each planet you’ll travel to has a different vibe, genre and composer. Which results in some nice variety in the soundtrack. I particularly adore the ambiance in the high-tech Promethea, where it feels a dash of cyberpunk and a swathe of synthwave being used lavishly.

Not to mention, the song on the main menu is so good I spent way too long idling on it.

Gameplay

In Borderlands 3, you play as one of four Vault Hunters. Your goal is to open the Vaults before the Calypso Twins. The villains are bratty streamers that have amassed a literal cult following and aspiring to be gods. The story takes place after Tales From The Borderlands, with characters from Telltale’s adventure game being part of the plot here.

The writing is, depending on how you look at it, is as good or as bad as the previous games. It follows a bit too formulaic to Borderlands 2 with its plot points. The early 10 hours feeling rather weak. But it does come together nicely into its own near the end.

The jokes, which still involves contemporary meme and references that may or may not age well in the next few years, are as what you would expect. I don’t know if it’s good or bad that the in-game characters (and possibly, the writers) are self-aware of how crude the “jokes” can be.

They are a few good ones, including one where resident punching bag Claptrap was not the butt of a joke. Though you must really love low-brow humour to be laughing out loud throughout the game.

Loot And Shoot

Borderlands 3 is all about two things- the looting and the shooting. And those two core pillars of the gameplay loop remain stalwart as ever.

You may notice the word ‘mayhem’ is being thrown out of a lot in the game’s marketing, and they were not kidding. Each fight and combat encounter feels more intense and hectic than past titles. The areas are bigger with a lot of cover spots and vantage points. There are more elemental hazards other than just barrels, including puddles you can electrify.

Enemies flinch when you shoot them, and even flop off and go ragdoll on bigger blasts like from a shotgun. They can also gib and explode in a pool of gore, adding more visceral-ness to the already chaotic combat.

You can now slide after sprinting and mantle on objects but so are the AI enemies. The enemies will scuttle around to flank you, throw grenades to flush you out of cover, and more often than not carry similarly zany weapons as you are. At times it is utter chaos where you cannot even discern where the enemies are because too many effects are popping off left right and center.

At its best, you don’t feel the enemies being extravagant bullet sponges as you control the chaos being unfolded with your guns and skills, exploiting the environment to your advantage.

This is most evident in the improved boss fights. Named boss fights with big health bars on top will have phases where they attack differently. On normal difficulty, it’s still a case of circle-strafing and dealing consistent DPS to beat them, and the patterns are not as wild or difficult. Yet it beats the boring bullet-sponges of the previous games, so a good step forward.

Glorious Guns

The bazillion of guns you get as loot gets some nice overhaul across the board. Each weapon manufacturer brings even more pronounced characteristics than ever and it’s really fun to experiment with. Maliwan weapons now have wind-ups but it’s satisfying to see it splurge in sci-fi bullets, for example. The alt-fire addition brings new wrinkles to gunplay, and makes the already huge pool of procedurally-generated guns even more diverse.

And it goes without saying that each of those guns overall just feels good to shoot.

As per tradition, each new Borderlands comes with a new set of four Vault Hunters, the playable characters. Borderlands 3 tweaked a bit on how the action skill works and make each character plays even more differently. Zane gets to equip two action skills instead of one, while Moze’s two equippable action skill determines what guns her Iron Bear mech has. Other than that, most of the passives divided into three skill trees are as expected. It seems straightforward at first but there are some wicked synergies and potential for interesting builds.

Also, Gearbox improved the car handling, and made you care more of those Catch-A-Ride vehicles with custom parts to find and unlock.

(Questionable) Quality Of Life

With five years and a bunch of looter-shooters on the market these days, Borderlands 3 brought a lot of quality of life changes. you now have a one-number gear score for quick comparisons of gear stats. The map is so, so useful now that it is in 3D that shows elevation. Ammo, health and cash pickups automatically after opening boxes. If you are in the range of a collectible, an icon pops up to show you it’s there. No need to worry if you and your mates have the right character level as there is an option to enable level scaling to the party leader, and have loot instanced for each player so no loot stealing. You can fast travel from anywhere now. Ally AI sometimes will accompany you in fights and will help revive you.

Though it could still do more. The UI when bringing up the ECHOCast (the player menu) is horrendously slow to load. With the map being so huge why isn’t there an option to highlight each of the markers immediately so you don’t spend minutes trying to find where your objective is at?

On that note, Borderlands 3 really needed another pass on polish. While I personally don’t find framerate to be an issue during the hectic combats, reports of performance issues from all platforms, especially in split-screen, are pretty much true. I also found the AI getting stuck at geometry, and some side missions not spawning the enemies (the one about a ratch in Promethea, in particular). And the player menu sometimes just give up loading the skill trees when you load it straight after a level up.

Content

Borderlands 3 is amazingly girthy in content. It is still designed to be a full-packaged game with a campaign to beat. Not a games-as-a-service like other looter-shooters. And that campaign can take you more than 30 hours. I finished my first playthrough at 40, doing as much side missions and exploring the map as much as I can.

There are plenty of these side missions, and as you’d expect most of the questionable humour and references come from here. These take place in parts not seen in the critical path so at least it’s worth seeing the areas where you wouldn’t stumble upon naturally.

The collectibles this time are much more gratifying to collect. The three Typhon DeLeon audio logs on most maps not only give some good lore, but a great reward in the form of a loot cache, with a bigger chance to spawn rare loot. It’s worth going for them.

Circle Of Slaughter, the series’ Horde mode, returns again. And there’s a new mode called Proving Grounds where you push through a few combat areas and then face a boss, which plays closer to the usual gunplay in the story. Both of these are available normally within the story. But now it has separate matchmaking so you can play these as if they are an entirely different game mode.

After finishing the story, you will then get access to True Vault Hunter mode, the New Game+. On top of that is the Mayhem Mode modifier that adds wacky status effects and make the game even tougher. These two modes offer better loot drops, so that’s a good incentive to go back for another round. And of course, going through the game as another Vault Hunter and try out different builds is always on the cards.

Guardian Ranks (previously Badass Ranks) will now only unlock after beating the game. So all the extra passives are strictly for your next playthrough. Again, more reason to keep going after the 40-hour mark.

Gearbox has promised an event for all players and there is already a season pass of DLCs. If it follows what the previous titles did, expect a long tail of content, free and paid.

With Borderlands 3, the game dabbles a bit more on cosmetics. The skin variants don’t have palette swaps, colours can be customised separately. On top of the skins and head variants, you can now add emotes and also put on skins and trinkets on weapons. Honestly, it’s not that compelling and this feels like the game is playing catch-up with its genre peers. But it doesn’t hurt anyone, there’s no micro-transactions of sorts. Hopefully it will continue that way.

The Twitch integration is excellent. Not only can viewers of Borderlands 3 streams peruse the streamer’s inventory and skill trees, but there are also cool events that can show up, with opportunities to mess them up by buffing badass enemies or reward them with goodies. Plus, you can nab a piece of loot from the red chests they open for yourselves too.

Personal Enjoyment

When the first Borderlands arrived, I was already a fan of Gearbox’s output from the Brothers In Arms days. So I have a personal bias of loving this franchise from the start.

Borderlands 3 is the Double Down burger of video games I feel. It’s excessive and loud. It’s indulgently good. The ultimate comfort food if you, like me, love crispy greasy chicken patties. But it’s not just one burger, playing through Borderlands 3 is munching through a platter of these Double Downs non-stop. Instead of meat on meat on meat, it’s guns on guns on guns.

But boy, I am not gonna lie, it can be a bit overwhelming. During the early 10 hours, I feel like there were too many excessive combat sections. And with not much of a strong plot thread for me to cling on to.

Proper stakes in the story do get set up after that initial hump. And the pacing gets better with heavy combat sections sparsed out a bit. The shooting shines and getting rare loot, even if it is just minor variations of a gun archetype you’ve seen before, is rewarding.

And the soundtrack has synthwave. So, big points for that.

That said, those quality of life issues does affect my enjoyment. I didn’t spend time comparing weapon stats as much and hated the times I need to sort my backpack because of the chugging menu. Those need to be snappy and I hope it’s one of the things to be rectified, alongside the performance issues.

I have a feeling that once these issues are sorted in the months to come, it would make an already great experience even better.

Verdict

With more chaotic gunplay and many small improvements, Borderlands 3 proves that the pioneering looter-shooter series still has a place in 2019.Though it still carries the same low-brow writing and the performance issues cannot stand as is.

That said, if you’ve used to the series, Borderlands 3 is like grabbing a huge platter of your favourite comfort food. Clear some time, get your mates if you can and sit down. It’s time to dig in and get those orange drops.

Review based on version 1.01 played on the regular PS4. Review copy purchased by the reviewer

Borderlands 3 – Review published first on https://touchgen.tumblr.com/

[georgiarynlds]

2019

2019 has been one hell of a year. It’s been 8 months already which has flown by. The months all feel meaningless.

what has felt like an amazing year has turned quite tragic I can’t lie. Nothing is the same anymore. Everything is new, fresh and unexpected. I really do need to start expecting the unexpecting. My life is full of new chapters. Short chapters mostly but also long chapters.

In December 2018 I was a girl who was growing in confidence, I was still quite sure of myself however I was lacking in a lot of self esteem. Looking back, I was very desperate for a boyfriend. Which caught me up in some odd scenario’s- nothing anything bad though, all learning curves.

I told myself in January 2019 that I was going to strive to become the person I wanted to be. I wanted to be healthier, rid myself of the toxic people in my life, adapt myself to being myself- not copying people, get the style I want to express my unique personality. And I did. I slowly saw myself throughout the months change. January was the hardest, but I finally cut myself off from sex, and then slowly the drugs and then the friends.

In October 2018 I befriended Jo Richbell. I had done almost a year beforehand. However, we had not properly gone out we just us two. So on the 26th October we met up and went to poole. Just did the casual window shopping, grab lunch and talk. Because we related so so much!! We understood eachother like nobody. I shared my experiences on my breakup with my first ex and she shared hers. Our exes were best friends, that’s why we bonded so well on the topic. She was like a miracle. It was so cool to have someone who just understood everything like that. I felt so comfortable around her, she was funny and a lot like me too.

We didn’t meet up for a while after that until probably mid December. December was when I first went to Sam Vincent’s house. I can remember getting the bus to Jo’s and walking up that road. It felt like I was walking for hours. We walked through the Lytchett woods to get to Sam’s house who lives in Lytchett Matravers. I knew Sam already, I had spoken to him a lot of times through school as he was good friends with my boy bestie at the time Reece Groombridge. Reece and I didn’t really meet outside of school because he was a little gamer so it was more of an inside school thing. Sam and I never really got on very well so I went into his house quite open minded. Because afterall, I understood Jo so why shouldn’t I be able to get on with Sam. He’s a funny kid.

I remember going in and being a bit overwhelmed by the dogs and all. I was quite astonished in how welcoming Theresa his mum was. I noticed she was instantly one of those people who laughed after every sentence though. Sam’s house is bloody amazing if I’m honest- it’s so nice. Sam has such a cool room. I remember feeling so awkward there at first though. We all were instantly offered hot chocolates. And me being me, I was unsure because I didn’t really like hot chocolate. But I said yes- not to be rude and you never know, I might like it. Now- let me tell you. Theresa does the BEST not chocolates, nobody can say any different. She brews them in cute little costa mugs which she probably stole (she’s a wild woman) and she tops it with whipped cream and little marshmallows. Such nice presentation for it being a home made hot chcolate, better than most I order when I go out. Overall, I don’t remember much about that day apart from the YouTube video we filmed after being force fed candle videos from AbbiesWorld’s YouTube channel. Looking back I feel bad for Sam. Jo, Sam and I didn’t have any inside jokes at that time so for some reason it was mostly taking the mick out of Sam.

Sam obviously didn’t enjoy it and I don’t know why I was so oblivious to seeing that. I’m a caring person and all. However, thinking back I was still friends with the druggie group (which included my first ex) who had quite horrible humour which I had experienced first hand. I just wasn’t thinking. Sam handled it well to be honest, he didn’t stand up for himself nor did he bitch about us. I just don’t think he knew what to do. He would just get stroppy and not speak for ages and walk off. He’s done really well since. I’m so proud of him. He’s changed a lot.

That day started the trio off I guess. Jo, the poser. Georgia, the fat unfunny comedian and Sam the boy everyone adores. It was amazing to have new friends who cared and respected eachother. Even in February we were amazed with everything. We always had the best fucking sleepovers where I’d genuinely piss myself of laughter for the dumbest reasons. I always thought to myself, “why the fuck did I need drugs to have fun? fuck off.” because I hadn’t had this much fun on a daily basis EVER in my life. It wasn’t a magical feeling, it was just pure enjoyment. I savoured it to bits.

I did make a few mistakes a long the way I can’t lie. I talked to boys who I didn’t have much interest in just because I was desperate and then realised why I got myself into. I never shagged anyone, I never fucked anyone over. I was just a bit of a mess, I wasn’t ready for a relationship so thankfully- I never got one.

March in 2019 was a great month. We all had a blast. The biggest thing I remember about it is the vintage sale in Bournemouth. I remember it as such a good day. It was a bit of a weird one but we laughed, got some killer bargains and just got out of our comfort zones. This was also the time where the bullying with Sam died down as we started having inside jokes.

When I say bullying it was nothing really bad. Just making fun of stuff that I can’t even remember now- making up nicknames like angry little man, telling him to stop thumping, ‘thumper’ and so on. I’m just glad we’ve both managed to stop because bless him- he’s a fragile boy. I’ve been there and experienced it and it hurts. I’ve only toughened up because of those insults.

April 2019 was by far the best month. The start of the month I went to London and had gotten the hang of a good edgy style. London was stressful as fuck I must say but the photos I captured were well worth it. It was such a cool experience though- especially for being 14. Mid April this boy and me started talking. I’m mentioning him because he meant a lot to me. And in a way he still does. I do claim to ‘dislike’ him now because I just still see him as such a good person. It’s weird because so many people say negative shit about him saying he’s an attention seeker but I can’t help but feel bad. He was there for me when he could be and now he’s moved on I feel like I can’t be there for him. He’s removed me from his private life and I didn’t want to care but I couldn’t help but feel hurt. I knew this boy on a personal level before his coverup of his ‘normal’ jokey self. I still agree with my points- he’s so gorgeous, generous and funny. But we had a thing which lasted for 2 weeks- basically the whole Easter holiday. He’s the closest to a ‘boyfriend’ I’ve had in a while. We got on so well! Just in the end, he didn’t feel the same way as I did... so on from there we said we’d be friends but we ended up just becoming distant. I had a fat crush on him for ages. It still bugs me sometimes just because his looks are so perfect. The harsh reality is, there’s a lot better people out there than him- he’s just the first boy I found who I fancy who doesn’t grind weed for a living and thrive off of talking about bongs. I still miss him sometimes. It’s dumb, but I do. And if you end up seeing this, I’m sorry for being a dick, I really am. Just know I’m thankful for you and you’re a good person at the end of the day.

Anyways- April meant a lot to me. It wasn’t just roban. Jo, Sam and myself were the brightest we could’ve been anyways. The weather was great and it was Easter. We went out so many times- to the beach, around lytchett, Bournemouth, wareham- so many different wacky adventures where we could just be free and laugh. it was nothing but fun. And I still rewatch the videos taken on those nights and I smile. They really cheer me up.

May was a useless recovery month. Jo started changing. Sam and I grew closer. It was weird. But we were still the same old 3. The only big thing I can remember from May was Tristan’s party near the end of the month. It was my first house party and funnily enough I ended up having to take care of my friend who was pissed out of his mind. He couldn’t control himself so I had to call his mum. It was a stressful night, but it wasn’t the worst experience ever. It was a good sleepover with Sam and jo though. The other thing I can remember about May is me going to the second vintage sale with the boy I liked back in April. I did look at him as a friend then, I basically forced myself. And it worked. I just couldn’t keep it up for long.

June. Exam month. The worst month by far- I was so stressed and I just kept telling myself, after this month I’ll be back to normal, like April and May. I’ll be happy and relieved. Even the first 3 weeks before exams I was stressing and exams lasted for two weeks. The stress started dying down in the end of June on the Belgium trip which was quite shit at times (mainly because of the heat) but it was the biggest laugh. Not just our trio but so many other people share our inside jokes- for example: good day out with my mates, cursed pictures, Adam shitting in food. It’s incredible. However June was the month Jo started changing the most. Sam and I were too stressed to realise at the time and we also started going out with Libbie more. Libbie is a girl who I used to be terrified of basically. She was a chav a few years back but has slowly grown up into a very hated edgy teen who listens to slowthai and lil peep and wants to die. She’s pretty amazing though. Her birthday is on June 7th and she very kindly invited me along with Sam and Jo to her birthday meal in Nando��s. I picked her up a little something because I always feel bad if I don’t get a gift. I didn’t have any idea what she liked so it was pretty shit, but I tried. I thought I was gonna have a shit time but it was pretty fun. Funnily enough the boy I fucking liked from April showed up because he recently was befriending Libbie. At the time I was fine with it. But I found it real weird. Oh and I forgot to mention, jo didn’t come to Nando’s. It wasn’t a big deal though.

This boy started hanging out with Libbie a lot. I didn’t want to care about it but I just did. I never had talked to Libbie seriously about this sort of thing because I was lowkey scared of her still. I never had seen the real serious side, and I still haven’t completely if I’m being honest. But worst things worst I thought that he liked Libbie- and I kinda was just observing it from a distance because I felt if she was a good friend she’d come and talk to me about it. But she didn’t- they kept hanging out, she was in his bed at one point. It really freaked me out. I wanted to have a fat go at him but I was irrelevant now, he didn’t give a shit anymore.

Around a week later I was hanging out with Jo, Sam and Libbie and we went back to Jo’s- (I cant remember for what reason) But basically it was around 6-7pm (roughly) and she needed to go home so she had to walk into Upton. I also needed to get my bus so I offered to walk with her expecting Sam to come. However, Sam said he would say which kinda frazzled me because I never had talked to libbie on her own which freaked me a bit. But we got going and it was actually really fucking good. She asked me. “So what went on with you and him?” And I just felt so relived she was asking. I could finally understand. We conversated about him, and I finally found out that he was just being over attached. They never kissed like we did, they never did anything apart from joke around. In the end, nothing ended up happening.

So, July. I kind of feel horrible saying July isn’t the worst month because something terrible happened. But just overall, June was the most stressful. However, Jo went completely distant. Sam and I would always invite her out but she’d basically instantly decline. We had made a group chat with Libbie and she had asked to meet a lot so we did. The groupchat between Sam, Jo and I ‘fathers day’ was basically left to die for a few weeks.

18th July 2019, Jo starts messaging the groupchat. She’s enquiring about why we never invite her out, shit about how’s she’s such a bad friend- and stuff I’d never expect to hear from her. I ignored it. She’d done this before but not this bad but I just couldn’t take it. Poor Sam was almost battling it for me. He was doing everything he could to calm Jo down. Because I understand how she was feeling but I just didn’t have the mental stregnth to comply with that.

I had to leave the house at 11pm that night. My grandad was dying, it was his last hour- more like last 10 minutes. He died at 23:12 on the 18th. It was really tough being there with my mum that night. I didn’t get home until half 12. I ignored jo. She realised what had happened the following morning. And came to apologise and see if I was okay. Which I appreciate.

I don’t even know why I went into school that day to be honest. I was allowed to stay home. It was the very last day. I just couldn’t bare the thought of so many things I guess, I just needed to concentrate.

Sam and Jo were amazing with comforting me, they seriously were. I couldn’t thank them enough. I just didn’t really know how to bring it up at first- afterall, I’m not the type of person to put RIP NAN 🥺😭😭 on my bio.

After the first half of the month Jo only got more distant. Sam and I were noticing it more. Libbie had kind of taken her place at this point. Which was sad because I missed jo coming out. She’d always want to know when we would go out- she thought she wasn’t good enough because she couldn’t afford it or keep up with us. But then again, she never tried or really showed that in our conversations. She covered it up with anger and accusations.

It was Libbie, Sam and myself now. August was approaching very quickly and we were the go to squad. The summer had started and was passing quite quickly.

I went to Wimborne for the first time, I dip dyed my hair a horrible blue for 12 hours, I had my first proper Wetherspoons, We took the 50 and had many mario kart races. It’s been quite a busy summer as I’m not going on holiday this year. It’s been okay so far.

It’s August now, 18th to be exact- a month since my grandad died. My granny fell tonight. I got back about an hour ago from my gran’s. My mum and I left at 11:15 to walk to hers to help her up. We’re home now, all safe. I’m just glad it wasn’t worse. But it’s hard to watch her struggling so much bless her, I couldn’t imagine what she is going through.

August has been a lot of just Libbie, Sam and I. Jo has basically got some new friends- aka the Corfe Mullen lot. Who don’t get me wrong- some of them are lovely but the rest are complete twats and they’re changing her to be horrible. I feel bad posting this about her but I doubt she’s gonna read it and it’s just honesty and the end of the day. Her humour is getting closer to insulting. But if she’s happy, she’s happy- I can’t do anything about it. People grow out of eachother and learn lessons. Her boyfriend, Spencer is one of those lessons. Let’s just hope she’s still gonna be there in a year. Sam will, Libbie most likely hopefully will, I really hope Jo is but I somehow doubt that.

I’ve gotten back into fitness recently though. I’m on fire when it comes to swimming, today will be my fourth day in a row- an average of an hour a day is pretty darn good. Jo is supposed to be coming with me tomorrow so we’ll see if she bails on that. I’m so determined to get that healthy, fit, in shape body I want and NOW. I’m sick of being the fat friend.

Anyway, this was a mess. I’m sorry if I offended you because I probably love you. Goodnight.

[thatsnotcanonpodcasts]

Blade Runner 2019, Pokemon & Textile Recycling

Welcome back to another exciting episode from those wacky Nerds you all love. This week we have actually made an episode that actually happens to be both Nerdy and entertaining somehow. It may actually even be able to be described as illuminating and educational, but that is up for debate. Now the ever important first topic, we have found out that there is a new series of graphic novels (or comics if you are as ancient as Buck) set in the Blade Runner universe at the time of 2019. Which, for those individuals that have been living in a cave or under a rock; and somehow have never read the book or seen the fabulously stupendous movie is the year it is set in. Not our perfunctorily boring reality, as we don’t have replicants and space colonies, sad to say. Oh humanity, the 60’s and 70’s were looking so bright, then you got caught up with hippies and drugs and look at you now, still stuck on earth with moronic politicians that are utterly boring.

Next up we look at the new Pokémon game and discuss some of the various aspects, highlights and what we believe may be oversights as well. We wonder about the cross over into Super Smash Bros. Is Nintendo looking at a massive reveal next year at e3 with the launch of the Switch2, will we see all the various Pokémon from all evolutions of all games included in a monster pack? Will this be the start of a new trend in gaming? Will that stain come out of my favourite black shirt? Who knows, what we do know is that this is looking like a fun game to play so keep your eyes open and catch it while you can.

Buck brings us news about the excessive waste of clothing going to landfill and polluting the planet. That’s right, all you strange people out there wearing lycra and spandex. The micro fibres from synthetic clothing are bad, nasty and downright toxic. Shame on anyone wearing synthetics, don’t you know they harm the environment. We, unlike some people have scientific evidence supporting this statement, so listen in and see what we are talking about. If you want to learn more please refer to the link provided. If you wish to read the article please go to page 61, if you wish to remain ignorantly oblivious please go to page 666. Hope you like the flash back to the choose your own adventure books, if you grew up reading these you are lucky.

As normal we have the various shout outs, remembrances, birthdays, and special events. We also talk about the games we are playing. As always please remember to take care of yourselves and look out for each other, stay safe and hydrated, got to catch them all…

EPISODE NOTES:

Blade Runner 2019 Comics - https://comicbook.com/comics/2019/06/17/blade-runner-2019-trailer/

Pokemon Sword and Shield - https://www.usgamer.net/articles/pokemon-sword-and-shield-interview

Textile Recycling - https://www.abc.net.au/news/science/2019-06-15/textile-recycling-fashion-old-clothes-waste/11197904

Games current playing

Professor

– Crypt of the NecroDancer - https://store.steampowered.com/app/247080/Crypt_of_the_NecroDancer/

Buck

– Assassin’s Creed 2 - https://store.steampowered.com/app/33230/Assassins_Creed_2_Deluxe_Edition/

DJ

– Mortal Kombat 11 - https://www.playstation.com/en-us/games/mortal-kombat-11-ps4/

Other topics discussed

Blade Runner Lore

- Tyrell Corporation - https://bladerunner.fandom.com/wiki/Tyrell_Corporation

- Replicant - https://bladerunner.fandom.com/wiki/Replicant

- Rachel - https://bladerunner.fandom.com/wiki/Rachael

Westwood Studios (games company)

- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westwood_Studios

All the Pokémon present in Super Smash Bro. Ultimate

- https://allgamers.com/article/6811/all-pokemon-in-super-smash-bros-ultimate

Pokken Tournament (2015 videogame)

- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pokkén_Tournament

Pokémon Stadium (2000 videogame)

- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pokémon_Stadium

Pokémon Sword and Shield has a “Wild Area”

- https://www.nintendoenthusiast.com/2019/06/05/pokemon-sword-and-shield-have-an-open-world-called-the-wild-area/

- https://www.dexerto.com/pokemon/pokemon-sword-shield-wild-area-details-709721

War on Waste against fashion

- http://theconversation.com/for-a-true-war-on-waste-the-fashion-industry-must-spend-more-on-research-78673

Suncorp Ad with thrift shop theme song

- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TX-5FdXbyoY

Macklemore & Ryan Lewis feat. Wanz - Thrift Shop

- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QK8mJJJvaes

3D printing clothing

- https://www.nbcnews.com/mach/science/soon-you-may-be-able-3d-print-clothing-your-own-ncna848646

Solar panel replacing tarmac

- https://theconversation.com/solar-panels-replaced-tarmac-on-a-road-here-are-the-results-103568

Solar bike path at the Netherlands

- https://cleantechnica.com/2017/03/12/dutch-solar-bike-path-solaroad-successful-expanding/

Sweden adopting recycling

- https://sweden.se/nature/the-swedish-recycling-revolution/

Sweden giving tax breaks for repairs

- https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/sep/19/waste-not-want-not-sweden-tax-breaks-repairs

Shang Tsung (Mortal Kombat 11 character)

- https://mortalkombat.fandom.com/wiki/Shang_Tsung

Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa (American actor and voice of MK11 Shang Tsung)

- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cary-Hiroyuki_Tagawa

Danny Baranowsky (electronic music composer for Crypt of the NecroDancer)

- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Danny_Baranowsky

Lego running 100 percent on renewable energy

- https://www.good.is/articles/lego-renewable-energy

Fleet of UFOs sighted

- https://www.space.com/ufo-sightings-us-pilots.html

The senators response to the recent UFO sighting

- https://www.politico.com/story/2019/06/19/warner-classified-briefing-ufos-1544273

Cage the Elephant (American rock band)

- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cage_the_Elephant

President Xi Jinping compared to Winnie the Pooh

- https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/aug/07/china-bans-winnie-the-pooh-film-to-stop-comparisons-to-president-xi

Joe Cocker (English singer)

- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joe_Cocker

The Humour Experiment (That’s Not Canon Podcast)

- https://thatsnotcanon.com/thehumourexperimentpodcast

Shoutouts

24th Apr 2019 – Lego introduces Braille Bricks to help visually impaired kids. - https://people.com/parents/lego-introduces-braille-bricks/

14-15 Jun 1919 – British aviators John Alcock and Arthur Brown made the first non-stop transatlantic flight. They flew a modified First World War Vickers Vimy bomber from St. John's, Newfoundland, to Clifden,Connemara,County Galway, Ireland. The Secretary of State for Air, Winston Churchill, presented them with the Daily Mail prize of £10,000 for the first crossing of the Atlantic Ocean by aeroplane in "less than 72 consecutive hours". A small amount of mail was carried on the flight, making it the first transatlantic airmail flight. The two aviators were awarded the honour of Knight Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (KBE) a week later by King George V at Windsor Castle. - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transatlantic_flight_of_Alcock_and_Brown

18 Jun 1981 - F 117 Nighthawk Maiden flight made its first flight at Groom Lake, Nevada, with “Skunk Works” test pilot Harold C. (“Hal”) Farley, Jr. at the controls. The super-secret airplane was made of materials that absorbed radar waves and built with the surfaces angled so that radar signals are deflected away from the source. - https://www.thisdayinaviation.com/18-june-1981/

Remembrances

17 Jun 2019 - Gloria Vanderbilt, was an American artist, author, actress, fashion designer, heiress, and socialite. She was a member of the Vanderbilt family of New York and the mother of CNN television anchor Anderson Cooper. In the 1970s, Vanderbilt launched a line of fashions, perfumes, and household goods bearing her name. She was particularly noted as an early developer of designer blue jeans. In 1974, Paul McCartney released "Mrs. Vandebilt", a song inspired by and loosely based on the life of Gloria. She died of stomach cancer at 95 in New York City - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gloria_Vanderbilt

18 Jun 1673 - Jeanne Mance, was a French nurse and settler of New France. She arrived in New France two years after the Ursuline nuns came to Quebec. Among the founders of Montreal in 1642, she established its first hospital, the Hôtel-Dieu de Montréal, in 1645. She returned twice to France to seek financial support for the hospital. After providing most of the care directly for years, in 1657 she recruited three sisters of the Religieuses hospitalières de Saint-Joseph and continued to direct operations of the hospital. She died after a long illness at 66 in Montreal - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeanne_Mance

18 Jun 1928 - Roald Amundsen was a Norwegian explorer of polar regions and a key figure of the Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration. He led the first expedition to traverse the Northwest Passage in 1906 and the first expedition to the South Pole in 1911. He led the first expedition proven to have reached the North Pole in 1926. He disappeared while taking part in a rescue mission for the airship Italia at 55. - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roald_Amundsen

18 Jun 2018 – XXXTentacion, was an American rapper,singer and songwriter. A controversial figure within the hip hop industry, Onfroy has been regarded to have left behind "a huge musical footprint" due to his impact on his young fanbase and his popularity during his short career. His most notable appearance was his tattoos and his distinctive half-colored hair, which was inspired by the One Hundred and One Dalmatians antagonist Cruella de Vil. He was assassinated at 20 in Deerfield Beach, Florida - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/XXXTentacion

Famous Birthdays

15 Jun 1953 - Xi Jinping, is a Chinese politician serving asgeneral secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC), President of the People's Republic of China (PRC), and chairman of the Central Military Commission (CMC). Often described as China's "paramount leader" since 2012, he officially received the title of "core leader" from the CPC in 2016. Considered the central figure of the fifth generation of leadership of the People's Republic, Xi has significantly centralised institutional power by taking on a wide range of leadership positions, including chairing the newly formed National Security Commission, as well as new steering committees on economic and social reforms, military restructuring and modernization, and the Internet. He was born in Beijing - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xi_Jinping

18 Jun 1942 - Paul McCartney, is an English singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and composer. He gained worldwide fame as the bass guitarist and singer for the rock band the Beatles, widely considered the most popular and influential group in the history of popular music. McCartney is one of the most successful composers and performers of all time. He has written, or co-written, 32 songs that have reached number one on the Billboard Hot 100, and as of 2009 he had 25.5 million RIAA-certified units in the United States. His songwriting partnership with John Lennon remains the most successful in history. A two-time inductee into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and an 18-time Grammy Award winner, McCartney, Lennon, George Harrison and Ringo Starr all received appointment as Members of the Order of the British Empire in 1965 and, in 1997, McCartney was knighted for services to music. He has taken part in projects to promote international charities related to such subjects as animal rights,seal hunting,land mines, vegetarianism, poverty, and music education. He has married three times and is the father of five children. McCartney is also one of the wealthiest musicians in the world, with an estimated net worth of US$1.2 billion. He was born in Liverpool - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_McCartney

18 Jun 1973 - Julie Depardieu, is a French actress who has appeared in several successful films. She is the daughter of Gérard Depardieu and Élisabeth Depardieu and the sister of the late Guillaume Depardieu – all of whom have worked as film actors. She won two César Awards (Best Supporting Actress and Best Young Actress) for La petite Lili and won another (Best Supporting Actress) for Un secret in 2008. She was born in Paris - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julie_Depardieu

Events of interest

18 Jun 1928 – Aviator Amelia Earhart becomes the first woman to fly in an aircraft across the Atlantic Ocean (she is a passenger; Wilmer Stultz is the pilot and Lou Gordon the mechanic). - https://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/imagegallery/image_feature_1112.html

18 Jun 1940 - "This was their finest hour" was a speech delivered by Winston Churchill to the House of Commons of the United Kingdom. It was given just over a month after he took over as Prime Minister at the head of an all-party coalition government. It was also made after France had sought an armistice on the evening of 16 June. - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/This_was_their_finest_hour

18 Jun 1983 – Space Shuttle program: STS-7, Astronaut Sally Ride becomes the first American woman in space. - https://www.nasa.gov/feature/sally-ride-first-american-woman-in-space

18 Jun 2009 – The Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO), a NASA robotic spacecraft is launched. This was launched in conjunction with the Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite (LCROSS), as the vanguard of NASA's Lunar Precursor Robotic Program, LRO was the first United States mission to the Moon in over ten years. LRO and LCROSS were launched as part of the United States's Vision for Space Exploration program. - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lunar_Reconnaissance_Orbiter

Intro

Artist – Goblins from Mars

Song Title – Super Mario - Overworld Theme (GFM Trap Remix)

Song Link - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-GNMe6kF0j0&index=4&list=PLHmTsVREU3Ar1AJWkimkl6Pux3R5PB-QJ

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