Tech Baby

Most mornings when I leave for work, Claire and Ada are happily asleep in bed still. Usually Ada will wake up a little later, have a feed and go back to sleep for another hour or two, snuggled up in bed with her mommy. Claire, for her part, usually checks her phone for important messages from the previous sleeping hours while feeding.
Recently, this morning ritual played out and both mommy and baby went back to sleep, Claire having made absolutely certain that her phone was safely out of reach. Ada, however, had other ideas. Apparently, she pretended to fall asleep until Claire was unconscious, then got Claire's phone, opened the camera app and proceeded to record a three minute video of herself chatting and babbling in bed.
It's all disgustingly adorable, and I put it up on YouTube! With annotations!
Enjoy.

Let's Play

Whelp! It's been a while! What?!? I've been busy... Mostly.

Claire got me a powerful PC for Christmas, and I started recording my games and uploading them to YouTube, which was a lot of fun while I was playing games, and then not so much when I started back into board games in a big way. I was only ever doing the YouTube thing as a hobby, so once I started spending my time on another, more social hobby, that fell to the sidelines.

Still, I had a blast making YouTube videos. I did a bunch of short plays, mostly showcasing opening areas, while I collectively called "Couch Projections". These were a lot of fun, and usually involved minimal editing, as they were straight plays of what I experienced. Some, like the fantastic OctoDad: Dadliest Catch ended up being too long, with too much of me feeling lost and not knowing what to do, so I editted those down to tight, short plays, highlighting the best parts. Others, like FLT: Faster Than Light seemed to be paced perfectly for what I intended the Couch Projections series to be. Either way, they were a lot of fun!

The only extended series I did was a full run on XCOM: Enemy Within, including all the DLC. The whole squad was named after friends and family, and they bravely fought aliens and died to protect humanity. I had an absolute blast recording this, and it was my first time ever finishing a full playthrough of XCOM, which I had originally owned on the Xbox 360 since launch.

As of this post, the final mission is not yet online. That's because, once I got to it and played it, it was kind of boring. It's a straight run through a linear base, with an alien voice explaining away any questions you had about the creatures you've been battling with for months. I struggled to edit and narrrate an engaging version of the mission, adding in fluff story details like I had been doing, but nothing was coming together. I'll really make an effort to go back to it and finish it just for the saake of completion, but it's not going to be a great ending.

I actually have plans for another XCOM series I'd love to do. There is a fan-made mod for the PC game called The Long War that dramatically changes many of the game elements, including skills tree, which are now much more in-depth, the terror tracks on nations, research, weapons and upgrades, and basically the whole feel of the game. I've been really excited about trying it out, so this is something I'm interested in doing. So keep an eye on my YouTube for that!

And if you want to volunteer to protect humanity, leave a comment on this post and you might see yourself drafted! Remember, service guarantees citizenship!

2012 In Video: Part 2: Entertainment

While I saw many great movies in the cinema throughout 2012, including The Avengers, Amazing Spider-Man, Dredd and Skyfall, there were some terrible, terrible failures (I'm looking at you, Prometheus). The trouble with the cinema is that not only have you already paid for your ticket by the time you realise this movie is sucking the life right out of you through your eye-sockets, but you have to get up, leave and make your way home afterwords, fuming at how bad the movie was.

Thanks to YouTube, I got a huge amount of my 2012 video entertainment through webseries and incredible independent YouTube creators. These range from action packed stories to hilarious shorts, from interesting shows to fantastic concepts that no big network would green-light. The advantage of material presented through the internet, of course, is that you can watch it at any time, and if you're bored, you just skip to the next video.

Here's a small selection of what I've been enjoying in 2012.

The Yogscast
These guys provide about 95% of the dinner time viewing in our household, and have done so for well over a year now. While they do playthrough videos for all kinds of games, they're mainly famous for their Minecraft videos, wherein they create amazing contraptions in the cubed world and get up to hilarious antics along the way. We started watching the Shadows of Israphel series, which was just Simon and Lewis playing out an enormous adventure made by friends, never knowing what was in store for them. Their most recent and longest running series, quickly approaching 100 episodes, is the Tekkit series, where Simon and Lewis are joined by friends Duncan, Sjin and Sips, as they collectively attempt to build an enormous Jaffa Cake factory! It is always hilarious, very unexpected, almost entirely unscripted and generally ingenious!

If you enjoy the core Yogscast Channel, then check out some of their friends. But even if Yogscast isn't for you, please do yourself the favour of watching the side-splittingly, tear-jerkingly hilarious playthrough of Farming Simulator 2013, staring Farmer Dunc, Farmer Sjin and, later, Farmer Lewis. I know, farming simulators may not be your thing either, but trust me, it's not about the game, it's about the antics! It's worth it for the elephant alone.

Corridor Digital
Sam And Niko (Behind the Scenes for Corridor Digital videos)
Freddie Wong
Behind the Scenes videos for FreddieW
These are pure entertainment, in short bursts! Both mega YouTube stars, they actually share work space and collaborate on loads of stuff, while still maintaining their own individual identities. You've probably seen some of their stuff that's gone viral, but all of their videos are worth catching. Better than most of the stuff on major TV networks in an average week! Both of them did their own webseries in 2012.

Video Game High School - VGHS
From Freddie, Brandon and the team behind the FreddieW Channel, VGHS exists in a world where pro gaming is the biggest sport around, and there are schools for gamers. It's fun, funny and exciting, with some fantastic storytelling, SFX and acting all around! Claire was a bit wary of it at first, but loved it by the end, so if that's not a vote of confidence, I'm not sure what is. My favourite from a great bunch of characters is Drift King. Hilarious! The entire first season is online already, so you can watch it right through as a single 90-odd minute movie.

Sync
Sam and Niko from Corridor Digital created a sci-fi webseries with a cool concept at it's core. I'm really not going to spoil anything about this show, except to say that it's great and well worth watching. Again, the whole thing is online now, so go check it out!

Geek And Sundry
This is a channel with new content almost daily, created by Felicia Day from The Guild and Doctor Horrible's Singalong Blog. It has loads of "shows" airing on it, but my two favourites are Written By a Kid and TableTop. WBaK is exactly as it sounds: Stories told by kids are animated or otherwise brought to life in different ways to create some incredible, magical tales. The Behind The Scenes extras are always hilarious and informative as well. TableTop is hosted by Wil Wheaton, and each week sees various guests playing various tabletop games. This show is so popular, there's actually a major network stealing the entire concept lock, stock and barrel! Watch the original. It won't be beaten.

HALO: Forward Unto Dawn
I've never been a fan of the Halo video games, but I love the setting and lore, and goddammit if Microsoft don't know just who to go to to get awesome live action marketing videos, either in the form of their amazing trailers, or Forward Unto Dawn, the webseries that is rumoured to have cost them in excess of $7.5million! Honestly, though, it shows. The series is beautiful to watch, gritty and dirty at times, and wonderfully acted. Even if you've never played the games, it's just good sci-fi stuff.

Battlestar Galactica: Blood And Chrome
We waited and we waited. Some of us hadn't even finished the original series when this was announced (*whistles innocently*). We were teased and taunted, given glimpses of what could be. But eventually, they deigned to grace us with its presence. BSG: Blood and Chrome takes place during the original Cylon War, and stars a young William Adama. Given the wait, it couldn't pssibly live up to expectations, right? Actually, it does. It's quite good, and that makes that fact hat at one time this was supposed to be a new series all the more painful. Once you're done, spoil yourself and learn how 90% of the sets were greenscreen in a behind the scenes look at the series!

Again, like my list of educational videos I enjoyed, there are a bunch more that I haven't listed here. Worse, there are hundreds of one-off videos from people that I saw and loved, but listing those too would take from now until February!

For now, I'll leave it here. I'm looking forward to fantastic worlds, great storytelling and wonderful new series from incredible creators that 2013 brings to me.

2012 In Video: Part 1: Education

I've mentioned a few times now that I had an extended, involuntary leave from employment during 2012. While a fair amount of that time was wasted on video games, I did make a lot of positive use of the days. During those five months, I discovered many fantastic Channels on Youtube that I have since subscribed to and watched religiously with every new post.

A lot of this was a domino effect, with one Channel referring to the work of another, which lead me to another, and another, and so on. But I think it all started when I discovered the Vlog Brothers duo of Hank and John Green. From there I got to know many of their friends, and watch as they met and made new friends over the last six months.

The greatest joy in all this is that most of the videos are hugely educational, while being fun, funny and fantastically entertaining. I now remember many of the facts I learned years ago, but didn't retain, while also learning housands of new pieces of trivia. I can intelligently discuss quantum mechanics, the workings of the universe and the importance of the Higgs Boson.

So here, at the end of 2012, are some of my favourite Youtube Channels I discovered this year. I hope you try at least a handful of them, and enjoy and learn from them as much as I have.

The Vlog Brothers
Brothers Hank and John Green have done some fantastic videos as part of this series, including their lists of 50 Geeky Jokes and the 5 Worst Typos of History. Well worth subscribing too and enjoying. I've spent hours and hours picking through their back catalogue of videos and laughing all the way. If you're into Harry Potter, then check out Accio Deathly Hollows, or I Don't Have A Favourite Pony, if My Little Pony is your thing (and honestly, even if it isn't, it's just a hilarious song!)

Crash Course
Also from Hank and John Green, this crash course in various subjects has been a wonderful reintroduction to me on the subjects of Biology, Ecology, Literature and World History. Enlightening, fun and funny, and extremely educational, unless you're the Mongols, or a sponge (In-joke. Watch to understand).

SciShow
Hank Green (again!) keeps you up to date with the world of science, from the great minds of science to some fun experiments to the most recent breaking news, SciShow gives it all to you in bite-sized chunks, perfect for snacktime viewing!

The Spangler Effect
Speaking of science, Steve Spanglers goal is to make science fun, and he certainly achieves this here! Equal parts science teacher and clown, Steve has videos on dry ice, eggs, magic and much, much more! I'vedone some of his experiments with the kids I work with, and they're a huge success every time!SCIENCE! made (more) fun. Great stuff.

Veritasium
Veritasium is not a religious channel, as I thought at first, but is all about the "Element of Truth. Eh? See what he did there? "Veritas is truth, and by adding-ium, it sounds like an element. And also a religious bookstore back home in Cork. More importantly, however, Derek, the guy who runs the channel is from just up the road, in North Vancouver! While this Channel is full of wondrous videos clearing up some common misconceptions and illustrating the beauty of a falling slinky, it's also the Channel that introduced me to the incredible Friendship Globe, which I visited and filmed my own video at!

Smarter Every Day
Destin is most popular for his hi-speed stuff, which are spectacular! Some recent videos show how cats can land on their feet from starting falling upside-down! Slo-mo cat twisting FTW!

Minute Physics
With beautiful time-lapse animations,Henry explains physics in a manner that even I can grasp! He recently did an animation for a piece narrated by the rock-star of science, Neil deGrasse Tyson!

Vi Hart
Vi's specialty is math, and she presents complex mathematical concepts in fashion that I can kinda, almost, maybe grasp. But she also makes hexaflexagons, offering hours of mathematical amusement for the kids I work with!

The Brady Haran Set:
Deep Sky Videos
Nottingham Science
Numberphile
Periodic Videos
Sixty Symbols
All of these are from Brady Haran, an Australian living in Nottingham, associated with Nottingham University. Most of the videos feature staff from the university. They're fun, informative and easy to watch. My two favourites are Numberphile and Sixty Symbols, which I've watched everything from, but Periodic Videos has Proferssor Poliakoff, who is always fantastic to watch. He is the quintessential professor!The Nottingham Science channel is kind of a "Behind The Scenes" channel for all the others, and is usually less science-y and more laugh-out-loud funny, often showing off outtakes or interesting extras. Brady and Destin from Smarter Every Day recent recorded a bunch of experiments on Destin's high-speed camera, and we'll get to see the results in 2013!

CGP Grey
PBS Idea
VSauce, VSauce2, VSauce3
These are more general knowledge channels, rather than the science of my earlier recommendations, with a huge range of topics covered. Like, HUGE! For example, the Mike from The Idea Channel covered topics related to Adventure Time, copyright and what Santa and wrestling have in common in some of their recent videos! Also, because I know a lot of my friends are role-players, let me plug his Can DnD Make You a Confident and Successful Person? right now.

Ze Frank
No list of YouTube channels could be complete without mentioning Ze. While he doesn't do the same science-y, educational videos of the rest of the list here, he is, in a way, the granddaddy of them all. Or at the very least, the Grunkle. This is the man who pretty much popularized the concept of a video blog, and inspired many others, not least Hank and John Green. His videos are sometimes random and chaotic, but often funny and profound, and I have a few that I watch regularly when I feel like I need to center myself, or remind myself how special I can be as a person. His mission to bring a little love and happiness to the world has been, and continues to be a resounding success. He's even given a TED Talk or two in his time, which are well worth checking out also.

There are tonnes more out there to enjoy, but these are the ones that caught my attention. I'm looking forward to all the new things I learn through them in 2013 and beyond!

Enjoy, and remember, DFTBA!

Should Ever Be Forgot

Not that I endorse violence as a means to express ones displeasure toward ones government, but in keeping with my annual tradition, it is November 5th, Guy Fawkes night in the UK. Be safe out the tonight, and don't get too close to any big fires. Leave the ignition to a responsible adult, and keep the pets indoors.

Remember, remember the Fifth of November,
The Gunpowder Treason and Plot,
I know of no reason
Why Gunpowder Treason
Should ever be forgot.

Guy Fawkes, Guy Fawkes, t'was his intent 
To blow up King and Parliament.
Three-score barrels of powder below
To prove old England's overthrow;
By God's providence he was catch'd
With a dark lantern and burning match.
Holloa boys, holloa boys, let the bells ring.
Holloa boys, holloa boys, God save the King!

Better yet, just skip the immolation entirely, and enjoy this video from the wonderful Period Videos series on fireworks and fires!

Inertia In Action

A few months ago while I was unemployed and seeking cheap ways to entertain and educate myself from home I discovered a bunch of interesting YouTube channels with a science slant to them. One such channel turned out to be by a guy from West Vancouver, Derek, and he had a video from his home area. The video was about the Earth and why it rotates, and used a very cool looking object located at Dundarave Pier to illustrate the reason.

As soon as I saw it I wanted to visit it, so last weekend, while Claire was playing DnD, I ventured north and west across the bridge. It was as cool as I had hoped, but I had no-one to share it with. So today I dragged Claire and two friends back to see it again, and we all marveled at the two and a half tonne granite wonder. I even did a quick video blog, my first in over a year!


Here is Derek's video featuring the globe, from his channel Veritasium. Check out his stuff, it fun and informative, and I've learned lots from watching everything he's done so far!

Baby Beluga

Last Sunday Claire and I went to the Vancouver Aquarium to celebrate our fourth wedding anniversary. While there, we enjoyed seeing all the various animals the aquarium has to offer, especially the beautiful arctic water beluga whales.

We made sure to stop by their enclosure for their show, but while it was informative, the whales did very little. Now, they're never as active or as dramatic as the dolphins, but the show is usually fun to watch regardless. On Sunday, however, the belugas simply swam round the enclosure, and pretty much ignored the staff for the duration of the short show. Something was clearly wrong.

From where we were sitting we could see a third beluga swimming in a separate area, and, as it turned out, this was the problem.

Last Monday Vancouver Aquarium's oldest beluga, Kavna passed away. She was thought to be around 46 years old, much older than the expected 20 - 25 years a wild beluga can expect to enjoy.

Before starting work in Vancouver, I had heard about belugas, but never really thought much about them. But the white whale holds a special place in the hearts of children across Canada, and especially Vancouver. It's all thanks to a children's musician called Raffi and his beautiful song, "Baby Beluga". I first heard it sung to the toddlers in one of the centers I work in and immediately fell in love with the tune.

In honor of Kavna, who, according to Raffi, inspired the song, here it is, as sung live by the man himself.

RIP Kavna

Love And Other Things

New video blog, for the day that's in it!

How Far Is Too Far?

I'm playing catchup today with Star Wars: The Clone Wars, the CG cartoon series due to start it's third season soon. I loved the first season, chewing through the entire set in a matter of days, but I waited until season two was finished before really starting in on that one.

I have to say I love the clones! Every one of them is voiced by Dee Bradley Baker (met him once), and every one of them is awesome. I've always been a fan of the clone armour designs. I love the addition of colour to the otherwise stark white body suits of the galaxies elite troopers. Having an entire series that uses clones in almost every episode is just too much fun for me to watch.

The action in this version of the Star Wars universe is a pleasant trade-off between what we see the live action actors do in the movies and the crazy, super over-the-top antics of the earlier Clone Wars animated series by Genndy Tartakovsky. I never really got into that series. It was just too crazy and far from what we had seen in the movies. But this CG version has fantastic moments of action and combat, stunning lightsabre duels and mesmerising space battles, without sacrificing the impression that these warrior monks could really do this.

And it's surprisingly dark at times. People die, and not just the unnamed clones. Jedi are electrocuted to death, colonies are wiped out by the Trade Federation and, in the episode I have on while writing this, we see flame-throwers being used on sentient bug creatures. Evil, Separatist bug people, but sentient none-the-less.

Which brings me to why I started this, all to show off this one, 60 second scene. In the Star Wars universe, I have always gotten the impression that the Jedi were just good. Through and through. They would never sacrifice their ideals to achieve a goal. The Sith and bad, the Jedi are good. Sith use Force Lightning, Jedi use Force Push. That kind of thing. And it is why I absolutely love this series. Here, even the Jedi are not beyond forcing information out of a prisoner of war to get what they need.

A Sketchy Post

Two weeks ago I finally got to put up all my sketches from Comic Con 2008. My awesome sketchbook is one of my most prized possessions, and filled with incredible art and signatures from the most amazing people. As well as the complete Flickr Set, I also created a nifty video showcasing the sketches, for my own pleasure.

In Response To Your Question...

My taste in music has never been in line with the other kids of my social circle. In secondary school I enjoyed the musical stylings of Garth Brooks and Bryan Adams. The second through seventh CDs I ever bought were Garth Brooks. It was a box set. The first had been the soundtrack to Grosse Pointe Blank.

Anyway, the point is, I've always enjoyed music that isn't exactly topping the charts in Ireland. I don't think "(Everything I Do) I Do It for You" counts, as even Bryan Adams hates that song now from what I've heard.

A while ago I discussed my amazing discovery that the Xbox 360 is female. This accurate assumption is based on the fact that she can multitask, playing games and music at the same time! While describing the life changing effects this revelation had on me, I casually mentioned that I was now used to playing games listening to such artists as Chesney Hawkes and Hanson. Amongst the hundreds of comments that followed this controversial and groundbreaking blog post, my good friend Lynn questioned "Hanson AND Chesney Hawkes? Did you buy them ironically". I shall now explain.

Chesney Hawkes is easy. "I Am The One And Only" is a guilty love of mine. At home, when Claire is still at work, I love singing Chesneys one hit wonder at the top of my lungs... or, at least, slightly above an inaudible murmur.

Hanson is a little more difficult. For well over a decade I joined any sane minded individual in cringing at the sound of an "mmm-bop" or the sight of a pack of long, blond haired males. The mere mention of Hanson was enough to make me laugh. And Claire agreed with me.

Until last year when someone mentioned them in one of the many, many blogs she reads. More specifically, they mentioned a particular documentary series made by the band themselves called Strong Enough To Break. The entire thing is up on YouTube by the boys themselves in an epic series of 12 posts! It is well worth watching, telling the story of how Hanson evolved from the teenyboppers they were at the time of their breakout number one hit to the pop rock grownups they are today.

Claire spent a fair length of time telling me and anyone who would listen how cool Hanson suddenly were, but we all ignored her. Then she got hold of the latest two albums, 2004's Underneath, and 2007's The Walk and got them onto her iPod. Thus followed an unavoidable exposure to the works of Hanson on any car journey that lasted longer than three minutes.

Not that it actually took that long. I found myself humming along to the tracks before we had left city limits. Penny and Me quickly became one of my favourite tracks to listen to while walking, cooking, or, yes, even playing Xbox. Crazy Beautiful, Misery and Georgia are also fantastic tracks, but honestly, it's just trying to pick from an incredible bunch. There are few artists, Messers Brooks and Adams included, that have entire albums that I enjoy listening to. Hanson almost has two. I leave out the last track from Underneath as it includes a hidden track, causing it to also include five minutes of silence. Annoying if you have your iPod in your back pocket and would rather not have to fish it out to move onto the next track.

In the end, music is for your soul. It needs to be felt within you, not just listened to. As much as MMMBop reminds me of teeny-boppers and terrible taste, Hanson makes me smile, hum, sing, and dance (when no-one's looking). Their stuff won't be for everyone, but it deserves to be heard by a lot more people than it is currently. Give them a chance. Listen to their most recent works. If you don't like them, that's fine. Just don't ignore them based on a single from 1997. Instead, try out their latest single "Thinking 'Bout Somethin'" from their newest, just released album, Shout It Out.

I have no excuse for Chesney Hawkes. Sorry.

Eduard Khil

Most of you may not recognize the name, but I'd take a fair guess that if you spend a resonable amount of time surfing the information super highway, you've heard his voice by now. Eduard is the man responsible for this music video, from way back in 1976!

I learned about this through following the exploits of geek superstar Wil Wheaton, who enjoyed performing a reenactment of the video onstage in front of PAX East with fellow geeks Paul and Storm.The homage was funny, but the original was hilarious. I don't mean to suggest I'm laughing at Eduard. He has a stunning vocal range, but, after 34 years the video has an old-world quirkiness to it that seems to make everyone that sees it smile.

But the story continues. Eduard has now put forward a challenge to the Internet! He asks everyone watching to... well, just see:

Now before I get complaints, I know the subtitles claim the recording was from 1966, not '76, but Wikipedia says '76, and I've seen that in a few other places as well related to the video. Besides, it looks like something from the 70's anyway.

So will you be joining him? Will any of my readers take up the challenge and write lyrics to the tune? Even just a verse? I think it would be hilarious to be part of this. It's the newest internet meme, fast becoming as widespread as Rickrolling. Be a part of history.

I'll Know My Name As It's Called Again

BBC have released a wonderful promo for their Winter/Spring 2010 drama lineup. The promo introduces us to new shows such as "Lennon Naked", starring ex-Time Lord and comic-book evil genius Christopher Eccleston and "The Deep", starring the always fantastic James Nesbit as he gets stuck on a submarine, as well as the welcome return of old favourites "Ashes to Ashes", "Being Human", and of course, the eleventh Doctor makes his appearance in "Doctor Who". This is the fifth season of the relaunched classic time travel series which brings it up to an astounding 30 seasons of Who since it's launch in 1963!

As well as an enjoyable piece of viewing, the promo is wonderful to listen to thanks to the track "The Cave", from Mumford & Sons, an English folk rock band from London. I loved the piece as soon as I started watching the promo. This is the second time I can recall an advertisement introducing me to an artist I'd never heard of before. The first time was Vodafones advertising campaign featuring Regina Spektor, though it took talking to Cian before I knew whose voice that was.

Anyway, watch the promo and enjoy. 2010 on BBC looks like it's going to be another wonderful year.

Edit: I'm really digging these Mumford & Sons guys, even more since reading the first paragraph from their latest News post. Come back Knuckles!! All is forgiven!

Seven, Six, Five

It's The Final Countdown!!

Sorry it's so dark. I haven't been able to run it through some editing yet. Might upload a fresh version when I get the chance.

I Love It When A Plan Comes Together

In an age when it is far too common to see trailers for movies a full 12 months before release, I'm surprised this one has waited this long! I wish I had a better quality version to link to, but as of writing, there doesn't seem to be one online. Edit: Awesome! HD version available and embedded!

"You look like you've got a... real Bad Attitude."

Oh dear... This trailer shows up as I was just about to engrave Iron Man 2's name on the 2010 plate on "Denis' Favourite Movie Of The Year" perpetual trophy. I was so certain this was a no-brainer.

Now I have to wait until after June 11th to get it engraved.

I Have Found My New Favourite Video

See more funny videos and TBT Videos at Today's Big Thing.

My favourite bit is the leg kick at the 26 second mark! Cracks me up every time!

I've Seen Things You People Wouldn't Believe

Seeing the unequaled talent of Sir Anthony Hopkins delivering the final monologue from Bladerunners Roy Batty, played by the incredible Rutger Hauer, sent shivers down my spine when I saw it just now on TV. The dialgue is haunting and beautiful, and to hear Hopkins recite it so naturally is surprisingly emotional.

Ironically, despite the fact that this is an advertisment for Sky HD, there is no HD version around! Harhar!

The original Bladerunner scene is easily one of my favourite moments from cinema history.

All those moments will be lost in time... like tears in rain.

I'm Real!

Thank goodness for that. I was beginning to feel very much like an artificial construct designed to aid an organic sentience in its interactions within a virtual environment. Now, thanks to Xbox.com, I know that I'm just a Real projecting my personality onto an Avatar. Phew. This short presentation may help clear things up for all you other Reals suffering the same confusion.

RPG's And Tangential Learning

Ever since I got back to Cork I've been itching to run a new RPG, using the Spirit of the Century Fate 3.0 system. My last game was a huge success, of completely unexpected levels, filled with action, combat, danger (sorta), guest stars, a growing core cast, and generally a good time for all involved. It was the very first campaign I ran that lasted more than three sessions, and by the time we got to the wrap-up, we had put in 14 episodes, which is the Fox equivalent of a great first season!

With the upcoming release of Starblazer Adventures from Cubicle 7, Brian Caball putting me on to the 1990's setting Torg, my good friend Gar's Traveller available from Mongoose, the brand new Flash Gordon comics from Ardden Entertainment, and the recently started Monday Night Gaming here in Cork, I have tonnes of inspiration, adventure ideas, story arc seeds, characters and more to play with, all swimming around in my head, all battling for center stage.

In fact, I have so much stuff, I actually have three RPG's in various stages of development. I just like the setting of Torg, but haven't come up with much of a campaign concept yet. I really, really want to run an idea I have for a deep space Traveller/ Starblazers/ Spirit of the Far Future campaign but need to flesh out a few opening adventures before I'm happy with it yet, and finally, I have my most prized campaign seed, which, I have to unfortunately admit, Brian Caball inspired/ fully created!

This third one is the campaign I most want to run right now. It's also the one I have most ideas for already, and have started detailed research on. I like my games to be fast and easy, without the requirements of too much specialised knowledge on any areas, but at the same time, I like having hard facts upon which to hang my crazy adventure story.

So off to Wikipedia I went, and there I got lost. Thankfully, I was not alone in the depths of information overload; my wife* Claire was along for the adventure, clicking links on her laptop behind me, and passing back and forth interesting facts that caught our attention. If you have ever spent time on Wikipedia, you know this story already: you search for a subject, while reading that you click on an interesting link, repeat several times until you've forgotten where you started or you're reading an article on wet t-shirt competitions.

In our case, we started researching the origin of one of the English names for this chunk or rock we live on, Earth. From there, we got on to the etymology of the word Earth**, but not really being certain of the spelling of that term (I always pronounced eN-tim-ology, which is closer to a very different area of study), I wikied "origin of words", and discovered this interesting page as the third link! The list includes the obvious, such as banshee, as well as a few that surprised me, such as phoney, slob and Tory! And you'll be surprised where the word kibosh originates from!

I love tangential learning. Leaning things that you have an interest in is so much easier than being force to learning something that you might consider boring. I guess that's why I love to research facts for RPGs. It gives me the chance to learn about so many things that I otherwise might never have looked at. And, in a weeks time, in a months time, even in a years time, I'll still remember these facts. I'll still know who the various religions and cultures that worshipped Mars are, and the names they all gave it. I'll still know where the word galore comes from (it's obvious if you think about it as an Irish phrase).

Thankfully, I don't have to explain anything about the concept of tangential learning, or why it's valuable, not only in RPGs, but for books, comics and computer games. Daniel Floyd, with the assistance of James Portnow, has created a short video explaining the benefits of this method of learning. Click play below, and hopefully you'll learn something along the way.***

Via Rock, Paper, Shotgun; via Edge Online

*- I really need to actually add the post about all that to the blog at some point! If there is anyone out there reading this that hasn't heard that I'm now a married man, I'll try to post something soon!
**- Turns out, no-one knows!! Hah!
***- See what I did there? Yeah. I hate me too...

More Muppet Madness

I just found a few muppet videos that are worth sharing with all of you! It seems that the Henson Company very recently (July '08) went and did a few videos featuring the muppets for YouTube! Nice.


"The Blue Danube Waltz" by Gonzo and the Perfectly Pitched Poultry
"Ode To Joy" by Beaker
"Habanera" by Swedish Chef and Beaker, with the assistance of Animal
"Stars & Stripes FOREVER!" by Sam The Eagle and Company
All of the above have a short piece with Statler and Waldorf at the end, but everyones favourite hecklers get four of their own short videos as well, including the one embedded above.

And of course, no Muppet show would be complete without some bloopers, so here's one of the best.