Taken at various stages. We had a lot of cloud coverage that broke up a bit in the afternoon, but I think the shots where clouds were involved added a nice effect. These aren’t very good, but I am glad to have at least something. My daughter used a pair of the eclipse glasses we … Photos: April 2024 Solar Eclipse
True to my plan early in 2023, I’m now listed as a UX Master on Nielsen Norman Groups’ certification page. Earlier this week I finished my last course and passed the last exam, and I think I owe it to myself to take a break from formal learning for a while. It can wreak havoc … UX Master Certification
A few things came to my attention after I posted the review of Dune Part 2 here. I mentioned that a nomadic desert culture like the Fremen should take from inspiration from real-world. This analysis of the costuming of Dune Part 2 suggest that this was the case, and Bedouins specifically were mentioned. Another video … Dune Part 2 Follow Up
Dune: Part Two With the House Atreides defeated on Arrakis, Paul Atreides and Lady Jessica work to win the favor of the native Fremen to push back against the Harkonnens. I liked this even more than Part One, if that were possible, because I think the runtime here is a little more justified. Part One … Sci-fi and Fantasy Movies and Series Reviews, Part 45
Walking around after dinner with some colleagues from work, heading southeast towards Liberty Avenue. Fun way to light up an otherwise dimly-lit alleyway. That building looming rather ominously in the background is the Centre City Tower. The exterior is rather bland, but its interior is nice. Your browser does not support the video tag. Otherwise, … Video: Overhead Lights at Garrison Place, Pittsburgh
The best subversions in stories aren’t overbearing, or rely on jerking the viewer/reader around with cheap plot twists. Effective subversion—usually called one of the forms of irony—are more subtle and respectful of the audience’s intelligence. In this clip from The Ballad of Buster Scruggs anthology, the subversion is simple and easy to spot: The surface … How to Subvert Expectations in a Story
Every new idea or workaround is called a “hack” nowadays, even if it’s a technique that doesn’t involve technology. Some of the hacks listed in this “100 Home Hacks That Will Improve Your Life” could be considered engineering 101 hacks, but really they are just weird ideas that solve a problem or make something easier. … An Actual Hack
Even though HTML 4.0 specs were released after these sites were published, they still could be called HTML 4.0-era sites simply because it was the longest-running version of HTML before HTML 5 came around. The coding conventions, as well as the general aesthetic and subject matter, are often associated referred to using the 4.0 descriptor, … Long-Running HTML 4.0 Websites
Years ago, I had found garudoh’s YouTube channel, where he published videos of game soundtrack medleys. From that channel I found Supradarky‘s original account before he got nuked, where he had posted this song. I put a lot of Supradarky’s tracks on my iPod to listen to at work, and as I named the files … Wednesday Humpday Midday Song: “Yewbell (Balmy Breeze)” from Arc the Lad IV: Twilight of the Spirits
Ingredients 1/2 cup 2% milk 1/2 heavy whipping cream 2 tablespoons Optimum Nutrition Double Rich Chocolate protein powder (or whatever flavor) 1 tsp butter 1 tbsp cream cheese 1 tbsp peanut butter (sugar free) 1 tbsp chia seeds 1/8 tsp cinnamon 1/8 tsp cloves 1/8 tsp nutmeg Stevia/sweetener to taste Directions 1. Put all of … Recipe: Spicy Keto Porridge
I’m calling on Jill to get in here because this song has an accordion front and center. Some interesting time signature play here. The beginning is in 7/8, then a few bars of 4/4 before the verse (instrumentals can have verses and choruses, you know), and continuing into the verse. There’s a weird kind of … Wednesday Humpday Midday Song: “Clap and Walk” from Ragnarok Online 2
Over here.
I haven’t posted one of these in a while, so I thought I start again with one of my favorites from the Halo franchise. This plays right at the beginning of the game, with Master Chief’s AI doing the great voiceover, which if I recall correctly, was a new element for the Halo narratives. At … Wednesday Humpday Midday Song: “Luck” from Halo 3
I was able to plow through the first six Metal Slug installments, in between sleeping, writing, reading, eating, and doing other staycation-type activities, so the re-experiencing the action is fresh on my mind. I only played the first two games, long ago, when they were both in the arcades in the late nineties. It’s very … Three Cheers for Metal Slug
The Boy and the Heron In World War II Japan, a boy is guided by an annoying heron into a mysterious alternate reality, to find his father’s new wife and aunt. The heron wasn’t really annoying, except in the first few scenes, where he’s lightly terrorizing and gangstalking Mahito and taking dumps on his windowsill. … Sci-fi and Fantasy Movies and Series Reviews, Part 44
Spotify’s cancelation confirmation screen has some creative content design: “Found art”: Life is waiting:
Ingredients 1 lb broccoli 2 lb chicken breast olive oil For the sauce: 1 c cream 1/2 cup shredded cheddar cheese 1/2 tsp salt 1 tsp garlic powder 1 tsp onion powder 1 tsp pepper 1 tbsp chives Directions 1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. 2. Slather the chicken with olive oil before placing it … Recipe: Chicken and Broccoli
After Earth After an injured Ranger Corps officer and his son survive a crash landing on a depopulated Earth, they must contend with the hostile environment and feral Ursa creatures to survive. There was something incomplete going on here, like M. Night Shyamalan just gave up halfway through directing the thing. I want to invoke … Sci-fi and Fantasy Movies and Series Reviews, Part 43
Interesting explanation of the similarities of worldwide accounts (stories, myths, cave drawings) of global disasters and observable cosmic phenomenon. I don’t know if it’s astrophysically possible without a detailed model of how electromagnetism would have 1) overcome the effects of gravitational forces between celestial bodies, and 2) place Saturn, Mars, and Venus into their current … Video: Remembering the End of the World
For her 18th birthday, I took DoJ (Daughter of Jay) to Boston to watch symphonic interpretations of Genshin Impact songs, played by the Boston Symphony Orchestra. I played the game for about 20 minutes once. It’s something I would like if I had the time and inclination to get into it, because there seems to … Photos and Video: Symphonic Genshin Impact in Boston
I checked on Pressure 4-5 the other day after coming across one of their videos on Youtube. I got into them during my Sam Goody days when we received the promo for their album and were able to spin it when we wanted to, instore. They were a bit set apart from the normal glut … What Happened to Pressure 4-5?
This is assuming, of course, your band has a domain* and website to begin with, and not just social media accounts. If you search for “[artist or album] lyrics,” most of the results you get won’t be on web properties belonging to the artist or even their record label. They will be lyrics-harvesting websites like … Bands: Publish Your Lyrics on Your Website
Ingredients 3 lbs grass-fed ground beef 1 large onion, chopped 8 cloves garlic (or 8 tsp minced) 2 x 15 oz cans diced tomatoes 2 1/2 cups chopped broccoli 6 oz can tomato paste 4 oz can green chili peppers 2 tbsps Worcestershire sauce 1/4 cup chili powder 2 tbsp cumin 1 tbsp dried oregano … Recipe: Paleo-Keto Chili
It’s been a while.
A mostly easy 3-ish mile hike. Since there were some rains the night before, the tree-heavy trail was very buggy. Not a bug big deal. The trail starts on a servicing road, on the White trail, the single line you see in the northeast on the map. Getting into the loop proper, you have to … Photos: Deer Lakes Park White and Purple Loop Hike
Ingredients 2 tbsp sugar-free peanut butter 1 scoop protein powder 1/2 cup heavy whipping cream Directions 1. Combine all ingredients in small stovetop pan 2. Stir over low heat until well combined Useless Information and Photos I originally did this in the microwave but it turns out so much better on the stovetop. The macronutritional … Recipe: Paleo-Keto Protein Pudding
Kind of mind-blowing that one guy can conceive, draw, and animate something like this, and have it come across the way it does. The poor girl just wanted to play an arcade game! Obviously the music is from someone else, and speedoru had help with the brief 3D animation, but the rest is all him. … Video: Wave Racer EP Medley
Note: This will probably be the last review post I’ll publish for a while. In the early days when I was recovering from shoulder surgery, I tried to read as much as I could but there’s a limit to that when you’re in pain and/or on painkillers. It was much easier to watch TV to … Sci-fi and Fantasy Movies and Series Reviews, Part 42
When I got the notification on my Fitbit app a few weeks ago that I got the Kevin badge for doing 22,222 steps in a day, I had to get the third and final badge, for the heterochromic Bob. Being a completionist kind of guy doesn’t help, either. In my defense, I was in the … Gamification Works
Ingredients 2 lbs beef bones 2 chicken or pigs feet 2 onions 2 carrots 2 celery stalks 2 tbsp apple cider vinegar 1 cup of salt 2 tbsp ground pepper 2 cloves of garlic Directions 1. Roast bones and feet for 30 minutes at 350 degrees. 2. Place the bones and feet in a large … Recipe: Beef Bone Stock
An inside joke. Putting this here for safekeeping.
I built a house in Minecraft. On all the gate entrances I put up my banner. It’s a cross, because Jesus, with a red skull over it, because death (lots of plants and animals need killing in Minecraft). I am very dark and poetic, you see. I wish you could see the banners from far … Video: My Minecraft House
Noah (2014) The only righteous man on Earth hears from the Creator that He’ll be sending some destruction his way, but there’s something he can do about it. This movie didn’t do well for two reasons. One, because folks wanted The Passion of the Christ, but for Noah, but there was extra-Biblical stuff in there … Sci-fi and Fantasy Movies and Series Reviews, Part 41
Ingredients 2 tbsp almond flour 2 tbsp butter 1 cup heavy whipping cream 4 eggs 1 1/5 cups shredded, semi-firm cheese 1/8 tsp cream of tartar or baking powder coconut oil, parmesan/romano cheese, salt, pepper Directions 1. Grease your ramekin or whatever dish with the coconut oil 2. In a pan, melt the butter and … Recipe: Keto-Paleo Cheese Soufflé
I want to say Vision of Escaflowne’s soundtrack was too good for it, but I like the series too much to commit to that criticism. I suppose I could just say the animation’s quality doesn’t quite match soundtrack’s; the animation values are only a few steps above Saturday morning cartoon. Composer and general musician Yoko … Wednesday Humpday Midday Music: “Wings” from Vision of Escaflowne
Ingredients Crust 1 3/4 cups almond flour 3 tablespoons Optimum Nutrition Double Rich Chocolate protein powder 7 tablespoons melted butter Filling 8 ounces cream cheese 1 cup sugar-free peanut butter 1/2 cup powdered sweetener 1 1/2 cups heavy whipping cream 1 teaspoon vanilla Miscellaneous coconut oil, some kind of topping Directions Crust 1. Grease a … Recipe: Keto-Paleo No-Bake Peanut Butter Chocolate Pie
I scrolled through my Facebook archive (I downloaded everything before I killed my account) casually the other day, and saw that I had posted this video. I don’t know if it’s from some overseas copyright thing, because the uploader isn’t the band or the their label, and it’s video quality of all the uploads I’ve … Video: school food punishment – “future nova”
The Super Mario Bros. Movie (2023) Two brothers, fledgling plumbers from Brooklyn, are transported to a world where a giant fire-breathing turtle aims to take over the neighboring kingdoms. This could’ve been really bad—worse than the universally-hated 1993 abomination—but thankfully all those involved with writing this did what was expected of them. Some awkward dialog … Sci-fi and Fantasy Movies and Series Reviews, Part 40
I know very little about the post process in video, so these things are fascinating to me. There’s probably a lot more work going into making real-life looking graphics as opposed to the work involved with creating things like futuristic tech. You can fudge things a bit with things that don’t really exist, but if … Video: “Stalingrad” Post-Production Reel
Here’s a comment I left on one of Ed’s posts, “Surveillance and Censorship” This post reminds me of the Twitter “algorithm” post I saw a few days back. Someone found in the source code Musk made available the parts where political tweets and accounts could be boosted or stifled. There were very obvious a variable … Fishy Twitter
It’s always good to see galaxy-level drumming talent like this, when it’s more up-close than in a performance setting. I might not like it as much if I wasn’t familiar with the album this song is on, Planetary Duality. A lot of this progressive death metal stuff just sounds like a flurry of random beats … Video: Alex Rudinger – Xenochrist Drum Playthrough
The original NPCs. Photo by rolexpv People might not like plastic water bottles, because environment, or they simply dislike the concept of strangers hydrating themselves. I hate these bottles because if you buy an entire case of them for a party or general issue get-together, it’s easy to mix up your water bottles with someone … Someone Steal This Idea: Customized Plastic Water Bottles
Enjoy.
Sure, this is only a British bureaucrat, but there’s no reason to think there are other rulers who have the same “tendencies“: It’s not so much that everyone in government is a psychopath, it’s that governments tend to attract psychopaths. It seems like governments are stuffed full of them. No quite off topic is The … Psychopaths In Power
I played Overwatch a few times back when my daughter was really into it, but I don’t know anything about the backstory of any of the characters. Regardless, I thought this was a really well-done short movie. I have a soft spot for “silent” stories—anyone in the world can watch it and understand it, regardless … Video: The Last Bastion
Most everything I’ve read from Vice is either unremarkable or ridiculous nonsense, but that doesn’t mean their writers can have moments of clarity. From “I Had An AI Chatbot Write My Eulogy. It Was Very Weird” (emphasis mine): Machine learning tools like Stable Diffusion and OpenAI’s ChatGPT have been breathlessly covered by the press in … AI Isn’t
This is ordered by ascending order of favorites. Kill Team Kill A platoon in Afghanistan fights a cybernetically-enhanced bear created by the CIA. It had its humorous moments, but far too gory and cartoonish, in the figurative sense, for me to get attached to this. Mason’s Rats An old farmer invests in some high-tech weaponry … Love Death + Robots, Volume 3 Review
The Adam Project A pilot on the run in 2050 steals a time-traveling plane and jumps to the past to meet himself at 12 years old. You’d be forgiven in thinking it’s really annoying that Ryan Reynolds plays Deadpool in every movie, because we value versatility in acting. But no one else would be able … Sci-fi and Fantasy Movies and Series Reviews, Part 39
This might be one of my favorite game ending songs in my memory banks. This plays on the post-credits scene, in a truncated form, after you finish the game with the “true” ending, which I assume is the ending canon to the universe. I haven’t played the game but I watched a playthrough some time … Wednesday Humpday Midday Song: Fly To Universe from Phantasy Star Portable 2
Given the plethora of weird items stuffed into stores like Wegmans or Whole Foods, there has to be a Glorbox somewhere in there. I’d be your best friend if you gave me one at any time of year.
Ingredients 1 1/2 lbs of cubed chicken breast 2 tsp olive oil 1 small yellow onion (1 cup diced) 1 tbsp ginger paste 1 1/2 tbsp minced garlic 1 cup chicken stock 3/4 cup diced or stewed tomatoes, drained 3/4 cup heavy whipping cream Spice mix 1/4 tsp cayenne pepper 1 tsp salt 1 1/2 … Recipe: Curry Chicken
JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure: Stone Ocean, Part 2 Jolyne and Co. fight more of the inmates at Green Dolphin Street Prison to gain possession of Dio’s backbone. Not much to say here—it’s part of an entire season, so there’s scant development in terms of moving the overall plot forward. I figured out, after so many episodes … Sci-fi and Fantasy Movies and Series Reviews, Part 38
One of my old usernames I used a lot was jaynumber13. You may now call me jaynumber1067797, because that’s the certification ID for UX Design, granted to me by the Nielsen Norman Group. It can be verified at NN/g’s cert verification page. They do good work, and I plan on taking more courses and work … I Am Now Certified in User Experience Design
Check it here.
Read part 1: How to Create Good Video Game Subtitle UX. Poking through YouTube’s game playthroughs, as well as related things coming up at work, got me riled up to write a follow-up post on subtitle UX. I was watching a short Red Dead Redemption 2 interaction, when I noticed that the subtitles illustrated the … How to Create Good Video Game Subtitle UX, Part 2
I had a much longer post about Amano’s paintings, that involved things with H.R. Giger (they aren’t connected at all, but I made them connected), but I didn’t like how it turned out. It mostly doesn’t matter, anyhow. I would like to post the famous piece Amano made that ended up on some versions of … Terra Branford and Narshe, by Yoshitaka Amano
Video is a extremely poor way of communicating large-scale, scientific subjects that require dialogue for folks to really understand. One, because it’s only a one-way conversation; and two, the more prescient reason, is that aside from a video transcript, the information is not searchable/findable, and if the video itself is disorganized, the transcript is not … The Importance of FAQs
Clotted Cream Ingredients 1 quart of heavy whipping cream (pasteurized or raw, not ultra-pasteurized) Clotted Cream Directions 1. Preheat oven to 175 degrees. 2. Pour all of the cream into a dish and bake for 12 hours 4. Remove and let it completely cool 5. Cover and store in refrigerator for 2-3 hours, or overnight … Recipe: Homemade Lemon Fones and Fam (Fake Scones and Jam), Real Clotted Cream
The Secret of Kells In an isolated monastery in medieval Ireland, and orphan helps prepare for a barbarian Viking invasion, alongside a legendary script illuminator and a mysterious forest fairy. An animated film for children that isn’t from Hollywood, Disney, Netflix, or Studio Ghibli…though it was distributed by GKIDS Films. At first I thought it … Sci-fi and Fantasy Movies and Series Reviews, Part 37
The Dark Hollow Woods Trail in Oakmont, PA, runs fairly north and south, through a tall, narrow hill with drastic drop-offs. It leads behind a lot of neighborhood houses, down to Plum Creek and Penn Hills Community Park, then back up the hill as you turn and go north again. The trail head starts on … Photos: Dark Hollow Woods Trail
I disliked the Jerky Boys when they were big in the 90s and early aughts. I could tolerate a few minutes of Crank Yankers before getting bored, and it seemed like a lot of it was scripted. I think it’s the crassness or mean-spiritedness of the callers that repulses me with the idea of prank … Video: Dunkey’s Prank Calls
Ghost in the Shell SAC_2045, Season 2 The threat of the posthuman virus and its part in the Sustainable War scenario increases. I had a hard time following the story here, because the animation is way too distracting for me. However, I may have figured out the big reason why Production I.G. went the realistic, … Sci-fi and Fantasy Movies and Series Reviews, Part 36
Ingredients 6 eggs 6 oz cream cheese 1/2 tsp cream of tartar or baking powder Salt and pepper (optional) Directions 1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit and place parchment paper on a baking sheet 2. Separate egg yolks from the whites and put each into separate bowls 3. Add cream cheese and salt to … Recipe: Keto Cloud Bread
Pardon the grandiose post title, but it is descriptive to the subject at hand. I subscribe to the Kurzgesagt YouTube channel. I disagree completely with their humanist view of the world, but many of their video are excellent at communicating the basics of complex physical phenomena. Their human immune system and the “nuking the moon” … Kurzgesagt’s Human Era Calendar and the Proposed Solar Disaster Cycle
It’s hard to say who the best metal drummer is, but Schalk is one of the best, if not one of the most unique. Besides a lot of what Sean Reinert or Justin Foley did in Red Tide, Schalk was one of the only metal drummers than I know of who incorporated a lot of … Kenneth Schalk Drumming Live with Candiria
Ingredients 2 cans tuna (5 oz) 3/4 cup breadcrumbs 2 eggs Optional: 1 yellow onion (chopped), or 1/2 tablespoon onion powder Directions 1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. 2. Slather some olive oil on a baking pan 3. Combine all ingredients into a bowl and mash it up with your hands 4. Form into patties … Recipe: Tuna Patties
1. Expanding Earth and Pangaea Theory Here’s probably the least controversial of all three videos, but still very much out there. I posted this because, as someone not knowing much of plate tectonics, it makes as much as sense to me as the orthodox view of Pangaea. The Earth’s expansion here is explained through uniformitarianism … Videos: Expanding Earth, Flat Earth, Tartaria
Some folks have uploaded a few videos of the old band I was in, Life In Your Way, at this year’s Furnace Fest. I’ll post more when I find them. “Reach the End”: “Who I Am”: “Making Waves”: “Growth in Passion”: “We Don’t Believe”: Two different recordings of “Salty Grave.” Love the fanny pack on … Videos: Life In Your Way at Furnace Fest 2022
Not a 15k by accident, like last year. Additionally, this was an actual timed race, so my reputation as a world class runner was at stake. I was able to get 2nd place in my division, the 40-49 year old dude category, and 14th overall for the runners. It was the first year of this … I Ran a 5k Race
I dislike horror, both watching and writing it, so someone can take this premise and run with it. Whether it actually becomes a good story is up to the writer’s skills and drive. Premise: A shadowy MKUltra-type program accidentally produced your typical patient zero of the zombie apocalypse—the traditional mindless, plodding kind. The effect was … Story Idea: Reverse Zombie Apocalypse
Go here to read up.
An addition to this earlier post. #5 Unnecessary Stops This one isn’t confusing or dangerous, just unnecessary. Opposing stop signs on the side of the store. The two screenshots are from opposite directions: the top going into the main parking lot area, and one leaving, which routes around the back of the store. On the … Addendum: Stupid Traffic Situations #5
These are all near where I live, and they bother me just a little bit every time I encounter them. 1. Who Should Yield? #1 Car A and B are traveling “up,” I guess is the direction. Car A’s onramp forms a new lane, but he has a yield sign. Why would Car A have … Four Stupid Traffic Situations
After 100 straight wins on hard mode, I think it’s time for me to put Wordle out to pasture as part of my daily morning routine. I was hoping my usual start word of “AUDIO” (lots of vowels) would be the answer of the day, so I’d have a one-guess win in the bag, but … Done With Wordle
My daughter and I went to the August 1 Pittsburgh stop of the Coheed and Cambria tour, at Stage AE’s outdoor stage. Here’s two bad photos of Mothica and Alkaline Trio, respectively: I realize part of it was the sound system/engineering and their tech crew, but Coheed and Cambria had one of the best, most … Photos and Video: Coheed and Cambria, Alkaline Trio, Mothica
Ever since Google discontinued its Reader app 2013, I’ve been using Feedly as an RSS aggregator. I’ve had no problems with Feedly: the app and browser versions work well, good interface, minimal ads, they’re not pushy with their enhancements. Despite all of that, and in an effort to find out where I can dogfood icecream* … More Icecreaming: RSS Readers
Though these are recently published, it’s these kinds of videos that made YouTube a goldmine of interesting things. Now the most popular videos are loud and obnoxious political or pop-culture commentators, reaction videos, and mostly-miss-sometimes hit TEDx Talks. Then advertising happened and all grifters stormed in. A guy made a leaf blower from a miniature … A Jet-Powered Leaf Blower and Keanu Reeves
Craiyon is one of the forms of the new AI-driven image creators, started with (I think) Dall-E. It’s interesting to see how these programs interpret the ideas. They sometimes are too literal, or not figurative enough, or some of the words and phrases are ignored or downplayed. The weirddalle Twitter account post some interesting produced … Some Craiyon Images I Made
Roosh V posted a bunch of pointers on reading better, and it mirrored very generally some ideas I had in mind already. So I will use his hard work as lazy leverage for my own post, which you are reading right now. 1. Devote a shelf to unread books Most modern households have a bookshelf, … Reading Advice
Cigar acquired: +5 intelligence, +3 motivation,grumpiness and weight gain debuffs removed. A lengthy interview article, most of which I read a few days ago, is now completely lost to me: I didn’t save the URL anywhere, it’s not in my browser history, and I forget the referring page that lead me there. How does that … How Smoking Made People Smarter
Interesting, if only for story fodder, which is in the works on my end. The Gateway Process and the Monroe Institute stuff has gotten a lot of attention recently because of all the holographic universe bejabbering, the popularity of MMPORGs and litRPG with the youngins, The Matrix, and all the official attention on UFO phenomenon. … Video: The CIA On Time Travel And The Holographic Reality – The Gateway Process
There are two Kickstarter campaigns of note, launched recently. Both have already well-exceeded their goals so the rewards will definitely be fulfilled, and there’s plenty of time left to back them. The first is Jon del Arroz’s Overmind. There’s a graphic novel and a sequel prose novel up for grabs: Ayla Rin, Agent of Terra … Overmind, The Adventures of Mongoose and Meerkat 2 Kickstarters
The actual title of this is “The Final Trial: The Champions’ Ballad,” but the game’s title is long enough and I didn’t want to hurt anyone’s attention span. This is a long and ominous-sounding one. It’s a leitmotif: it repeats the previous—I assume “previous,” because this one is titled “final”—trial tracks in the game, and … Wednesday Humpday Midday Song: The Final Trial from The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
A relaxing and melodious song from MapleStory, with some nice clarinet action doing the main melody, or at least parts of it. I feel like the easy path would’ve been to use flutes for that, because forests = flutes, I guess. Instead they do some of the background harmony. The entire MapleStory soundtrack is pretty … Wednesday Humpday Midday Song: Ellin Forest from MapleStory
Some quick, amateur photos of the Lord’s handiwork.
Senko no Ronde is a weird game. It has elements of bullet hell/shoot-em-up mixed with one-on-one competitive fighting, with a strange angular (called “isometric” in design terms) perspective. Anyways, this song is typical of the soundtrack on all installments of the franchise: frantic rhythm with “slow,” flowing melodies on top of it. INOJ was one … Wednesday Humpday Midday Song: Assemble from Wartech: Senko no Ronde
Here’s where a lot of people might get tripped up, on both sides of the religion debate. The idea that a religious concept is good for people, but not so much for God, requires a little parsing. The rituals exist for men, not for God. God isn’t pleased with ritual itself, but rather, if anything, … Catacomb Resident: The Necessity of Ritual
Ubisoft made a good move getting a Anamanaguchi, an actual band who does this music normally, to do the soundtrack. The chitpune power pop style fits perfectly with the nu-retro graphics, gameplay, and character tropes of the actual game. The track I have here seems to be a slightly different than the one in the … Wednesday Humpday Midday Song: Another Winter from Scott Pilgrim vs. The World: The Game
Sonic the Hedgehog 2 Captain America teams up with Spiderman in a race to find the Infinity Stones before Magneto and his new ally, Drax the Destroyer, do. Those, obviously, aren’t exactly the dramatis personae, but the real ones in the movie are of a certain type. Another paint-by-numbers video game adaptation for kids. Sonic … Sci-fi and Fantasy Movies and Series Reviews, Part 35
I posted about this song a while ago, so maybe it’s time to do it again. I don’t know anything about NieR or any of its variations or sequels, except for the hovering book (I’m not calling it a “grimoire” like the game does). Because of that, I can’t give a whole lot of context … Wednesday Humpday Midday Song: Song of the Ancients (Fate) from NieR
Octopath Traveler’s “Title Theme” is everything I want to hear in fantasy RPG when you start it up: symphonic, rousing, memorable, dynamic, all stuffed into two and a half minutes. Not to invoke Final Fantasy VI yet again, but that’s one thing that bugged me about its introductory music was that it was too ominous … Wednesday Humpday Midday Song: Title Theme from Octopath Traveler
I have no idea what this game is about, other than it’s some kind of space opera involving music as a magic system. This song plays during the final boss battle with a huge ship or robot, after which an entire planet is created. Looks like there are multiple endings for this game, not uncommon … Wednesday Humpday Midday Song: Ra-Ciel Reincarnation from Ar Nosurge (Ode to an Unborn Star)
The Polar Express A boy and a group of children ride a fantastical train to the North Pole. This was the first movie ever to use all-digital motion capture, which made for realistic movements in the animated human characters. I’m not quite into that type of CGI—I didn’t like it when Ghost in the Shell: … Sci-fi and Fantasy Movies and Series Reviews, Part 34
I don’t know anything about this game, nor racing games in general, except for one of the Forza Horizon installments I played a while back. I also don’t know anything about house music, which is the overall genre this song belongs to. What is going on with that weird clicky-winding sound? Club music is weird, … Wednesday Humpday Midday Song: Liquid Soul from R: Racing Evolution
A catch-all version of the NPC meme, applicable to any situation your nation happens to be in. A jaydinitto.com original.
At least in the two Xenoblade games, the night version of an area’s theme a more somber version of the day theme. Satorl Marsh’s night theme is unique in that it’s a completely different song than the day’s. I don’t play a lot of open world games that have the day/night mechanic, so I don’t … Wednesday Humpday Midday Song: Satorl, The Shimmering Marsh (Night) from Xenoblade Chronicles
Game soundtracks sometimes need better titling approaches, like this one here. They could at least give it a generic name like “Overture,” or “Theme from the Origami King,” or “Don’t Let the Previously Minor Henchman Character Fool You—He’s Gonna Add Some Hardcore Emotional Depth Later On.” Whatever. I haven’t played every blessed Mario game out … Wednesday Humpday Midday Song: Title Screen from Paper Mario: The Origami King
Demon Slayer: Mugen Train Tanjiro, his sister-turned-demon, and two other companions, meet (big breath) Demon Slayer Flame Hashira Kyojuro Rengoku on a train and encounter, uh, demons. Though it’s an asterisk achievement, Mugen Train was the highest-grossing movie of 2020 because of you-know-what screwing things up. I’m not familiar with the Demon Slayer series at … Sci-fi and Fantasy Movies and Series Reviews, Part 33
Critical response to the actual game itself is contentious, but the soundtrack is unique in that Masashi Hamauzu—and not the series’ usual, Nobuo Uematsu—was the composer. There’s a lot of moodswinging throughout the song, which I think was used primarily for boss battles or intense cinematic scenes. A good boss battle song will have ups … Wednesday Humpday Midday Song: Saber’s Edge from Final Fantasy XIII