We're Terrible Astronauts Pt.2

We're back, with returning co-Host Noah Houghtaling!

This ep. we're talking first kick weekend for MLS! (trying to, anyway)

In the Second half, Bioware and the Possible Rise of the Female Protagonist in Action Gaming.  Plus - why are people offended by homosexuality in video games?  We don't have an answer, folks.

Themes throughout -  the asshole percentage, and talking about issues by sheer metaphorical context!

Please leave comments and let us know what you think!

Ep.2 - We're Terrible Astronauts! (pt.1/2)

Show notes!

Batman does sing!

Veronica Lake's last film was Flesh Feast.

The Hulk's take down of Twilight can be found here.

And Johnny Curcio will be in the production of Thoroughly Modern Millie - ticket info here.

More Set-backs

I've recorded two podcast episodes this week - Ep.2 w/ Johnny Curcio, and Ep.3 w/ Noah Houghtaling.  Each episode had problems - volume control in Ep.2, and the apparent complete lack of a file for Ep.3.  Needless to say, I'm very frustrated by these turn of events.  I'm used to the one being fucking up - but when the tech fails, well, I'm up a creek.

Funnily enough, Ep.3 had a bit about the problem with save files.  So, there's that.

I'll be rerecording Ep.2 shortly, but Ep.3 might be here first once Noah sends me his copy of the recording.  I might have to hack at it, as Noah experienced lag problems.

So, there will be new material, hopefully soon.  This will work.

Still - damnit.

Why I need co-hosts! Interlude One...

In other words - get past the "my voice hurts and I need a cup of tea" intro - find out why I don't like Michael Bay's version of bad movies.

The next episode will be better.

First One!

No Editing.  Which is really a shame.  Special co-host Noah.

Let me know what you think!

Show Notes: Florence Foster Jenkins was the singer mentioned.

The Shameless Plugs:
http://www.doranphoto.com/index2.php - Dan Doran.
http://www.exlibrisrecords.co.uk/yonder-calliope.htm - Aaron McMullan
https://twitter.com/#!/realacespade - Noah's Twitter

A post about VD...

I don't like holidays.  The only two I like, when I talk about why I like them at length (of course), seem relentlessly depressing.  Hallowmas (Oct. 31-Nov. 2) allows for a closeness to those who have passed.  New Years helps you put the past failures behind you and focus on the potential to change.  Usually both involve doing things that you regret, so there you are.

But for the most part, I really dislike holidays.

And being a shy, awkward kind who feels uncomfortable around his friends, let alone girls I fancy, I've always felt dread about Valentine's Day.  Once we got into middle school and I stopped getting the bits of thin cardboard with with pop-culture telling my that so-and-so thinks I'm super, it really just became a fairly dark thing.  We ended up becoming enmeshed in the almost satirical idea that the day is important in the scheme of romance, and that if your significant other doesn't do something amazing, then the relationship is doomed and you should just dive into the the alcohol and comfort foods right now.

Which sucks, as I like love.  There's romantic, friendly, familial - love of sport, passive existence, active existence, art, nature, food, science.  There's a lot to love.  I'm rather a fan, really. 

Well, as I lack a Valentine, I'm going to take a minute and just go back to being a little kid.

My mother and father are middle aged office workers.  They've dealt with a fair bit of parental strife of behalf of my brother and I.  And we're damn lucky to have them.

My dad, the great grey god, is stooped with age, hobbled and walking with a cane - he has now for close to fourteen years, which is badass, since medically he should have been using one since I was born, and should be in a wheelchair by now.  It seems that only his spite towards his condition and his dislike of what the handicapped plate on his car means that holds him together.  From a physical standpoint.  He's beaten something like cancer twice (I still have only a vague idea as to the scope of what he's been through medically - but at somepoint the universe realized that crippling him wasn't working and started to go to town on his cells).  He's buried both of his parents, warred and made up with his brother, and has the amazing ability of getting away with saying outrageous things.

My mother...I've often been told that I'm alot like my mom.  It's been fairly recent that I've come to understand this as a compliment - we're so much alike that for a long time I had an aversion to her.  Not a lack of love, but an almost contempt due to familiarity.  When I came home from college with my tail between my legs and saw what my mom had gone through for the past four years.  This helped me get my head out of my ass, and actively try to show her how grateful I was for her, and her putting up with me. It took a lot to hold the family together, and harder still to do it all with grace, wit, and the iron will that mothers seem to possess far beyond any other family role.

I don't have a special someone, but I've been planning on dying alone for a while now (I'm also planning on winning the Mega Millions this Tuesday, 02/14/2012 - you can only say no to one, Universe).  But for right now, as they're far away and don't surf the net, and I won't have to deal with their jokes about being cute...

Thanks, mom and dad.  For everything.  I love you both dearly.  And will you be my valentines?

Embracing My Inner Dwarf...

So, I've decided that I'm going to stick to my New Years resolution of making some changes in my life.  I've cut my cigarette intake by half, and I'm hope to get rid of the habit shortly.  This will be a problem, not just because of the whole "additive carcinogen" thing.  I actually enjoy smoking.  I know that seems a bit odd - it makes you skin, stains everything, and after a long enough time you become a constantly coughing paper bag.  But I guess I've lucked out in that most of my friends merely tolerate my habit, and those who have also embraced it are now in various stages of quitting.

Which leads to another bit of happy-chance - I've also resolved to spend more time with my friends.  The difficulty here is something else: I'm not anti-social so much as asocial.  I've been the company I keep for most of my memory, and I tend to be a lot of people's "friend" while having relatively few myself. (A fact that usually angers people - it's not that I don't like you, but I tend to play shrink to quite a few people.  When they're willing to put up with me in public, knowing that at any minute I'll break into song, then they're my friends.  If they join in, I'll take a damn bullet for them.)

I spent most of December hanging out with friends - with a few attempts that fell through - and I miss it.  But many of them have had the annoying habit of getting lives.  Which is good, of course - I'm happy for them and hope it fills them up the way good thing (truly good things) do.  And, besides, I have an office job now, so the four a.m. trips to Denny's (come for the food, stay because it's acting like an anchor in your gut) are now next to impossible.

To fill the time between these two, I've been taking on new hobbies.  I'm working out more, writing (more that this, believe it or don't), and slowly learning how to podcast.  I'm taking a free course in computer programming and looking at trade schools. ...That last bit mostly came about because I'm sick of having to Google things like "How do I stop water flow to my toilet" only when it's reaching a critical state.

This all worries me a little, because I'm not used to being practical.  I've always been a much more, shoot from the hip, standing on top of the toilet with a plunger in one hand, smartphone in the other, type of guy.  But I think I know the reason...it's because I grew a beard.  It's caused me to finally embrace my true, inner D&D nerd's ambition to be a dwarf.  I'm five feet seven inches, broad yet lanky, and often mistaken for a scarecrow around Halloween, but Goddamnit, inside me is a hard drinking, hard fighting, hard farting miner with a battle axe, a song on his lips, and a very weird relationship with mountains just waiting to look the world in the eye and say something along the lines of: "WWWWWAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHH!"

But seriously, I think all of these changes and chances will be good things.  Even if they aren't, it beats sitting around waiting to die.

Anywhoo, once the podcast gets up and running, I'll be posting some links to it...or just posting it here.  We'll see.

Alud lang syne, folks.