#Also if you could release the Engineer for consoles and do the other two careers that would be good

[cursed-40k-thoughts]

Fatshark: There’s a Chaos Wastes expansion for Vermintide 2!

Me: Yay!

Fatshark: It comes out next month!

Me: Great!

Fatshark: There are no daemons or new enemies!

Me:

#Warhammer Fantasy #Vermintide 2 #The End Times #Also if you could release the Engineer for consoles and do the other two careers that would be good #Or just admit you're working on Darktide fully and stop doing... this

[starr-fall-knight-rise]

HASO, “World War V.”

I realize the title would be a lot more clever if V wasn’t also the roman numeral for 5, but whatever.

I know this one is a bit over the top but in the immortal words of one of my favorite authors “err on the side of awesome.” and I will not apologize.

But I am interested, at the end, comment what two songs you would use in this scenario. I am intrigued. I will tell you the songs I imagined at the end of the story :)

“So, your plan is to…. Intentionally wake the dead?”

“Wake the, very long hibernated, and then blast them with hard rock music while we mow them down with machine guns? And…. remind me YOU are the GA armada Admiral? And this is your tactical genius.”

Admiral Adam Vir adjusted the chestplate of his space suit, “Well say anything in that sort of voice and it will sound stupid, but hear me out. It is much easier to take something out all at once than it is to go hunting them down one by one and having to worry about missing something. We bring in the helicopters, and the vibration of the rotors will disturb the ground causing the infected vrul to rise. Now knowing the Vrul, and knowing that complicated beats affect their ability to navigate, move and completely wipe out their fine motor control. Furthermore, they seem attracted to vibrations in the air and through the ground which means we will be able to confuse them even more and keep them away from the city. Barring that, the Vrul have their force fields up, which are more than a match for light machine gun fire and will even keep out the strange pollen.. There is no better time to deal with this.”

He tucked his helmet under one arm, “I trust that makes sense to everyone?’ he turned around to the docking bay where over fifty men and women stood in neat rows of polished flight suits, helmets tucked under their arms. As he spoke, their heels snapped together with a loud crackle, and their hands rose into a salute.

Behind them double the amount of marines raised their hands into the air and chanted with loud voices that rose into the air with a roar.

Admiral Vir turned to the commander of the 113th graduating class of Earth’s UNSC Airborne Helicopter division, which he had brought in on special loan. These men and women were yet to fly any real tactical missions though they had all logged thousands of hours of flight already in their careers. Many of them had never left earth until this moment, and their first mission was going to be on the face on an alien planet.

He smiled, “if you knew as much as I did about aliens, Major, you might understand why we are doing something that seems so ludicrous, but sometimes when dealing with extraterrestrials, this is what we have to do.”

He turned to where a line of fifty pod shaped objects were being loaded one by one onto a rolling rail leading towards the airlock. Beside it half a dozen small fluffy shapes were busy overseeing the attachment of fifty identical Sonic cannons to the front bottom of each. There was a break in their work as one of the small creatures came waddling across the deck.

Admiral Vir Knelt down setting his hand on the floor and allowing Lord Avex to step onto his hand and then onto his shoulder as he stood back up.

The rest of the crowd watched in wide eyed awe, though they were, luckily, well trained enough not to do or say anything stupid despite their large eyes and quivering lips, which suggested they wanted nothing better than to cuddle the stuffed-animal esque alien that rested on his shoulder, “The cannons are in place, Admiral, and I have examined each of the pods, and the yare ready to be deployed.”

“Thank you Lord Avex, your work is much appreciated.”

It was just then that Sunny walked across the deck to join them. She was wearing her space suit as well and carried her helmet under one arm. The new recruits staired on in shock as she walked over to stand next to him, “The machine guns have been mounted and are ready to go Admiral, A few of our number have volunteered to go with the marines as extra support. Behind her at least a dozen other Drev raised their fists into the air and chanted their excitement not all that different from the line of marines on the far end of the hanger.

Admiral Vir nodded turning back towards the group of young pilots, not much younger than himself, and stepped up onto the nearest crate.

“On behave of the Galactic Assembly and the Vrul council, I thank all the men and women here for agreeing to accompany us on this mission today. You will be the first airborne unit in history to participate in an operation off Earth as their first assignment. You are thousands of lightyears away from home, orbiting an alien planet thousands of years older than our own, and today your mission is not one of destruction, but of liberation. For thousands of years the Vrul have been trapped inside their walls, until time and tradition made them forget about the dangers lurking outside.” he turned his eyes to look over every last man and women that stood before him, “What we are about to face is like nothing humanity has ever faced before, below the soil of this planet lies a plague dormant for thousands of years, a horde like locusts ready to rise up and infect the city. Now we have our protections, we have our suits, and the Vrul have their shielded city, but it is our job to start riding the planet of it’s plague.” He smiled, “Plus it always helps to have door mounted machine guns and a little rock ‘n roll.”

There was a sharp cheer from the men and women before him who raised their fists into the air. Behind them the marines joined in, and so did the Drev, who, he was pleased to say, had taken to rock like they had guitar solos for breakfast.

Still grinning, he reached up, pulled on his helmet, “Right, let’s get this done.”

He pointed to Sunny, Ramirez, Maverick and a few others, “With me in the elad chopper. The rest of you split off and gear up.”

His words were obeyed almost immediately as he stepped  over to what had once looked like a pod, but was now clearly a very specialized sort of chopper. 

As he slid into the pilot’s seat, and the others strapped in behind, he heard, “I thought you were a fighter pilot, not a helicopter pilot.” They pulled on their helmets.

Adam adjusted his harnesses, “I can fly anything from space ships to paper plans, you can bet your ass if it leaves the ground, I know how to fly it.”

Maverick buckled herself into the door gunner position, “Yeah, but if it has wheels, you better bet he’s probably gonna back it over your mailbox.”

“Put a sock in it Maverick, that is hardly my fault. I never really got the opportunity to practice.”

The door at the back shut and locked tight.

All around them other doors were being locked into place, and once all of the pilots had indicated they were ready to go, Admiral Vir gave the signal, and he felt the ship change course. He adjusted his comms set and called up to the bridge where Simon would be piloting them into position.

“How are we looking, Somon.”

“Almost in position Admiral.”

“Now remember to pull back into low orbit once you let us drop, or else the gravity well is going to pull you in, and it is going to be a bitch to get her back out.” “Yes sir, I know sir.”

“Good.”

He turned his eyes forward as a red light burst into life above their heads. Everyone evacuated the airlock as the fifty pods were brought by rail towards the doors. Behind him he could hear the others chanting something, though his heart was hammering so hard he could hardly hear what they were saying.

Funny thing is he bet he felt like every one of those new pilots getting ready for their first mission. He didn’t know if it was just him, but it felt like this every single time, and he wouldn’t trade it for the world. He ignored the tingling sensation in his bladder as the light blinked green before the airlock door, and the ramp slid open.

All went silent, and below him he watched as the light of the vrul homeworld washed over the deck before him pouring like golden honey.

The sight was breathtaking, steeling the air from his lungs as he looked down.

“Damn.” 

It would just never get old.would it.

“Prepare for drop, in three, two, one, drop.”

The latch on the back of the rail released, and suddenly they were falling away from the ship. Adam was pressed back in his seat as they accelerated downwards towards the open atmosphere.

Lights blinked on the console ahead of him and the tracking screen picked up his target.

They were approaching, and they were approaching fast.

They were entering the atmosphere now, and he felt it as their pod began to rock and rattled around him and fire began to lick up on the southside of his pod. It was almost deafening as they roared into the atmosphere. He turned on his comms watching as other pods roared into the atmosphere back and behind him. He could see them on his radar as they roared downward.

He had to wonder what it must be like for them.

Their first mission, and they were doing a high altitude drop onto an alien planet.

He almost envied them their excitement. Because he had done stuff like this before, and he was still grinning like an idiot.

Light rose up around them as the sky behind them turned blue. Clouds passed below them in great swaths, and he reached down to the controls ready to deploy.

He set of a general count for the rest of the pilots.

Three 

Two

One.

He pulled the release, and the engine roared to life. There was a sudden firing as the engine spurted downward, lifting them airborne for a second and slowing their descent. His innards dropped as G force allowed his stomach to crawl into his feet. Then the rotors deployed like a fan. There was a sharp chunk and then a whirr as they began to fall again, and then the rotors caught, and began to spin. The rear rotor did the same sliding into position. Both caught with a roar, and he whooped with adrenaline.

He toggled his radio.

“Alright, ready the door gun.”

Behind him the doors were slid open, causing a rush of air to blast into the open carriage as Maverick rolled the gun into position and locked it at the door with a loud snap. On the other side Maverick was doing the same. Beside him. Sunny took control of the extra rear mounted guns set in place especially for this mission.

Adam had the guns already built into the chopper, as well as missiles if he felt like it.

Beside him and below him, he watched as the fifty other choppers deployed like his. Some of them were a bit wobbly, but everything he saw seemed to go well.

“Alright everyone take it in low, and on my mark deploy the cannons.”

He angled them lower roaring towards his target.

Below them, the Vrul city was a glassy blue purple bubble against the orange, brown landscape.

He took point, and the other choppers fell into flight beside him, clustered in ten open groups of five helicopters each, and together they rolled in low over the landscape, not twenty feet above the ground in some cases, though those were only the pilots who were comfortable getting that close. From here he could see the thudding of their rotors causing the dirt to shake and the strange trees to quiver. 

The wildlife began to roll out in different directions, racing across the ground and away from the roaring choppers as if they knew what was coming, He scanned the ground, with Maverick and Ramriez leaning on the machine guns behind him.

“See anything yet?”

“Not yet.”

He opened his comms to everyone else, “Alright everyone, deploy sonic cannons in three, two, one go.” 

The first line of lyrics, and the first drumline rolled from the directional cannons, blasting the ground with a focused beam of sound like a laser for noise.

He whooped bobbing his head to the music, the sound so powerful he was able to hear it over the roaring of the rotors.

He sure hoped the Vrul had taken his advise and hidden in inside bunkers for this.

They roared over the landscape turning in a huge clockwise circle over the landscape.

“Report if you see anything.” he ordered.

At first, it didn’t seem like anything was going to happen, and he worried that his idea, which had seemed so cool and tactical to begin with , was nothing but a waste of resources. How embarrassing was that going to be to explain to the UNSC.

Yes, I borrowed the entire 113th graduating class to go on a joyride around the Vrul capital city, yes here is my rank and gun, I will now go live on the moon in exile never to show my face again.

“Sir! I have something.”

“Go.”

“Just south of the city, sir. I have movement coming from the trees in thermal.”

“Same here sir.” 

He was at the point of the circle, so he wasn’t likely to see it, made sense.

“Alright , let’s give it a pass. I want as many of those bugs out of the ground before we start shooting.”

They roared over the ground with the sound of the base rattling the stone below them. As he watched, one of the strange animals he had seen running, tipped over as the cannon passed over it and fell to the ground twitching. Apparently pattern tolerance was not something that many things on this planet had.

“Sorry guy, but things are going to be better when we are done.”

Rocks jumped and rattled as they took a wide turn around the city.

He could see the shield pulsing against the sonic waves that were bouncing off the ground and back into the air.

The blades of the helicopters cut through the air so fast it was like a light grey translucent wall against the sky.

They had almost made a full rotation.

“Holy shit.” for a second he wondered who had spoken until he realised that it was himself.

They were everywhere, swarming like ants over the landscape, turning the ground black in some places as they crawled over each other in confused circles. As the music got closer, their purposeful movement turned into awkward confusion.

“Stagger!.”

The formations staggered, falling behind each other so that everyone was always covering one segment.

“Ready to deploy the  sonic attack on my mark, in three, two, one, mark.”

It was a guitar solo this time, one that he had listened to thousands of times, and one that he couldn't have resisted using to kill zombie Vrul.

Th drumline cut in as the third obvious pattern in the song, and as it roared over the wave of Zombified Vrul, there was an immediate reaction as they all began staggering and falling to the ground, behind him he felt as the guns opened fire on either side with a sharp burrrr as the rotating barrels started spitting hot lead at 1,000 rounds per minute.

He laughed with something like maniacal glee as the powerful rounds poured into the infected creatures ripping them apart sometimes four at a time sending a wave of yellow pollen up into the air, to be kicked up by helicopter blades as they passed over. His circle kept him closest to the wall, so he was able to catch the majority of them before they could even attempt to make it to the city.

He toggled his own guns, and stitched a line of bullets over a completely black mass, which erupted into a burst of yellow. His circle took him around to where the Vrul had managed to make it to the wall of the city, and had begun climbing each other like they planned to create a ladder using bodies to the top of the wall. He gunned them down with great prejudice. As they moved along the wall, more and more of the creatures had piled themselves higher and higher, but that is not a trend that they allowed to last long. One of the piles managed to make itself three quarters of the way up the wall before their sonic attack hit them, causing the tower to collapse as both glorious drum lines and bullets roared into them.

He carved a circle through the sky coming over their first line of attack, where dark bodies were doing the best to crawl over their fallen brethren and pools of yellowed pollen having fallen to the ground. Ahead of him he could see a cloud of yellow where the following helicopter was stitching tis way over the landscape with great prejudice.

Behind him, he thought he heard Maverick cackle like a swamp witch as she loaded another belt of ammunition.

Yeah sure people back home were cool, but they would never be this cool, flying over an alien landscape, killing alien zombies while listening to a little ACDC, They could dream but nothing would ever be more awesome.

He couldn’t wait to tell his siblings.

His sister would be so jealous.

She had always been a fan of the zombie genre.

“Admiral, Admiral I think some of them are starting to fly.” Came the nervous comment over the com.

“Alright, remember the drill, just keep calm, and go higher if you can, then when you have enough clustered below you, drop one of the canisters.”

There was an acknowledgement over the comms.

With that announcement still running through his head, he got ready to drop one of his own canisters.

He was in view of the last helicopter as it rose into the air pursued by hundreds of little black dots that would erupt into yellow spores as they were hit by machine gun fire, and then something dropped from the bottom of the chopper, and then exploded just above the rising infected.

Thousands of tiny organic needles rained down on the vrul, cutting straight through their helium sacks, and sending them crashing downwards, into their companions, and finally to the ground where they erupted on impact, killing even more of their companions.

Up ahead, a wall of black rose before him, but he was faster.

They rose into the air and he roared over the wall, dropping one two and then three canisters in quick succession causing a wave of them to drop to the ground. The following helicopters followed his lead. He was having to rise higher and higher into the air, but still he was managing to keep ahead of them, they were slow and he was fast, but that didn’t stop a few of them from getting in front of him. 

There was a jolt as his rotors hit one of them, and he gritted his teeth, it was fine, one or two was fine as long as he didn’t allow them to gum it up.

He pulled back and up and continued to drop more and more of the caisters.

One or two of them floated high enough to make it close to his sonic cannon, but they were blown back and the pressure caused their helium sacks to rupture.

***

The Vrul council stood on the wall overlooking the outside of the city as a wall of the Vrul infected rose into the sky obscuring everything in a wave of dark bodies. Human helicopters roared in a wide circle around the city, and everywhere they went yellow spores erupted into the air. All of them wore safety masks as a precaution, but that didn’t stop the fear that rose up in them as they stepped back arms held out in shock. Dr. Krill stared on in fascination and awe. He wasn’t wearing hearing protection like the others, he could handle human music to a certain degree, and it was pretty muffled through the shielding.

He watched in shock and awe as one of the helicopters cut too low, and rolled right into a dense thicket of the floating bodies. There was a horrific eruption of yellow as the rotors caught hundreds of the creatures, and then the helicopter itself began to spin out of control crashing and rupturing Vrul as it roared towards the ground.

The emergency systems deployed firing one last time to slow the chopper’s crash. The sudden burst of flame ruptured a line of the Vrul infected before it finally plowed into the ground sending up a wave of yellow spores.

“Sweet Nebulon.” one of the council muttered.

Two more helicopters went down, and it looked as if there weren't going to be enough bullets.

What had they done!”

***

“Everyone, On me, increase sonic cannons! Now!” he had seen the three choppers go down, and he had seen all three of their safety measures deploy, but he couldn’t be sure if any of them had survived. “Avoid the crash sites. Everyone on me!”

The entire fleet of remaining choppers clustered together turning up the volume on their sonic cannons, and the combined force was so powerful that some of the bodies began to rupture even without gunfire though it still tore downwards.

They took two more passes before he saw his ammunition running low. That was fine. The Vrul bodies were no longer coming in waves and it would be harder to hit them from above, now that they weren’t just coming in a wave.

He aimed for one of the crash sites.

“I want a group of us to set down. Only choppers with Drev on them!”

There was agreement as ten choppers split off to the three crash sites.

Adam roared down from the sky, and set down on a smoking heap of yellow coated bodies.

He cut the engine , and reach back to pull his spear from where it was attached to the floor of the chopper. It wasn’t a Drev spear and it wasn’t a human spear but something in between, with the reverse spike on the end like they had done with the NeoSpartans.

He turned in his seat just in time to see the two marines push their machine guns out of position and one of the infected Vrul to come charing at Ramirez.

A spear appeared in his hand in that moment, and he ran it through the face.

Sunny was behind him a second later, and together they were out the door, three of them armed with spears, maverick armed with her assault rifle, and together they made their way towards the downed chopper.

Making it there just in time to see as a pile of clustered Vrul was ruptured from within, and a very angry Drev came roaring out.

He recognized from the height who it was.

“Kanan!” he heard Sunny yell.

They ran over to help, sweeping through the cluster of Vrul zombies before they began fanning out across the open plane.

He turned up the speakers on the outside of his suit and allowed it to blare music as he raced towards anything that still looked to be moving. A few of them were still floating into the sky, but the remaining helicopters were taking care of those, and Maverick from the ground on occasion.

He ran one through the face, turned and clubbed the other in the head like he was swinging  for a home run.

His blad sliced straight through the neck of one as he staggered over the uneven ground.

To the side of him, sunny was cutting through them with impunity like a god of war, touching them though they never touched her, the yellowed gore spattering her suit.

As more and more of the Vrul were cut out of the sky, more and more choppers landed, and men and women filed out, running in open lines, using whatever the could to dispatch the remaining bodies.

He saw one of the new pilots grab a Vrul by the neck, and twist it like he was breaking the neck of a chicken, surprised when the entire head came off. He kind of hoped the Vrul council did not see that.

By the end of the battle. Four of their choppers had been downed. Two humans were dead, both of them in the crashes, and at least four more critically injured.

He felt bad about it.

But he couldn’t have predicted that.

At least none of the pilots had died.

Two of his marines had though, tossed from the choppers as they were falling from the sky. It made him sick to think about their families, the ones that he would have to send letters to, but he tried not to think about that for now.

Thousand upon thousands of the vrul zombies were dead, and even as he thought this dozens more were being dispatched by hand by humans who were no more than walking radios at this point, having chosen their own theme songs to fight zombies.

Some of thor picks were quite surprising, though he couldn’t blame them for their humor or their irony.

They still had a long way to go, but at least he knew how it could be done.

Vrul past, hopefully, would never come back to haunt them. 

The two songs I imagine Adam picked for this was 

First: Raise Hell - Dorothy

Second: Thunderstruck - ACDC

[natromanxoff]

I am sure many of you have already read this one but here are some parts from Ash Alexander’s Queen journey for those who haven’t!

“...At some point in early At some point in early 1983 on a visit to Jacky at the QFC, John Deacon wondered into the office. He came into the basement office and said hello as Jacky introduced me, sat down and spent a little time reading through press clippings. He could easily have slipped away back upstairs, but the fact that he stayed was a nice touch.

Another fan club letter arrived with good news. In Another fan club letter arrived with good news. In November 1983, fan club members were invited to help in a video for the new single 'Radio Ga Ga' at Shepperton Studios. Again, my Mum stepped up and drove me down for the day. I took the day off school and had just turned 14. We arrived at the studio and were ushered into a huge hanger where we were kitted out with white body suits and then sprayed with a light grey stripe on each arm - even now I’m not sure what the spray paint was for as you can’t see it in the video. When we had all been prepared, we were taken into an adjoining hanger and were greeted by the band and an initial play through of the song. The rest of the day was spent clapping as you’ll see in the video. I wound up in the front row, opposite Brian. If you look closely and you know what you’re looking for, you can see me!

In between takes, I approached John Deacon who was surprisingly on his own. I remember trying to remain calm as I approached him. I didn’t mention our brief meeting, I asked him how to get a job in recording studios and that I was interested in pursuing a career as a sound engineer. He was really helpful and took time to explain the usual route.

On 22, March 1984 at Limehouse Studios in London’s docklands, the video for ‘I Want To Break Free’ was filmed, again with the help of fan club members. I went along with my brother Andrew. The set was a big dark staircase that we all stood on. We were given black bodysuits this time that were sprouted with hello paint on the arms. We also wore a hard hat with a head lamp attached to it. The band were set in the middle of us all. After all the filming, we returned to the main building where we said hello to Roger. He’d come out to say thanks. Later, waiting for a cab down in reception, Freddie glided down the staircase and past us with his entourage. I remember wanting to get up and say thanks, but the opportunity was missed.

...20th April 1992. My friend Chesney Hawkes was managed by Trinifold. They also managed The Who. He invited me along to the Freddie Mercury Tribute gig at Wembley. Roger Daltry was appearing and Ches had a spare ticket. He only had one backstage pass though. This was overcome by him befriending the chap on the security door. Ches came out to meet me with his pass. He returned on his own and got in. I confidently flashed my pass and entered the Hard Rock tented area. Ches beckoned me over from the other side of the room. He was signing autographs for a lady, her two children and an older lady was with them. He introduce me to them saying I was a huge Queen fan. ‘This is Freddie’s mother' he whispered to me. I remember saying to her that I wish we’d met under different circumstances and how deeply sorry I was about her loss and how incredibly proud she should be. I often wonder about her.

...In Spring 1993, I was in front office. It was well after midnight and I’d left a s session for a little break. As usual, I took a look in the studio diary to see what was coming up. I flicked through the weeks and came upon an booking entry “Studio 3 - QUEEN” for 2 weeks that was pencilled in. There was no further info than that. I put my initials next to the booking thinking there would be a rational explanation as to what the booking really was. I soon found myself on a 2 week session with Queen.My diary from 1993 is lost, so I have only a mental note as to when & what songs were touched upon at this initial stage of 'Made In Heaven'. We started taking delivery of various multitrack tapes on varied formats. These were then transferred to digital 48 track tapes for future work. Roger & John were alone on these sessions as Brian was touring in Japan. I remember Roger being rather dismissive of Brian being unavailable, much like a brother sledging his sibling would do, with a slightly jealous edge but genuine at the same time.

...Over the 2 week session, Roger would suggest we went out for dinner. We had 3 or 4 meals out at a local Italian restaurant. Even now I laugh at jumping into the back of Roger’s Merc and the four of us driving down Abbey Road to the restaurant. It was owned by an Italian lady that would force you to smell her ‘wonderful mushrooms’ from a jar, which she made Roger do. On our initial meal she told Roger he looked familiar. ‘I know you’, she said. ‘Where have I seen you before?’ ‘Well, I’m in a band and we’ve been on TV before.’ Roger replied. John seemed calm with his lack of recognition. ‘What group do you play for?’ she asked. ‘I’m the drummer in a rock n roll band called Queen’ he replied. ‘No - I don’t hear of this band’ …We finished our food and the bill was called for. It showed up. John took it and asked Roger if he should use the Queen card to pay for it or his own card.

Roger’s drum kit arriving half way through the first week of sessions was a surprise for Noel Harris (the engineer) & me. We expected the sessions to be playing back tapes and working through the various formats to find possible material to be worked on at a later date. Noel was unfamiliar with the room in studio 3 and asked my opinion where to set the kit up and what microphones I would use. Eventually he left me to it. The kit was positioned and I mic’d it up that evening. John had his red Fender bass DI’d (no amp was used) and sat with us in the control room. I doubt these recordings made it through to the final mixes, it’s nice to think that they did.

...Tuesday 5th September

During the afternoon Brian’s guitar and a Vox AC30 appeared in the studio, brought in by Pete Malandrone. We were to do guitar overdubs on ‘You Don't Fool Me’. David asked me to put two Shure 421 microphones pointing into the back of the speaker cabinet. We did have two SM57’s on the front but these weren’t used in the recording.

I had to do a recall of the mix, which meant noting all of the studio outboard settings so we could get back to the mix and finish it off.

We had a technical problem with the Sony 3348 tape machine and eventually had it swapped for a new one. Brian clearly wasn’t aware we weren’t ready for him. I was half way through telling him and Jim Beach jumped in and finished off my explanation. Brian got really cross with him and slammed an empty coffee mug down on the studio table. Later Brian was so apologetic for his outburst. He must have told Jim he was sorry 4 times. As I type this I note it was Freddie’s birthday.

Brian slipped on his guitar that was linked to his amp with one lead. No pedals. His sound was instant and we were soon ready to record. He stood in front of the console in the control facing David & me.

Brian had an idea of what he wanted to play. The guitar riff had already been recorded. The solo guitar is what was added. Brian used a scrap of paper that he drew a map of dots on. Not like musical notation but his own short hand. It reminded me of being at the 'Radio Ga Ga' video shoot 13 years earlier. I was the same distance from Brian as I was then, but the scenario was beyond my imagination.

...Friday 8th September

Day Off - I may have met Pete Malandron at the Sun Inn in Barnes this afternoon. The QIFC was based round the corner at the time & Brian had a house there too, although I'm not sure he lived there at the time. I was with a friend and Pete joined us in the pub. He sat near the window and kept looking out of it. I asked what he was looking at and he replied "I always get worried when I'm out with Brian's guitar. It's in the boot of the car you see." He stayed for one drink and decided it was time to leave.

...One of the evenings of this second week, George Michael came to visit. There was a strong possibility that he would sing on one of the songs. Roger, John, Brian, David, George & I sat chatting in the control room. One of the conversations moved onto the Beatles and their current 'best of' release. I think Brian suggested that it was a bad idea releasing all their old material and I piped up that the fans would buy it regardless, much like the scenario Queen were about to face with the imminent release of the album. There was a deathly hush as I realised what I was saying. I wasn’t being at all derogatory. I was helped out of the hole I was digging by George who agreed with me and we moved on. No one actually spoke about doing a vocal. After George left the studio that evening, Roger was clear that he wasn’t keen on the idea.After looking through the Vintage Car garage across the road from the studio one afternoon, Roger saw a black Cadillack convertible that he quite liked. The following morning he came into the studio and said ‘Don’t tell Jim, but I bought the car.’ It was £80, 000.

Brian asked me if had been involved in the Abbey Road Sessions. Perhaps he’d seen my name on the tape boxes. I said that I was. Immediately he made a phone call. I didn’t hear all that he said, but I knew it was about a special thanks on the album credits. The following morning, after the artwork had been finalised, Roger came in and said ‘morning Aardvark’. Because the special thanks were alphabetic, I was on top of the list. It wasn’t until I bought a copy of the album and saw my name on it that I finally took on board that I had actually achieved one of my dreams.”

#queen #queen band #roger taylor #brian may #john deacon

[aion-rsa]

20 Underrated Wrestling Games

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Whether you don’t know the difference between a mark and a bump or you can name the main event of every WrestleMania, you’re probably aware of at least some of the absolute best wrestling games of all-time. Titles like SmackDown: Here Comes the Pain, WWF No Mercy, and WCW/NWO Revenge have transcended the popularity of professional wrestling itself and have become a part of many gamers’ fondest memories.

Yet, there are some forgotten wrestling games that are still worth remembering. While it’s true that there are well-defined tops and bottoms in the wrestling game hierarchy, there are also a few titles somewhere near the middle that have been unfairly lumped together even though some of them deserve a spot near the top of the card with the undisputed legends of the wrestling game scene.

So join us as we look at 20 of the most underrated wrestling games of all-time:

20. Super Fire Pro Wrestling Special

1994 | Human Entertainment | Super Famicom

Super Fire Pro Wrestling Special’s status as one of the earliest wrestling games with a substantial story mode is noteworthy enough. However, what really makes this one special is the fact that one of the game’s scenarios writers was Suda51: the legendary game director known for some of the weirdest games ever made. 

True to form, this game is weirder than you could ever imagine. I can’t think of another wrestling game that ends with the protagonist killing themselves after realizing that their championship win is hollow due to the pain and losses they suffered along the way, and while I’m grateful no other game has tried something like that, this title’s dark and bizarre story should at least make it more talked about than it typically is. 

19. Natsume Championship Wrestling

1994 |  Natsume  | SNES

This is hardly the best wrestling game on this list (clearly), but it does represent a fascinating turning point for wrestling video games that is sometimes overlooked. 

This game combined two eras of wrestling games by featuring the more simplistic arcade style of many early console wrestling titles with a few concepts (such as an advanced fatigue system) that would go on to help shape the more complex wrestling games that would define the years to come. If you like that classic style of wrestling game, this is one of the best ways to revisit it. 

18. Wrestling Revolution 3D

2014 |  MDickie  | Android, iOS, Microsoft Windows, Mac, Ouya 

Let’s be clear: this is a very bad game. It’d go so far as to call it objectively bad in many ways. However, it’s the fact that the game is so bad that makes it so much fun. 

Considered by many to be maybe the only example of a “So bad, it’s good” wrestling game, Wrestling Revolution is slow, awkward, broken, and clearly made with love. At a time when so many of the recent yearly WWE games end up being glitchy messes anyway, there’s something to be said for a game that embraces its glitchiness and usually leads to a lot of laughs. 

17. WWE ‘13

2012 |  Yuke’s  | PlayStation 3, Wii, Xbox 360

As suggested above, there’s a point where it’s hard for all but the most hardcore WWE game fans to distinguish recent WWE titles from one another. Maybe that’s why WWE ‘13 is sometimes forgotten when we’re talking about the best relatively modern wrestling games. 

This game’s best feature has to be its “Attitude Era” story modes which let you relive some of the best moments from WWE’s most beloved period. More importantly, this game benefited from pretty good animations and a hit detection system that made it feel good to play years before the clutter of this series’ engine would drag these titles down. 

16. WCW vs. The World

Given that PlayStation gamers spent years lamenting that N64 owners got to play WCW/NWO Revenge and WWF No Mercy (two of the best wrestling games ever), I’m shocked that we don’t hear more people praise WCW vs. The World. 

Essentially the predecessor to those brilliant N64 games made by AKI, WCW vs. The World is by far the closest PlayStation gamers came to getting a wrestling game on the level of the best N64 titles. It’s pretty rough compared to those titles, but I can’t help but think of the years I spent missing out on this true gem.

15. WWF War Zone

1998 | Sculptured Software, Acclaim | PlayStation, Nintendo 64, Game Boy

Granted, it’s not nearly as good as the best wrestling games of its era, but at a time when WWE (then WWF) was enjoying an incredible popularity resurgence, WWF War Zone allowed fans to live out a truly special era of wrestling.

War Zone’s roster is a time capsule of that era that includes a fascinating blend of big-name stars and notable novelty acts. Its gameplay could have been much smoother, but the game’s presentation and graphics made it feel special. It’s still one of the better PS1 wrestling games of its era and is sure to invoke a strong sense of nostalgia.

14. Legends of Wrestling II

2002 | Sculptured Software, Acclaim | PlayStation 2, Xbox, GameCube, Game Boy Advance

Legends of Wrestling II’s appeal was (and always will be) its roster. This game’s roster of legendary wrestlers includes some names that still haven’t been included in modern WWE titles. The list of superstars in this game includes Hulk Hogan, Andre the Giant, Mil Mascaras, Bam Bam Bigelow, and many more legends.

The game’s appeal goes beyond its roster, though. The game’s territory-based story mode, which lovingly recreates the structure of ‘80s wrestling, is one of the most inventive ever featured in a wrestling game. It even lets you recreate the famous feud between Jerry Lawler and Andy Kaufman.

13. TNA Impact!

2008 | Midway Games | PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, PlayStation 2, PlayStation Portable, Wii, Nintendo DS

TNA Impact was not a great game. Its roster was thin, its gameplay needed a few more months in development, and it just didn’t have nearly enough modes and features to compete with WWE titles. However, the one thing TNA Impact did have was the benefits of the TNA name.

It turns out that counts for quite a lot. Developed during the arguable peak of TNA’s talent level, Impact allowed you to play as everyone, from Christopher Daniels and Samoa Joe to AJ Styles and Abyss. On top of that, the game benefited from its impressive presentation and a surprisingly deep story mode. It was far from perfect, but it was and is a must-have for any TNA fans.

12. MicroLeague Wrestling

1987 | MicroLeague | Commodore 64, Amiga, DOS, Atari ST, AmigaOS

MicroLeague Wrestling is arguably the most obscure, odd, and fascinating game on this list. Released for Commodore 64, Amiga, DOS, and Atari ST, MicroLeague was actually a professional wrestling strategy game that allowed you to decide matches and careers through a series of turn-based commands.

It may feel hopelessly outdated today, but MicroLeague Wrestling was a surprisingly advanced concept at a time when wrestling games were dirt simple. It would be fascinating to revisit this concept through some kind of modern wrestling management game.

11. The Main Event

1988| Konami | Arcade

You’d think that a wrestling game released by Konami in 1988 would be better known, but The Main Event has somehow managed to mostly escape the scrutinizing lens of history. That might have something to do with its unlicensed roster that was only vaguely (and hilariously) based on actual wrestlers.

Still, The Main Event should have been a stepping stone for bigger Konami arcade wrestling games to come. It featured deep wrestling gameplay (for the time) that served as a preview of some more notable wrestling games to come.

10. WCW Wrestling

1989| Nihon Bussan | NES

The NES wasn’t exactly known as a haven for great wrestling games, but WCW Wrestling still deserves to be remembered above most of its console contemporaries. Somehow, though, memories of it remain relegated to the few that played it and are not always as fond as they should be.

WCW Wrestling not only offered WCW fans the chance to play as some of their favorite wrestlers of the era, but it included features such as an expanded ringside area and customizable move sets that were ahead of their time. This game certainly remains one of the most playable of its generation.

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9. WCW Mayhem

1999| EA | PlayStation, Nintendo 64, Game Boy

It’s generally agreed that the N64 got better overall wrestling games than the PS1, but it’s simply a fact that the N64’s WCW games were better than those featured on the PlayStation. However, WCW Mayhem did offer PS1 gamers a taste of something pretty good (especially if they missed out on WCW vs. The World).

Granted, Mayhem was a poor man’s version of the WCW N64 wrestling games (its canceled sequel was going to be developed by the same team that made those N64 games), but it was unfairly overlooked by many PS1 gamers who were burned by too many bad wrestling games over the years. Of course, the game’s N64 version was less impressive in comparison to its direct competition.

8. Power Move Pro Wrestling

1996| Yuke’s | PlayStation

Power Move Pro Wrestling was originally based on the NJPW promotion, but it seems that fears over the international popularity of that promotion (at the time) caused the NJPW stars to be replaced with generic wrestlers with NJPW move sets. That decision stands as this game’s most glaring weakness.

Otherwise, this is a solid wrestling title for its era. Power Move Pro Wrestling was released on the cusp of an incredible generation of wrestling titles, but even though it lacks some of the refinement and features of those games, it does boast some admirable 3D gameplay that was head and shoulders above many other wrestling games at the time.

7. WWE Raw 2

2003| Anchor Inc. | Xbox

The WWE Raw games for Xbox were generally not as strong as their GameCube and PS2 counterparts, but they have been unfairly swept under the rug by fans that feel that they had very little to offer.

WWE Raw 2 actually boasted a few features that would soon become standard. The most notable of those features is the game’s “Create an Entrance,” which not only let you create custom Titantron videos but even let you import your own music. Raw 2 also featured an interesting RPG-lite story mode that complemented its more arcadey elements.

6. Fire Pro Gaiden: Blazing Tornado

1994| Human Entertainment | Arcade, Sega Saturn

Fire Pro Gaiden: Blazing Tornado was a 1994 Arcade/Sega Saturn game that combined elements of Saturday Night Slam Masters, Street Fighter, and more “traditional” pro wrestling games. It was a strange hybrid that was sadly overlooked by too many gamers.

Blazing Tornado is more of a fighting game than a wrestling game, but the ways that it incorporates grappling and other pro wrestling elements make it one of the more notable games of its kind. Its visuals are also enjoyable in a cartoonish kind of way.

5. WWE WrestleMania XIX

2003| Yuke’s | GameCube, Wii

While WrestleMania X8 and XIX would eventually be spun into the overall superior Day of Reckoning titles, WrestleMania XIX deserves to be remembered both as the forerunner of that series and for its wonderfully absurd story mode.

WrestleMania XIX’s story mode saw you seek revenge on Vince McMahon by fighting regular employees and other wrestlers across construction sites, barges, malls, and other random locations. The goal is to cause enough havoc to ruin WrestleMania. It’s a glorious piece of “who came up with this?” game design.

4. Wrestle Kingdom 2

2007 | Yuke’s | PlayStation 2

Wrestle Kingdom 2’s release date is notable not only because it’s the newest game on this particular list but also because it was released at a time when major wrestling games were veering more into “simulation” territory, a time when wrestling games stopped catering to more casual players.

Well, Wrestle Kingdom 2 happens to be “arcadey” and accessible in all of the right places without sacrificing depth. Its gameplay is deep enough for genre masters, but can also be picked up fairly quickly. The fact that it so happens to feature some brilliant tournament modes along with an impressive collection of Japanese stars is just the bow that tops this gift to wrestling.

3. WWE Smackdown! vs Raw 2006

2005| Yuke’s | PlayStation 2, PSP

“Underrated” might be a bit of a stretch in this instance considering that those who love this game place it alongside the greatest wrestling games ever made, but the fact remains that not enough gamers know that this is an absolutely brilliant wrestling title.

In fact, some believe this to be the perfect middle ground between SmackDown: Here Comes the Pain’s lovably ridiculous gameplay and the more grounded games that would follow in this series. SvR 2006 includes an unbelievable number of match types, a very welcome general manager mode, and pick up and play gameplay that some at the time compared to the timeless WWF No Mercy. It deserves to be remembered as a classic.

2. King of Colosseum II

2004| Spike | PlayStation

While there are quite a few Japan-only wrestling games that would qualify as underrated in the West, many consider King of Colosseum II to be the crown jewel of that particular crowd. With its massive roster, deep grappling system, and incredible create-a-wrestler mode, this game is often thought of as the closest we’ve come to a 3D successor to the Fire Pro Wrestling series (it was made by the same team responsible for many of the early games in that series). It’s a shame that it was never exported to the West.

1. Ultimate Muscle: Legends vs. New Generation

2002| AKI Corporation | GameCube

Many people know that AKI Corporation, developers of those classic N64 wrestling games like WWF No Mercy, went on to develop the first two excellent Def Jam titles. What fewer people remember is that AKI also developed this absolute gem of a wrestling game.

Essentially an anime wrestling game, Ultimate Muscle: Legends vs. New Generation sees good and evil wrestlers battle across the universe. Bolstered by AKI’s all-time classic grappling gameplay, Ultimate Muscle proves to be a wonderfully over-the-top wrestling game that’s just as fun to watch as it is to play. Imagine if DragonBall FighterZ and WWF No Mercy had a video game child. This is what you’d get, and it’s better than you can imagine.

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[lgcmanager]

PRODUCER MISSION 002

SCHEDULE TYPE: TRIMESTER SCHEDULE RESTRICTIONS: Cannot be paired with another trimester schedule, unless stated otherwise

on JULY 5, REO KANGDAE has summoned all the CURRENT PRODUCERS AND TRAINEES CONFIRMED TO JOIN THE PRODUCER MAIN CAREER PATH. in this early in the morning, the meeting with kangdae is still as informal as ever. the man has even brought pastries, coffee, tea and hot chocolate to each preferences. “hey guys, nice to see you?” he asks, a friendly smile on his face “we have some new faces with us, so here’s a tl;dr about me; i am the head manager of LGC CREATIVES, i oversee pretty much everything creatively wise within the company. i’ve been spending a lot of times on future dreams and project origin lately... and so will you soon” he confides.“anyway, one of my assistant managers is assigned to this team, called the junior producer team. youhave your own office as a team, with desks for each one of you. there are a couple of recording studios in the new building, so no worries, you’ll just have to reserve them when you’re ready to work, there shouldn’t be any overlapping issues.” he makes sure that no one has questions before continuing. “you’re going to have to bear with me, because we have a lot more to discuss.”

DORMS

“for our new producers; those who are confirmed to leave can do so now, and the rest can move in the dorm.” he take a sip of coffee. “as i told the others before, since you’ve taken the producer path, we’re going to be a bit more lenient with you guys, but keep in mind that you are still artists under legacy entertainment and if you ever wish to dip in other path, you better watch yourselves. if we hear of bad behaviors, rules breaking or anything that could tarnish legacy’s image, unfortunately it won’t go unpunished. so don’t disappoint me and break a trusting bond, please.” he’s obviously not to please to have to talk about possible disciplinary measures.

SNS

“the rules about having a PUBLIC INDIVIDUAL INSTAGRAM ACCOUNT hasn’t changed. you’ll be allowed to have one once you have completed a full trimester in this path and have at least 6 posts on the legacy entertainment account. this will assure them that you know sns etiquette, that you can be trusted with the content published and blablabla. anyway, for this month, nobody qualifies yet.”

DEBUT CONTRACT

“this part is also for the new producers; now that you are part of the team, you have to sign a NEW CONTRACT. i’ll distribute them after this meeting. make sure to read it properly, especially the small characters - that’s where they usually scam us -, and return it a soon as possible with your signature.”

PRODUCER MISSION PART 001: MUSICAL EXPERIENCE

“when producing for a company like legacy, a song has to be thought out as a full experience. a song isn’t just for the ears, but it’s also for the eyes and the soul. one day, you’ll be asked to present a song directly to the board, and they will have questions about the concept, the image and even the visuals that should accompany this song. this comes even more into play during a concert. and we thought; what better way than to make you all see for yourselves?” he seems to be asking the question to them directly. naturally, he doesn’t expect any reply. “so, you’ll be following the boys the first half ( until the bangkok stop, included ) of their fanmeeting tour, and the girls during their second half. at every stop, the 5 of you will assist to the tour from the console room. sound and light engineers will teach you the basics of their job.”

PRODUCER MISSION PART 002: LIGHT VS DARKNESS

“last trimester, those who were already with us were asked to introduce her their trademark sound. unfortunately, we cannot always compose what we desire. for the next season of the producer team has been given two themes; LIGHT AND DARKNESS. vague, right?” he sighs. “that’s always how it is, and that’s what we have to work with. while the senior and intermediate teams have already been working on songs, we’re now extending the invitation to you guys. you may present up to two songs; one of each concept.” 

REMINDER OF PROFICIENCY LEVELS FOR COMPOSITION

muses with at least 100 points in music and/or lyric composition may write and/or compose a song on their own. for the song to be fully composed by them, they need to have 100 in both categories.

muses with at least 50 points in music and/or lyric composition may write and/or compose a song with intermediate and senior producers’ assistance.

OOC WISE: you will be able to claim a a-side and/or b-side that has a performance available as composed by your muse. you cannot claim 2 a-side. the song must be from january 2018 and after and not be used by any other artists within legacy yet. make sure to validate your choice with the main. should the song and concept fit a group or unit of legacy, the song will be released legacy, if not, will be brought by the original artist canon-wise.

REQUIREMENTS

make sure to use the hashtag lgc:producermission for everything related to this event. you have until OCT 2, 11:59PM EDT to complete the following requirements

MUSICAL EXP 1: write a 300+ words solo or a 4 replies (minimum 8 lines) thread with a partner about experimenting the concert from the console room for +8 POINTS TO DISTRIBUTE ANYWHERE !

MUSICAL EXP 2: write a 300+ words solo or a 4 replies (minimum 8 lines) thread with a partner happening during the tour (this requirement can be with a project origin member, although they will not be able to get points for it) +8 POINTS TO DISTRIBUTE ANYWHERE !

LIGHT VS DARKNESS: write a 300+ words solo or a 4 replies (minimum 8 lines) thread with a partner about any part of their preparation process +5 POINTS TO DISTRIBUTE ANYWHERE + 3 NOTORIETY ! you may claim this requirement two times, as long as threads are with different partners.

to validate your skill points and collect your notoriety points, please submit the following form ONCE on the points blog before OCT 3, 11:59EDT.

TITLE: MUSE NAME ∙ PRODUCER MISSION 002

- MUSICAL EXP 1: +8 ( skill points distribution ) [ LINK ] -  MUSICAL EXP 2: +8 ( skill points distribution ) [ LINK ] - LIGHT VS DARKNESS 1: +5 ( skill points distribution ) +3 notoriety [ LINK ] - LIGHT VS DARKNESS 2: +5 ( skill points distribution ) + 3 notoriety [ LINK ]

#lgc:producermission #lgc:q32020

[chaunceyandchumleysdad]

RIOT FEST, Day 3 Sunday September 15

My wife did not attend this day, but I still opted for driving as I couldn’t face taking the L after the ease of driving and parking the first two days. Weather was very similar to Friday. Some rain in the morning created a few muddy/wet areas, but the fields were mostly in good shape. A little humid with a cooling breeze and just a very light sprinkle for a few minutes later in the day.

·         Ultra Q (Rise stage) – The first band of the day. I didn’t have anyone in particular I wanted to see at this time, but Ultra Q was the choice simply because they were on the stage of the next band I wanted to see. They were a rockin’ Pop Punk band and a good opener for Day 3.

·         Save Ferris (Rise stage) - I have to admit this is one of the bands I most wanted to see this year. I love Ska Punk, I’m easily hooked on good Pop sounds and I’m a sucker for any band with a good front woman. Their 1997 debut It Means Everything is an album I cannot seem to get enough of. After their sophomore release Modified in 1997, they struggled through numerous personnel changes, breakups, lawsuits and eventually a revival where Monique Powell was able to obtain the rights to the band’s name. Deservedly so because she is the face of the band. And she was soooo entertaining. Her singing, humor and banter was outstanding. She held the crowd in sway in a manner that is comparable to Gwen Stefani. She started the show in a tight black dress and stripped off pieces of clothing until she was eventually down to a Vaudeville-type leotard. She strutted around the stage while teasing the crowd with sexual innuendos. Even the band members continuously laughed and smiled while watching her stage antics. The band covered the Dead Kennedys song Too Drunk To Fuck and of course, they finished the set with their great cover of Come On Eileen. Based on the energy Monique puts into singing on her records, I had high hopes for the show and she and Save Ferris did not disappoint.

·         White Reaper (Roots Stage) – This Louisville band that was not on my radar. However, as I was walking through the park that morning, a lady I was chatting with suggested I see White Reaper because her cousin is in the band. They were very good playing a brand of Hard Rock/Garage Punk. I stayed for about half their set before moving on to catch some of another band.

·         Frank Iero and The Future Violents (Rise Stage) – I caught the second half of this show. Frank Iero was one of the guitar players in My Chemical Romance. I was not familiar with this band but they had a nice Alternative sound and were very energetic on stage.

·         Less Than Jake – Well, I had to have more Ska Punk! I remember my older son David being into  this band when he was a young teenager. Although I’ve listened to this musical genre since the Ska Revival in the late 70’s, it was really David’s interest in bands like Reel Big Fish, Save Ferris, The Aquabats and Less Than Jake that got me to start listening to it on somewhat of a regular basis. Less Than Jake was awesome. I stood close to the stage and enjoyed their sound, energy and great humor. They put so much into their show and had a lot of fun with the audience. It was easy to tell by their laughter, smiles and jokes that they really enjoy what they are doing. This is a band I would definitely like to see again.

·         Sincere Engineer (Rebel stage) – This band is led by Chicagoan Deanna Belos. Their debut album was just two years ago. Very good hard driving Garage Punk. This was the only band I saw with my younger son Dylan, who had just arrived and then departed after the set to catch up with friends.

·         Streetlight Manifesto (Rise stage) – And more Ska! I did not see the first half of their set but Dylan and I could hear them while we sitting on the soccer field and eating some dinner. After Dylan left, I went to see the rest of their set. Like Less Than Jake, they were a fun, energetic Ska band.

·         B-52’s (Radicals stage) – For my taste, this was the beginning of a killer ending for Riot Fest with an incomparable Final Four musical artists. While I can’t say that I am a huge B-52’s fan, I did get into them from hanging out with my buddy Dean in the 1980’s. Their album Comic Thing, released in June 1989, was a summer classic that year. I still enjoy listening to it from beginning to end. They played their two big hits from that album, Love Shack and my favorite, Roam in addition to other hits such as Give Me Back My Man and Rock Lobster. What amazed me was that Kate Pierson (71) and Cindy Wilson (62) still sounded youthful and superb. Fred Schneider’s quirky voice still sounds the same too with his singing and talking voices being virtually indistinguishable. They also drew the largest crowd I had ever seen at the Radicals stage. There sound was rounded out with original member Keith Strickland on guitar and a host of touring musicians. While all still the original members, the death the Ricky Wilson in 1985 almost ended the band, but they forged ahead as a quartet and continuing to be a very entertaining band. After Riot Fest, I did read an article that suggested this was a farewell tour for the band. I haven’t seen or heard that anywhere else. Given their ages and longevity, I guess it would not be surprising, but I hope they stick around awhile longer.

·         Patti Smith and Her Band (Riot stage) – The second of the Final Four was the great Patti Smith. This was my second time seeing her as she was also at Riot Fest in 2014. One of the founders of Punk (before it was called Punk), she was way ahead of her time in terms of her music, attitude and feminism. While she has produced some great songs, I was surprised, though not disappointed, that she did several cover versions during her set including I’m Free (Rolling Stones), Beds Are Burning (Midnight Oil), Are You Experienced? (Jimi Hendrix), Walk On The Wild Side (Lou Reed) and After The Goldrush (Neil Young). I particularly liked I’m Free and Beds Are Burning. She closed the set with Gloria, which is technically a cover song (Them). However, that was the opening track of her first album and she did such a unique version of the song that she has made it her own. Add in People Have The Power and Because The Night along with a couple of other originals and it made for a wonderfully enjoyable set.

·         The Raconteurs (Roots stage) – Earlier in the year, when I heard The Raconteurs were touring, I immediately went to their website to see when they would be in Chicago. While they were going to be playing in Midwest states during September, Chicago was noticeably absent from their schedule. That immediately led me to speculate that they would play Riot Fest. While I’m sure I wasn’t the only on to draw that conclusion, I was dead right for a change. (My Riot Fest prediction percentage does not have the best track record.) I just saw Jack White perform last year at Lollapalooza so it was great to see him again a little more than a year later. I would have to say for overall performance, this was, in my book, the best of the festival. The show was just so impactful in terms of being a tight band with great professional talent, tremendous production and a powerhouse of sound. They played six songs off the new album (Help Us Stranger), four from Broken Boy Soldiers and three form Consolers Of The Lonely. I like all three albums so I was happy with everything they played. Jack White also referenced Bikini Kill during the set and the band also played a snippet of Gloria which I interpreted as a nod to Patti Smith.Unlike last year at Lolla, Jack White did not offer much banter between songs, but I believe the bands stage time was much shorter at Riot Fest than it was at Lolla. As with last year at Lolla, I thoroughly enjoyed Jack White’s guitar playing. When you look at the span of his career, the various directions he has gone with his music, and the potential he still has, he is truly a treasure of American Rock music.

·         Bikini Kill (Riot stage) – This band was Riot Mike’s coup for the 2019 edition of Riot Fest. This year was the first time Bikini Kill officially reunited as a band since they broke up in 1997. The reunion included 3 of 4 original members (Kathleen Hanna, Tobi Vail and Kathi Wilcox). I have twice seen Kathleen Hanna live with her band The Julie Ruin, but I never thought I would see Bikini Kill. It seemed like a bit of a strange transition from The Raconteurs big time Rock sound to Bikini Kill’s stripped-down Riot Grrrl sound. But Riot Fest is first and foremost a Punk Rock festival, so Bikini Kill deserved the top spot. Kathleen Hanna also commented on how difficult it is for a female band to get “this spot” (top headliner and a Rock music festival). Kathleen sang the bulk of the songs with Tobi Vail taking lead vocals for a few numbers. Kathleen talked quite a bit between songs, often addressing societal issues from a feminist point of view but also talking about the history behind some of the songs. Based on my experience seeing The Julie Ruin, I know she likes to chat on stage. However, when you are given a 75 minute time slot and you play Punk songs that are on average maybe two minutes long, I suppose you have to fill up the time with some banter. At any rate, it was fantastic to see this band and an awesome way to end Riot Fest 2019.

#riot fest #chicago #douglas park #ultra q #save ferris #white reaper #frank iero #less than jake #sincere engineer #streetlight manifesto #the b-52's #patti smith #the raconteurs #bikini kill #fuck yeah riot fest #riot fest sucks

[j0x06ber]

Stream of Consciousness #1

Thirteen years ago I was ten. At the time I was a seventy five pound, bright eyed little boy. I had big plans for my life. I was going to do well in school, go to college and begin a career writing fiction novels. I looked up to the likes of Stephen King, Edgar Allen Poe, and H.P. Lovecraft. Easily scared, I recall when I was six or seven, I slept in the spare room on the second story of my grandmothers house.

One night, my parents had left for the night and I was in bed. The darkness of the room was overwhelming. It felt as though tendrils were reaching up the bunk bed I slept in from all sides. Waiting for me to fall asleep. A delusion of my young mind to be sure, but it felt real at the time. I could almost see them, swaying back and fourth and snaking their way up the wall. What really scared me though was the fire alarm. It looked like like an evil red eye and it would blink as it watched me. As I stared at it and attempted to slow my breathing I could have sworn I saw teeth forming around the edges of the alarm, slowly creating a distorted and twisted grin around the eye and in a fit of fear, I ran out of the room.

Afraid I would get in trouble with the babysitter, I snuck down to the second landing that lead to the entry way, and curled up on the off-white carpet. I was just out of her sight, but close enough to the light and noise from the living room to bring me at least a bit of comfort. I watched the swinging chair my baby brother was in and listened to the soft clicking as it swayed back and fourth. Eventually I fell asleep and was found on the staircase. My family still has pictures of me huddled up the corner against the rafter and wall. Like a scared puppy.

This was a reoccurring theme throughout my life. I would regularly wake up and see stuff in the night. Even into my early teens, I would wake up and see the figure of a man standing outside of my room, or tapping at the window. I would hear disturbing whistling coming from the streets and manic howls. I was always scared.

This followed me throughout my life. The fear is no longer a result of the figments of my imagination, but rather something tangible. I no longer fear the figures in the night. They’ve long since stopped appearing to me. I fear my life direction at this point. I fear the people around me. I fear failure and the thought of having to live a whole life alone and in perpetual destitute.

When I was ten my brother was hit by a car. I was a bright student and had caught the attention of my teachers that year, and they had extended the offer to send me to The Tech Academy. My parents, ecstatic at the thought of their son attending what amounts to summer school at San Jose University didn’t so much as blink before signing me up, and that summer I began attending a course on robotics and hydroelectric power.

On the last day of summer, I returned home from San Jose to the flashing lights and sirens of an ambulance and police cars. On the grass in the front yard my youngest brothers bike was sat out, mangled. The bike was essentially bent in half; the tires and handlebars twisted. He had been riding his bike without a helmet, and in a dare with the neighbors kid, attempted to ride across a busy street that was at the end of our road. For context, we lived on the outskirts of town near a mushroom farm. Because there weren’t police actively patrolling this area and there was almost never traffic, people would drive down this road faster than they would the freeway. One such woman was doing eighty when my brother attempted to ride across the street. She slammed on the breaks, but it was too little too late, and hit him as he attempted to recross the road.

He would spend the next year in a coma at the hospital. The doctors repeatedly told us it was unlikely he would ever come out of it, and that even if he did, with the damage to his brain he would probably spend the rest of his life in a vegetative state. My parents decided to foot the bill though and hold out hope. In the end it paid off for them. He began to display movement in his fingers, and in the following months he was able to lift his head and move his arms.

He essentially had to start from scratch at 6 years old. He needed to relearn how to walk and talk. It would take years of physical therapy before he was, for the most part, functional again.

My parents weren’t around then. The issues I already had with depression and social anxiety would get worse during this period of time; as I stopped talking to people at school to avoid conversations related to my brothers accident and opted instead to spend most nights alone in my room, working on school projects or reading.

As time went on my feelings of detachment from the people and world around me would continue to worsen. It was no longer a case of just not wanting to talk. Instead it felt as though an impenetrable wall had been constructed between myself and everyone around me. I couldn’t relate to anyone, I didn’t know what to say in casual conversation, and the very act of speaking to others evoked a fight or flight response. If you are familiar with the borderlands series, my response to social interactions was similar, albeit less exaggerated, to that of  Patricia Tannis. During this time I also regularly felt like I wasn’t in control of my body or actions. Everything I did felt like it was being done by an outside force, and I was just a spectator to it all. Despite all of this, there were people that refused to give up on me and they would go on to become close friends throughout high school and part of college.

Everything came to a head during my senior year. My friends were all distant and I felt it would be best if I transferred schools. I decided to take online courses to finish my final year. This was when I met Stephanie. She would be my anchor to reality, my best friend, and for a while, my girlfriend. Come graduation I experienced a psychotic break and began hearing/remembering conversations that never happened and people shouting my name. As my mental state deteriorated suicide stopped being a distant thought and became an appealing means of escaping. A permanent exit from what felt like some sort of an extended nightmare sequence straight of a David Lynch film.

June 8th I drove to an abandoned parking lot and parked under a tree illuminated orange by the streetlights just twenty feet away and grabbed out a benchmade knife I kept in the center console of my dingy orange ford. I started slashing everything I could My wrists, my arm, my shoulders, my chest, legs. Everything but my throat. I fully intended to kill myself that night. I sat there, globs of blood dripping off my arm onto cracked pavement and the side of the my seat.

I didn’t die that night. My typing this as proof. The bleeding stopped, at which point I was too light headed, weak, and scared to finish the job. Instead I fell asleep, woke up the next morning, put on my jacket, and drove home. Eventually my family found out what I had attempted to do. It was summer and I couldn’t wear my jacket all the time. Eventually they saw a couple, and demanded to see them all. Most of them weren’t too bad, but the ones on my wrist and chest were deep, with the cut on my sternum going all the way down to the bone. I carry hideous scars now as a reminder and have to be conscious of what I wear so as not to make the people around me uncomfortable. and I was hospitalized for the first time.

Stephanie was a sweetheart and everyday would drive three towns over where I was being kept to visit. Bringing healing stones, snacks, and much needed company. If you’re not familiar with wards, they are lonely and often times scary places. You have a routine of therapy, but outside that, there’s nothing to do but walk the halls, and when the clock hits 8, it’s lights out and you have to go to your shared room. I had been roomed with a violent schizophrenic that never acknowledged me when I tried to speak to him.

During my time there I was diagnosed with Bipolar and agraphobia. For the next three years I would be subjected to a number of heavy duty anti-psychotics, anti-depressants, and mood stabilizers. In tandem they dulled everything. I felt like a zombie. I no longer had emotional range and was tired all the time.

I started college a month after release. It was at this point I found out that the college funds my grandparents had been setting aside to put us through college had been used to pay my brothers hospital and therapy bills all those years ago. No one had told me this, and throughout school my parents discouraged me working, stating that my job was to focus on school and extra-curricular activities. I began working three jobs to pay for my courses, but after two years of this, my car broke down and I ended up shelling out five grand to repair the engine, only to have the transmission break soon after, leaving me no mode of transportation. Stephanie moved away to start her dream job as a forest ranger.

This was probably for the best. She was a sweet girl and I was bad news. I broke up with her shortly after getting the news that she was moving, and ended up reconnecting and getting into a relationship with Leilani. Leilani was also a very nice girl and supported me in more ways than she should have. We had similar issues, and she was able to understand what was going on with me better than most people, but our relationship was short lived. I isolate and cut off contact with everyone when I have a depressive episode. I was under the impression it would be better for everyone if I dissapeared when this happened. That I shouldn’t burden my friends with my own personal shit. It’s what I was taught growing up, to man up and deal with the problem. Don’t make it someone elses. During one of these episodes, she found someone else, and we fell out of contact. I remember the last thing she sent me was “Please don’t cut me out again”.

Shortly afterwards I was hospitalized once more. I had been out of college for a year and was working on paying for a new car and getting the debt I’d been accumulating through medicine costs and therapy when this happened. I was slapped with almost ten thousand dollars worth of debt, and that leads to today.

I will soon be twenty four. My friends and those that supported me for so long are gone. They have been for years. I’m living at my parents and am working a dead-end job as a QA engineer. I wont pretend like none of this is my fault. I’m self aware enough to know my own actions have lead me to this point. I should have dealt with my problems rather than trying to bury them. I should have accepted the help and support my friends had offered. I should have, in general, been a better person. I’m hoping that somehow, typing this all out, I can make peace with everything leading me to this point. If not that, to at least make sense of it.

#stream of conscience #writing

[quagmireisadora]

[Junghee / Kibum] Lighter

Rating: NC17 A/N: based on a scene from True Detective

He hears the tires screech outside and gets up in a panic. When he parts the curtains to look out the window, his fingers hover over his holster but when he recognizes the vehicle, those fingers move to his mouth. They pluck his cigarette and put it out on the window sill.

The car remains where it is for a long time. Kibum doesn’t go out to seek its driver or to ask if everything is OK. He would’ve in the past. Or maybe even yesterday. But his own life is in shambles. He has no affection to spare–that’s the excuse he gives himself. The engine goes quiet in his driveway. He turns away from the curtains, takes a last swig from a stray bottle nearby, and throws it in an already overflowing bin. When she knocks on the door he tries to think back to the last time she was here.

“Junghee ssi,” he addresses her as an acknowledgement, that she is here, she stands before him, and he has nothing else to offer her besides.

“Did you know?” is all he gets in response.

She doesn’t have to extrapolate. Doesn’t need to. Jinki is a good man, a good father. Kibum might go to the extent of admitting he is a good detective, too. When they first met, the man gave the impression of being a disciplined, rule-abiding man with strong morals. Kibum knew from the sight of a well-arranged desk-- he knew instantly, that they would never see eye to eye, but they would ultimately fight for the same cause. They’ve been partners for years. Jinki cares for Kibum, in his encouragements and his reprimands. He is loyal to the force, loyal to its motives - to protect the good people of this town. He is a good man, a good father, a good person. 

But he isn’t a good husband. Kibum has seen the contact labelled as no more than “Tae” on the other man’s phone. He has seen glimpses of long legs, of peacock eyes and slender body, of smiles that can sate anyone’s need for attention and in the action offer more sating. Kibum has seen short skirts and long lashes when he drops Jinki off at innocuous places sometimes, after a long day out in the field. He knows what it all means.

But he doesn’t say anything to Junghee.

“Did you know, Kibum.” She orders him to answer.

He doesn’t obey, out of a vile sense of allegiance. But the admission sits in his mouth like toasted seaweed: bitter and crisp to the point of cutting. He retreats into his home, feeling worse than before and seeking comfort in an unopened green bottle.

Perhaps she takes it as an invitation to come in, perhaps she takes it as an opportunity to continue her attack. She does not need the first: she has been here several times, tidying up, leaving him things to eat, checking up on him. Kibum has always felt strange in her presence. Junghee is a friendly person, but since the divorce he hasn’t been the same around women. Her outgoing nature often brushes away the rust from his smiles. Her cooking reminds him of a time in his life when he could sigh with relief as he took his shoes off, crossed his legs on a coffee table, loosened his tie and took in a large inhale of sundubu jjigae as its steam wafted toward him. Junghee is soft and clean and warm and glows in the sun. And Kibum is used to hardened criminals, the filthy murderers and rapists he has to deal with on the daily. They are the new permanence in his life. Junghee is not. She reminds him too much of what he has lost and–

“He brought pictures of her home. On his phone. He--” she shakes her head in disgust. “He brought them home. Where our children are.”

“You went through his phone,” Kibum says more than asks. He doesn’t put any accusation behind it. In her place, he would’ve done the same. In her place, he would’ve done more. But in his place, he leans against the kitchen island and crosses his hands, looking at the carpet instead of at her fuming, watering eyes.

“Kibum, he…” she chokes the rest of the words. But he can already tell what they are. He can tell because they echo in his own mind. “He goes there... every single night.” She wraps her arms around herself, trying to hide in a cocoon of her own making.

Jinki is a good man, but he is also an utter piece of shit. He has a warm house, in a bright street. He has two smart and cheerful kids. He has a beautiful wife who loves and cherishes him with all her heart. He has a promising career, and the respect of everyone in the community. He has everything that Kibum can no longer claim, and maybe it’s complacence that lets him throw it all away. But Junghee blames herself for it--she believes the seeds of such callousness lay in her own incompetence, her own limitations as a wife. She drives herself mad with it, drives herself up the walls trying to understand it, drives herself out here at this late hour to see Kibum. So she can beg for some peace.

He decides to give it to her. “Yeah, I knew,” he finally confesses.

Her sobs come to a sharp halt, then. She looks at him. Studies him. “You--helped him. In his sick game. Didn’t you?” She walks over, giving him no time to react before a loud slap rings against his ear. 

Kibum doesn’t retaliate. He doesn’t even move away. She strikes him again, this time with a low grunt. The metal of her wedding band strikes the corner of his lip, smashing the flesh against teeth and making him taste blood. 

“How could you,” she bunches up the front of his singlet in a fist until its straps strain on his shoulders. “How could you do that... to me!” she points at her own chest, quaking more with her whimpers than her rage. “How could you. How could you...” she gives him a feeble shake and then leans her tired head against his chest, weeping. 

He lets her stay there for a few moments before he gives in and holds her in his arms. She claws a him, crying harder and speaking incoherently to his collarbones, her snot and tears smearing against his skin. His embrace grows tighter, his chin rests on her temple, his hand comes up to support the back of her head. He molds himself around her frame like a shield.

“Shh, hey, shh,” he frowns and gently makes her look up at him. He wants to say more, wants to console her with the usual bullshit of it’s going to be OK, and I’ll talk to him about it. He wants to brush her fringe away from her forehead and calm her down until she smiles. But if he’s being honest with himself, Kibum doesn’t want to do any of that. He doesn’t want to talk to Jinki, doesn’t want to help their marriage, doesn’t want to play his part in this scenario. When she blinks up at him through her wet golden eyes, he doesn’t want to be gentle or friendly or protective.

It’s as if Junghee reads his mind, because her lips reach up to meet his in a heated rush. 

Her breath is searing, her pulse boiling. Her skin throbs wherever his hands land, and his own senses start to resonate. Her voice hitches a little in her throat, and Kibum knows he can’t stop.

The fever rises and envelopes his whole body, but his fingers are deliberate when they touch her. They are careful when they slip along her back, sliding under the pretty curve of her ass and squeezing her closer to him. She melts on him, hooking her arms behind his neck and pressing up harder until he is pinned. His lips grip hers while she pushes at him with her tongue. Time speeds up, then. He dips and lifts her, turning so their positions are flipped--her against the kitchen counter, him under her dizzying aurum gaze. She doesn’t need prompting to reach down and unbuckle his pants or unzip him free. He doesn’t need encouragement to feel around between her thighs and groan at the dampness that collects on his fingertips. They don’t speak before he pushes forward and into her. They don’t say a word when she gasps and brings him closer with her legs. He moves with no time wasted on romance or ceremony. He moves and she takes him in, lets him be a little forceful, lets him ram in again and again. She lets him grow a little savage when he claws into her rear, when his breath hisses behind his teeth. He chases his release, keeping her up but also keeping himself in check so as not to hurt her. He chases his release, and hopes he can give her one too. Because as much as he wants this, he wants more.

He wants to touch more of her, hold more of her, but he is ashamed of how rough his hands must feel to her smoothness. He wants to kiss her again but he probably reeks of soju and the measly cup of ramyun that was his dinner. He wants her to mutter his name, speak it quietly against his ear. But she is probably regretting this even as she is shuddering and whining in his neck. He wants to reach out for the moon because it would look so much better in her hair, sitting atop her elegant head. But he knows he is incapable of giving her even the lowest dregs of real happiness. He wants to take his time, wants to be sweet, wants to make her giggle and grip his hair because it felt as good to her as it did to him. He wants to love her. But he can’t do much more than be a quick fuck, a quick relief. 

Because he is not Jinki. He is Kibum.

#sept challenge #jongkey #het! #drabble

[whatimconsuming]

The story of Discord is the story of platform shifts. Jason Citron started his career in game development studios creating some of titles for Xbox and Play Station 2 (that’s how old he is 😂) that you probably never heard of 😬. Platform Shift: Mobile In the 2008, the “app store” was just announced and Jason thought this would be the perfect time to take the entrepreneurial plunge. His thesis was that with the launch of mobile gaming on the iPhone he would get “free distribution” if he manages to become a “launch title” (ie develop his game before the app store is live). After all, whenever a new console comes out, there is always new set of games that offer a new kind of experiences that are “native” to that console and new gaming behaviors are born….this was a once in a life opportunity. Jason raised some seed capital from the uncle of one of his roommates and was off to the races building Aurora feint. He pulled off being a launch title and Aurora feint was one of only 50 games that were available on the app store on the blessed day.

The Good News: it got rave reviews…partly because of the limited competition at the time, but also because Jason was just an extremely talented game developer. The Bad News: the business model didn’t really work. Aurora feint’s Business Model The Business model for the game was very similar to other stuff that Jason had worked on in the past. He gave the game away for free and build a premium version that had multiplayer dynamics (such as competing with friends on leaderboards...competing in ghost matches....etc)….this was a very common behaviour for PC….but what he didn’t realize at the time was that with new platforms…comes new expectations and subsequently new consumer behaviors. The $8 price tag (probably out of thin air) to access those social features didn’t really work. As time went by, and more games were build around the iPhone, and the price tag was anchored at $0.99 - $4.99. Jason and his 5 person company made a meager $30k in revenue from this game….a far cry from a “hit” game.

The pivot to OpenFeint One day, while discussing with the another founder, Citron realized that the iPhone did not have Xbox live in it, but their Aurora Feint 2 did have a similar feature. From my very shallow understanding Xbox live is just a platform that allows gamers to play multiplayer games, communicate with each and discover new games. In an act of desperation, Jason decided to spin out those social features and sell them to other developers, in an attempt to become equivalent the Xbox live for iPhone….the only problem was he didn’t really have any money to pay his engineers let alone hire new ones to build this in time…or anyone for that matter….to get Jason put up a landing page...photoshopped a couple of fake screenshots ...the message was "xbox live for mobile." He convinced Techcrunch to cover “the launch” and took that mailing list to investors…sprinkled some “vision” on it and raised a bridge round. He used the money from that round to hire 10 new developers to actually build the product The $104m payout

Over the next two years Openfeint took over Jason’s life. As someone whose life revolved around gaming, I can’t even imagine how it must have felt like to build the entire infrastructure for social gaming on the iPhone. By 2010, Openfeint had more than 10 million users and was powering 30 of the top 100 games on the App Store. Next year the company was acquired by a Japanese company (named GREE…but thats not really important) for a whopping $104 million (for reference the company ever raised $3m). When Jason signed on the dotted line, it was under the expectation that he will now have the resources to build the Xbox live for mobile. But as with many acquisitions…the story took a sour turn after the deal closed… Rinse and repeat (for iPad) Jason took a 7 months hiatus after being booted out of his own company. Jason took the time-off playing video games….A LOT of video games. Around that time, in 2013 the iPad was in its first years of inception and slowly making it to the main stream. While everyone saw iPad as a tablet, Jason saw it as a new platform shift for gaming…specifically for playing team-based games. He hypothesized that the iPad would make these kind of multi-player games more accessible and that the only problem was that there wasn’t enough high quality games being produced. Ready for round 2…Jason started another company…this time named Hammer and Chisel. Hammer and Chisel was a game development house that focused exclusively on creating high-quality iPad games. The vision for Hammer and Chisel was to replicate the Openfeint model for iPad. Fates Forever

After a few hit-and-miss with launching different games (3 to be specific), Jason had Another ONE(idea) up his sleeve…this time for a game called Fates forever. In a true Sell-Build-Ship manner that we can come to expect from Jason, instead of putting in the hours to build a game and see it crumble in-front of his eyes, he, instead, chunked up the art ....and started posting it on reddit along with explaining how the “game worked”(there was no game at the time…just some art). He took feedback from and incorporated it into into the art and ultimately the game mechanics. Six months later, Fates Forever shipped to the app store, and yet again didn’t really live up to the expectations of Jason or the team. The pivot to Discord

Jason was going around in circles trying to figure out how he can “fix” Fates Forever. In a conversation with Stanislav (Stan) Vishnevskiy (a developer at Hammer and Chisel then and cofounder of Discord later) Jason was complaining to Stan that the chat experience on Faints Forever sucked. He then went on a rant explaining how the ideal communication platform SHOULD work for developers. And so the OG idea of Discord was born. The idea was building Teamspeak meet skype. To take a step back Teamspeak was one of the more popular tools at the time used by gamers who played team vs team games. The problem with Teamspeak, at least from Stan’s prespective, was that to start a conversation on Teamspeak users had to download the app, pay for it and share their IP address (IP address is kind of like your mailing address) with other team members. Cutting through the noise Jason and Stan started building the first version of Discord as a side project within the company. First 20 customers The first 20 customers for Discord were friends, friends and friends. For the first 5 months, Jason and Stan were building Discord and hammering their gamer friends to use it. Their friends signed up but weren’t actually really using the product. Everytime they asked them why, they highlighted that they needed this feauture or that feature. Stan and Jason would go build it and come back to them…they got excited for a minute and then demanded more features. This loop kept going on and on and at some point the team had spent 3 weeks not shipping anything, they figured that maybe Discord just wasn’t as important as they had previously thought. First 200-300 customers Those 3 weeks where yet another reminder to Jason of how important distribution was. He figured that gaming communities were far and wide on the internet and that the product was at a point where it could be stress tested by more than just his unappreciative friends. So Jason and Stan got one of the friends to post in the Final Fantasy 14(a popular game at the name) subreddit. They reason they narrowed down to this one specific game was that there was a new expansion (i.e new features, content..etc) coming out which meant that was a lot of anticipation, speculation and excitement about the new release on reddit.

Their friend posted a simple link saying “"Hey...did anyone try this new voiceover IP app called discord [link to a voice chat].“ Jason and Stan immediately jumped onto the voice chat and started talking to anyone who showed up. The Redditors would go back, say "I just talked to the developers there, they're pretty cool," and send even more people to Discord. That kind of kicked the snowball off the top of the mountain.

Fun fact: Discord now claims this day (May 13, 2015) as their “launch day” First 1000 customers For the next 1000 customers, Jason and Stan focused all their product work on just 3 games, all of which had upcoming expansions (i.e new releases) in an attempt to make integrations with these games as seamless as possible. They then did the same Reddit routine, got a friend to post on the game’s subreddit asking if member had tried using Discord and accompanying that message a link to a voice chat where Jason and Stan were waiting to meet and greet and answer any questions anyone had. To double down on that strategy, Jason and Stand started doing some 1:1 promotion with “guilds” of these games. Guilds are “an organized group of video game players that regularly play together in one or more multiplayer games. Many guilds take part in gaming competitions, but some guilds are just small gaming squads consisting of friends. “

#discord

[kerbaldevteam]

KSP Weekly: A Corned Beef Sandwich

Welcome to KSP Weekly everyone. This past January 5th, a legend passed away. A man who enjoyed the longest career of any astronaut (42 years of active NASA service), became the first person to fly six space missions, walked on the moon, and commanded the first Space Shuttle. We are talking, of course, about John W. Young. We want to take this opportunity to honor his memory and talk a little about his work and legacy.

John Young was an American astronaut, naval officer and aviator, test pilot, and aeronautical engineer. He was born in San Francisco, California, on September 24, 1930, to parents William Hugh Young, a civil engineer, and Wanda Howland Young. Young showed an interest for science at a young age and  earned a Bachelor of Science degree with highest honors in Aeronautical Engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology in 1952. After graduating, Young entered the United States Navy. He served as fire control officer on the destroyer USS Laws and completed a tour in the Sea of Japan during the Korean War. Following this assignment, he was sent to flight training. In 1954, he was designated a Navy helicopter pilot and after receiving his aviator wings, he was assigned to Fighter Squadron 103 for four years. After training at the United States Naval Test Pilot School, Young was assigned to the Naval Air Test Center at Naval Air Station Patuxent River, Maryland, for three years. In 1962, he set two world time-to-climb records while flying his Phantom II, attaining 3,000 meters (9,843 ft) from a standing start in 34.52 seconds and 25,000 meters (82,021 ft) from a standing start in 227.6 seconds. He joined NASA this same year.

Fellow astronaut Charles Bolden described Young and Robert "Hoot" Gibson as the two best pilots he had met during his aviation career: "Never met two people like them. Everyone else gets into an airplane; John and Hoot wear their airplane. They're just awesome".

In 1965, Young flew on the first manned Gemini mission with Gus Grissom. He somehow managed to smuggle a corned beef sandwich onto the spacecraft, a feat for which he was reprimanded, even though it was probably far more delicious than the food on board. Some members of the US House of Representatives were not pleased about the stunt, claiming that Young cost taxpayers millions of dollars by disrupting a scheduled test of space food during the flight. Despite this stunt, he commanded another Gemini mission the next year with no reports of corned beef smuggling, though he may have gotten better at hiding food this time around.

In 1969, during Apollo 10, he became the first person to fly solo around the Moon. He became the ninth person to walk on the Moon as Commander of the Apollo 16 mission in 1972. During that mission, he drove the Lunar Roving Vehicle on the Moon's surface. He is one of only three people to have flown to the Moon twice. He also commanded two Space Shuttle flights, including its first launch in 1981, and served as Chief of the Astronaut Office from 1974 to 1987. John Young was the only person to have piloted, and been commander of, four different classes of spacecraft: Gemini, the Apollo Command/Service Module, the Apollo Lunar Module, and the Space Shuttle. Young retired from NASA in 2004 after one of the most incredible careers in aerospace history. He was 87 years old when he passed away, and he will be remembered by space enthusiasts for many more years to come. And it seems that he enjoyed snacks as much as our green little friends. Godspeed, John Young, and here at the KSP HQ we salute you!

[Development news start here]

This past Tuesday we officially released Kerbal Space Program Enhanced Edition! After months of hard work hand in hand with our friends at BlitWorks, we have been able to provide console players a faithful and worthy version of KSP on both PS4 and Xbox One. These past few days we have been carefully watching the response from the community while providing assistance with some controls and functions, and the whole team is jubilant to see that it has been predominantly positive. However, it is through your constructive criticism, feedback, suggestions and bug reports we are receiving that we’ll be able to solve the issues and bugs that have been showing up. So, yes, there is a patch planned that will address many of the issues we’re discovering as part of our ongoing support plan for the Enhanced Edition. In the meantime, remember that posting on the Console Project of the Bugtracker with as much detail as possible is the best way to make sure we see and fix them, so please do report anything you find. As always, we appreciate all of your feedback!

In other news, the Making History Expansion continues to be carefully molded, as more features and components are implemented. For instance, just as with the core game, we expect that Mods will play an important  role in Making History, and this week completed the design of where and how Mods installed into the game are going to be displayed to the Mission Creators and Mission Players. We are making sure that Mod support is at the forefront of the decisions we make with the design. It is imperative for us to maintain the relationship we have with our community and to extend this into the creation of Missions and the support of Mods. It is because of this we will integrate Mod support from day one into the Making History Expansion. In the upcoming weeks, we’ll let you know further detail regarding Mod support, so stay tuned for that.

Additionally, the team is working on the implementation of Tutorial Missions for the Mission Builder into the list of Stock Missions to be included in the expansion. We want to make sure that everyone who ventures into Making History has the means to fully take advantage of the tools they are going to have at their disposal. Our fans have made us aware of shortcomings of the tutorials in the core game and, as always, we have been taking note, so these new tutorials are going to include a new Highlighting System accompanied with instructor dialogs that will improve the flow of the tutorial.

Moreover, the development team finished implementing the correct experience and trait levels into missions for Kerbals, and is working on additional Nodes to be included in the Mission Builder. These include the following:

Action Camera Mode Node: This will be an action node that will allow mission creators to toggle the camera mode during mission. An example of how this could be used is to create a sort of cutscene within the flow of a mission.

Test Velocity Node: With this simple node, we want to include the ability to test a vessel’s velocity. We’ll allow Creators to choose between Orbital and Surface modes.

Create Flag Node: By using Create Flag Node, Creators will be able to place a flag on any planet’s surface. We’re adding the ability to select the Flag, and include a message and description to it.

Test Vessel Distance Node: This node gives the ability to test the distance from a vessel to another object.

This week we finished merging in the last of the code and models for Engine clusters and Structural Tubes into the game, so it's time to get into some more detail on how these work.

Engine plates come in sizes from 1.875 through 5m, and the player can independently select from several node configurations (single, double, triple, quad, 6x1, and 8x1) with symmetry support.  The plates also include mesh switching that allow for up to five different lengths per engine plate.

One design consideration was to not penalize players for using the new engine plates (both in terms of mass and part count).  So they will have a relatively low mass (since they essentially take the place of the normal engine fairings), and will also have a bottom decoupler built in, so the behavior would be very similar to the normal practice of putting an engine on top of a decoupler, except now you will be able to have this behavior for an entire cluster of engines.  Of course, everyone likes part pictures, so here are some examples of the new engine plates, using both old and new engines

We also took all of the new engine shrouds (25 in total) and will be providing a set of mesh-switchable structural tubes, suitable for boat tails and other creative uses. These come in sizes from 1.25m through 5m, each with five selectable lengths.  They all have inward and outward facing nodes on both the top and bottom, and are completely hollow for all of the makers out there. It’s important to mention that these features are still being tested and may still to go through some additional changes.

We're hoping that this new trove of structural elements will really unlock some creative opportunities for our players, and we had a lot of fun making and testing them too, as shown in this test footage. 

Finally, we remind you that you still have another week to participate in our latest KSP Challenge - Target Practice. So go check it out and share your creations!

That’s it for this week. Be sure to join us on our official forums, and don’t forget to follow us on Twitter and Facebook. Stay tuned for more exciting and upcoming news and development updates!

Happy launchings!

*Information Sources:

Biographical Data: JOHN W. YOUNG . (n.d.), Retrieved from http://www.jsc.nasa.gov/Bios/htmlbios/young.html

Speck, E. (2016, September 25). Moon-walking astronaut John Young turned 86 on Saturday. Retrieved from http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/space/go-for-launch/os-nasa-astronaut-john-young-turns-86-20160923-story.html

Dunbar, B. (n.d.). From Gemini to Shuttle: John Young Retires. Retrieved from https://www.nasa.gov/vision/space/features/young_retires.html

Goldstein, R. (2018, January 06). John Young, Who Led First Space Shuttle Mission, Dies at 87. Retrieved from https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/06/obituaries/john-young-dead.html

#ksp weekly #Kerbal Space Program #making history #enhanced edition #john young #devnotes

[strandedglitch]

Hello world, it's me Kylie

date:08/5/2023

This is my first entry....I dont really know how to explain my situation, I dont even know what I am supposed to write...hell that is a lot of I dont knows.

I could be speaking into the void and writing this will go in vain but I guess this is my weird way of coping? Either way the comforting glow of this screen as I type is my only friend at the moment.

To start from the beginning, Gosh...I feel crazy just typing this but...I was doing some exploration in the state of New Mexico, It was a nice summer...Fairly hot and dry. To be expected of course coming from this arid region of the United States, I just graduated from college with my degree in Computer science and I just wanted to let loose and go on a cross country drive from Massachusetts to California, I just wanted to treat myself for all the hard work I put into my bachelors degree, Im young and for the first time in forever My face was looking at other things rather than staring for hours on end at standarized tests, Papers for essays and the eye straining computer screens.

I made a small detour stop in New Mexico...Now youre probably wondering Why New Mexico? Well..Im a bit of a nerd and thought of checking out some historic sites, Including that of an old nuclear test site which I will not disclose the name of. Now..This place is radioactive...well atleast a little bit...Not too bad atleast I thought...I went a bit further than what was legally allowed , equipped with my backpack which only had my laptop, charger, a bag of chips and some candy, These are my essentials I dont care what anyone says.

well..I got to see some cool glass looking objects imbedded in the white sand, it must of been formed from all the heat from the nuclear explosions...However something felt odd...Off I would say. My head felt like it spun and for a moment.. I felt the ground under my feet suddenly disappear, You ever have those dreams of fall and then you just wake up? It was like that.

Ive decided that perhaps it was being exposed to free radicals mixed in with the aweful sweltering heat..My immediate thought was to go back, Pretend I never went any further than what I was supposed to...treading back clad in shorts and a t shirt, the sun now was highest in the sky my lips were beginning to chap and my Somewhat bronze skintone was tinted with red sunburn.

when I got back to what I knew was the spot of the historic marker I parked infront, I was shocked and dismayed my car was nowhere in sight, I could almost feel my heart sink to my lower stomach about to burst out of my very being at any moment. Someone must have stolen my car, that was the only plausible explanation.

I was stranded, alone and In a god damn desert. I began to walk amoungst the long stretch of road hoping and praying to whatever god may be out there for someone to give me a ride out of this place. I wasnt prepared to die, I was only 23 years old. God,I know Ive been a peice of shit sometime in my life but ya gotta give me a break. It was about an hour or two before I saw a old dark red sports car speeding down the road distorted by that classic heat mirage that distorts the air above any tar road.

Oh damn, Maybe there is a god...Perhaps this is my chance time to flag them down, So my dumbass did what anyone would do...I got in the road and waved my hands around hoping a speeding car would stop.

I gulped of what little spit I had left when it got nearer luckily slowing down, Quickly I walked over to the driver side window to be greeted by A dude about mid thirties his skin was tan with a freckle here and there, Wearing a button up brownish red dress shirt with short sleeves, high wasted blue jeans and complimented with a cowboy hat and sunglasses. He looked at me lowering his sunglasses to get what I assume a better look at me as I leaned in from the window. The conversation went something like this.

Me: "Hey uh.. Can you give me a ride to the nearest town, Im out here and well my car got stolen."

The man nodded " I can give ya a ride but the next town is 'bout a 20 minute drive from here"

Me: Thank you, So much your're a life saver. ('God I hope this guy aintsome creep)

"The name is Daniel, By the way...Hop in the passenger seat just be careful of Missy she can bite if handled incorrectly"

I nodded and headed over to the passenger side, Missy? Was this his dog? I didn't see no dog. I opened the car door only to be greeted with a hand gun tucked inbetween the seat and center console of the car. ...Fuck of course he has a gun my luck. Deciding against every alarm going off in my head, I hopped in made myself comfortable in the seat and closed the door. Off we went. The ride was very boring despite the risk that is hitch hiking. He talked about having a horse ranch out east and enjoys riding them on occasion, Even putting them through a competition or two. I said I just graduated college and looking for a job in software engineering or technical support..Just something to make money from.

He looked over at me like I had snakes for hair. " That wasn't a great choice of career, Darlin.' You ain't gonna be making jack shit. Aint nobody round these parts can afford a computer or need one for that matter. Whatever fancy place you hail from, best go back cause there aint much out here to help you with that."

I was mind boggled, Was this guy for real? Everyone has a computer, phone or other internet connecting device. Even if the area was on a tight budget enough, Offices and schools still had systems. What was he thinking?

It would be another 10 minutes before a town appeared in the distance, I took a breath of relief as I leaned back in this leather seat. We passed a sign I didnt bother reading, The only thing on my mind was food and air conditioning.

Hah.... Well...I thought everything would be great..I'd go to the police give them the description of my car, plate number and everything would be fine and dandy right? Wrong...Dead wrong..You see At first I didnt think anything was off...some people drive old cars but Not an entire town dedicated to it, Maybe there was a car show? That wouldve been the case if everyone including the buildings were also dressed in quite vintage styles.Big hairdos, bell bottoms, Colorful clothing, Old fashioned cars. I felt like I was dreaming, Maybe I passed out in the field of heat exhaustion? No...This was all too real.

Daniel pulled over and wished me luck on getting my car back, handing me a 10 dollar bill, Tipped his hat and drove off. The first thing I did was go into the munincipal building to talk to someone who could point me in the right directions, I hit a bell at the help desk, taking a notice of the lack of computer equipment in the office and a calander on the wall. It was secured there with a red tac and it read August 5th 1970. There was the feeling again, My head spun faster than a damn fidget spinner. I was on the floor after that, everything went dark.

Long long story short..Im in a hotel room after convincing ambulance drivers to leave me alone and that Im fine, They gave me a cold bottle of water, allowed me to sign release for denying medical treatment. Lets just say...They looked suspicious when I asked the date.The full date..It was the same date as the calender...Shit. Im still trying to wrap my head around this...I somehow ended up in the fucking 70's because I walked a little too far from a damn historic marker, excuse my language. My theory is some kind of weird woowoo science stuff must of happened at that sight there and they didnt want us normal people going there cause they knew there could of been these time portals...Or alien...theres always aliens involved in these consiracy theories right? Eh...Im not too much of a conspiracy theorist anyways....All I know is some weird shit is going on.

Ill get back to you with how Im doing, Hopefully I can figure things out.

Logging off:

Yours, Kylie

#ic #introduction #stranded #Diary entry

[prodigitalytechnologies]

What is the Game Development Process?

A lot of work goes into making a video game. Big budget, AAA games have huge teams that take years to develop their games. As you might expect, the steps between the desire to make a game and a finished product are not random and spontaneous. Most big games require a plan and steps that need to be taken in order to produce a game. This is the game development process: those steps between a concept and the game that appears on store shelves.

The good news is this: there is no one correct set of video game development stages. Every team has its own individualized process. But there is one big delineation between processes that’s worth mentioning; the difference between small indie teams and large big-budget teams. Let’s take a look at an example process for both to see how games are made, and how we might create our own process for game design.

Big Budget: Game Development vs Game Design

The two terms Game Developer and Game Designer are often used interchangeably and for good reason. For many studios, especially smaller studios, team members wear both hats and cover the responsibilities for both fields. However, they are distinct positions, and many large teams tend to differentiate between the two. Here’s a breakdown to help make them clearer:

Game Designers—Designers work on top-level concepts. They are the idea people who determine how the game will play, who the main characters are, concept art, what the target audience is, and other ‘planning’ stage decisions. Designers come up with the idea for the game.

Game Developers—Developers are software engineers that work on the code and display art. They are where the rubber meets the road. Developers are the people writing lines and tweaking knobs to make the main character move and act in a way that matches the design. Developers take the idea and make it work.

Big budget, AAA games constitute the hot new releases for a console made by large design companies. These are games like Over watch, Call of Duty, or Red Dead Redemption. They take countless man-hours to plan, build, and polish. For these games, having a strong design process is absolutely necessary: it would be too difficult to organize otherwise. Here are the main stages that most AAA studios stick to, separated into three phases.

PRE_PRODUCTION

Pre-production is all of the planning stages of a game. It’s where game designers are doing most of the work—brainstorming ideas for how the game will function, it’s characters, its look, and its story. These ideas will be changed, stripped, removed, or added throughout this process, so it makes sense to get it out of the way before the actual production begins. These are the typical stages of pre-production development:

Pitch: The pitch is the raw idea for a game, usually in a short document format. It’s basically an essay on why this game will be good, make money, and is worth making. It’s used at greenlight meetings for management and then publishers to gain approval to start making a game.

Concept: The concept is like a pitch but much more granular. It describes things like the proposed gameplay, the game’s features, setting and story, target audience, marketing analysis and team requirements, and estimated schedule. It’s around this time that the first code starts being put into place: with developers and designers creating rough prototypes for the game or its features. This is to show off these features to stakeholders and management before the game is fully approved.

Game Design Document: Here the game design document is created. These are the specifications for the game, with more details than the concept, and it is a living document that will be referenced and modified for the duration of production.

Prototype: The prototyping phase is where ideas for how the game should work is figured out. Here gameplay ideas and features are tested on paper to see if they will work with the rest of the game. This phase can begin before the game design document is started, and can even start at the pitch level. After the game is planned and approved the game moves into production. Here there is a call for all hands on deck, as the entire team joins the prototypers to start building the final version. Many of these stages overlap or happen concurrently as different teams work on the game at the same time: 

Design: The design process simply continues the work from pre-production, getting more granular and throwing out ideas that after testing don’t make the final cut. The only difference is that now instead of working on paper, the designers are working with an actual game in development. This step requires creativity and input from developers as well as designers. Most of the changes made here are logged in the design document for the rest of the team to see. Designers have to consider features, look, and level design during this process.

Programming: The game’s programming is something that starts at an early stage, but it begins more officially during production. Often a custom game engine is required. However, even if an existing engine is used there is plenty of work for the programmers. They have to make the design a reality and fix any bugs along the way.

Graphics and Audio: Artists have an enormous amount of work to do: creating every character, set piece, and visual effect in the game. On the same note, the audio production team must create all of the music, voiceover work, and sound effects and make sure they all blend well together.

Testing: Testing is an important phase for games. Much time is spent with early Alpha and Beta releases—making sure the game plays as intended—and often involves public testing to see if the game functions in a live situation. This is the time when annoying bugs and undesirable gameplay features must be filtered out.

Post-production happens after the final, or gold, copy of the game is released. This stage happens when games are already on store shelves. It has a singular purpose: maintenance. Post-production involves patching any post-game bugs and working on any post-game content. Post-production work manifests as in-game patches and downloadable content. 

As you can see the game design process for large companies is not a simple one. It requires thousands of man-hours and requires strict deadlines and production goals. However, the game design process doesn’t have to be so complex.

Indie Games

Indie games are the easiest way to break into the industry, and many indie games have become highly successful. Indie games are often much smaller in scope than AAA titles. The big-budget model is designed around large teams with discrete job roles. However, indie game studios have much smaller teams, often with each person wearing many hats, and on occasion, game production is done by sole individuals. Because of this, the development process used by big-budget studios is often cumbersome for small teams. The indie development process is significantly looser and more holistic than the big-budget model. Let’s look at a typical design process for indies and individuals.

At the idea stage, it’s all about considering the possibilities. It’s rare that an indie team would have to write a pitch for stakeholders or management, so this step is just about spitballing to find a good idea for a game. 

Core Game

After settling on an idea, indie developers often start by getting the core of that idea functioning as quickly as possible. While some designers like to do more pre-production and planning first, it’s often very useful to have something real to serve as the seed that a game will grow out of. This could just be a stand-in character that can move around or the basic programming for how a puzzle game will work. More features will be added later as the design progresses. This is also the best time to select which engine or tools to use for the game: many of which are freely available.

Design

Deciding on a storyline, creating characters, developing maps and layouts, and thinking up gameplay models and features are at the core of the design process. Instead of being done by a discrete team of designers, this step is often made by the same people programming and creating art for the game.

Production

The production stage is much like the production stage above, except all mashed together. Instead of having a person for each role, only a couple of people are responsible for all of the games art, music, and programming. These steps are often done concurrently, and many are shared between teammates.

Testing

This stage is just as important for indie studios as it is for big-budget ones. Every game will have unexpected bugs and systems that need to be tweaked before the game is ready for the floor. This is usually performed by the same developers and designers who created the game, their patreon(or other crowdsource) followers, or their friends and family (depending on the studio).

In The End

Game design is a huge industry that continues to grow. More and more designers and developers are needed to create ever more fantastic worlds for players to explore. Indie or otherwise, there are many career opportunities for those interested in game design.

Source:https://careerkarma.com/blog/game-development-process/

[weekendwarriorblog]

30 Minute Experiment: Reset/Reboot #30ME

Okay, let’s do this. A bit earlier than usual since I’m up early but also because I missed Saturday’s #30ME and when I decided to try to do it yesterday instead, I couldn’t get Tumblr working, and it took all day for me to try actually just logging out and signing back in again. I’ll know now if that ever happens again.

Anyway, the topic I wanted to write about on Saturday that ended up seeming better for Easter Sunday... without me really knowing much about the actual holiday other than it representing rejuvenation, although that seemed rather apropos for the topic I had chosen which is the concept of either resetting or rebooting.

There’s a bit of a difference between the two, although in some ways they’re related. I consider resetting like literally going back to the beginning and starting from scratch, while rebooting feels more like reinventing yourself. Both ideas seem very timely and appropriate to write about because it seems like there is a lot of that going on in this month where many of us have been quarantined due to the pandemic. 

I see friends who always seem to be busy with their work baking bread and cooking and doing all these things that I seriously would have never imagined them having any interest in it. In some cases, I’m wondering if they’re bored or they’re enjoying these new hobbies so much that they might consider changing career paths and trying something new. This isn’t something that new as I’ve seen one friend who went from being a writer/editor at a serious New York newspaper pursuing his dream of writing comics. One long-time film critic colleague turned his back on that to bake brownies. Then there’s the case of my brother who was an amazing security and IT guy working for the likes of AOL and Langley before he decided to get a masters in library sciences, get into archiving and library, and now, he seems very happy and stress-free as a beekeeper. And a quite successful one, mind you, going by the honey his hives produce that I’ve putting in my tea the past week and enjoying via some honeycomb I nibble on at night.

The thing is that I’ve seen so many friends and family reboot and reinvent myself, and I just can’t seem to get into that head myself, even when it comes to using this downtime from movies to do something more constructively than doing this 30 minutes of free-writing each day. (I have been working on a few of my screenplays, too, and trying to do 30 minutes of that and 30 minutes of housecleaning every day to varying success.)

I understand why there is a necessity to reset and reboot and try to change thing when something like this pandemic happens, and it’s not like my life is so grand and wonderful as it is that I’m clutching onto it longingly not wanting to lose what I have. Far from it.

No, I can definitely see my life being better or different than it is, and I know full well that it’s up to me to take that plunge and reset/reboot. I have no one in my family or any friends that will push or prompt me to do so, since most of them know full well how tenacious I am. I have literally become that old dog that doesn’t want to learn any new tricks. I mean, it’s not like I’m sleeping that late or taking long naps or suffering from depression (which has been the case last year even though I was working and writing about movies again... for money, if not a living).

You see, I’ve already rebooted myself several times in my life already. I didn’t actually start writing regularly until about 25 years ago. I didn’t start writing about movies until about 18 years ago. Heck, I didn’t even start watching movies regularly until about 20 years ago. I just started doing it, discovered it was something I could do, and then discovered I could get paid to do it (and presumably read) so I just kept doing it... over and over... often with weekly columns that sometimes brought me more joy when they were done then when I was actually writing then. Don’t get me wrong. I do enjoy doing the Weekend Warrior now more than ever, especially since I have more freedom to write about what I want when I write. It’s just harder to get excited about it when I can’t talk about the box office or theatrical releases which have become a real passion for me during those 18 years or os.

So no, this won’t be me deciding to quit writing about movies. When they come back, I’ll be back to trying to do interviews with filmmakers of interesting movies I like, but it’s hard not to spend so much time not thinking about box office/movies and not having other things circulating around my brain. (if reading these 30 Minute Experiments hasn’t made it all too obvious.)

One thing I’ve been doing for the last few weeks that’s gotten me more and more excited every day are these nightly events called #TimsTwitterListeningParties. Maybe it seems obvious but Tim Burgess, the singer from The Charlatans (you may remember their break-out single “The Only One I Know” that played a lot on alternative and college radio in the ‘90s). Well, he started this thing where he picks an album for his followers to all listen to at the same time, but what’s even cooler about is that he’s been able to get cool musicians and people involved with those records to listen to them, too, and they tweet stories about the album and the songs and the making of the record and stories from that time, as well as showing pictures.  This has led to these amazing experiences with thousands of people listening to records like the Flaming Lips’ “The Soft Bulletin” while two members of the band discuss each track and how they came about, or The Beta Bands’ “3 EPS” where members of the band that have long broken up talk about it. Or yesterday with the double feature of Pulp’s “Different Class” and New Order’s “Power, Corruption and Lies” -- an album I never got into combined with an album I absolutely LOVE. 

These are going on for the next few weeks as Burgess has managed to get some amazing artists to talk about classic albums including some of my favorite bands like Supergrass, Ash, The Cult...and more and more... but also bands I never really got into like Mogwai and the Pogues and others who have made classic albums.

So what does this have to reboot/reset, Ed, you’re asking yourself while reading the last three paragraphs? Well, some of you may or may not know that I spent 20 years trying to be a recording engineer and producer of music, because I absolutely love music. I’m quickly learning that I can live without movies or visual stimulation but I can not live without music, and the more I listen to these great albums, the more it reminds me why I moved to NYC and wanted to be a recording engineer and make great records. 

That didn’t exactly work out for me for various reasons that include my (still present) immaturity, but I definitely feel that I’ve gotten better at dealing with people i.e not musicians and the more I hear this record, the more I wonder if I should just do something to get back to my love of music. 

The thing is that I didn’t always love the process of making records -- and maybe I’ll discuss in this in a future installment -- but as soon as I think back to all my time spent behind a console or computer screen recording and mixing, I also think about how much of a compromise is involved with making music, whether you’re a producer/engineer working with a band or an engineer working with a producer or whatever. I just never felt like I was good enough to earn the respect of some of my peers, and I found that writing was something I could do by myself and either my editors liked what I did and gave it the thumbs up or (in the worst cases) would rewrite something themselves, completely changing any passion I put into the original piece. The latter hasn’t happened in a very long time... okay, maybe a few times... but it also leaves me in a place where I wonder if the best way for me personally to reboot/reset would be find a way to do what I love, get paid to do it and not have to constantly compromise everything I was doing.  I kind of had that at ComingSoon.net but had other issues that probably came out of not having the power or control I wanted to call any of the shots. I’m not sure if that changed too much when I started doing freelance work but the money just never was as good.

So the question now is... do I reset? Do I start again doing something brand new at my advanced age and see what happens? Or do I simply reset, where I find a way to reinvent myself, so I don’t get as bored or frustrated with my situation which is something I’m constantly facing.

Listen, I know I’m not gonna start baking bread for a living, but I wonder if there’s a way that I can get back into the music business in some way.. as a manager or record label person or marketing. Obviously, I don’t have as much recent experience as others, and maybe I’m not in tune with NEW music, but I do know what makes a good song that makes me happy so why couldn’t I find a way to help promote music that makes others happy? Surely my advance years gives me a little bit of credibility of having knowledge and experience that maybe someone in their 20s out of college would’t have, even if they obviously would have more energy and enthusiasm than me.

I was thinking of all these great record producers who are now in their 60s and 70s who are still making great records, so maybe my reset/reboot has to be about going back to what I love and doing something that can keep me happy but also give me a little more control of what or how I’m doing it. It’s definitely something I’ll keep thinking about over the next few weeks or however longer I’m trapped in isolation. (Believe me, it’s not been fun sitting in this tiny cramped and cluttered apartment by myself for four weeks but I’ve found things to keep me entertained and relatively happy... now I just need to find a way to earn an income or living doing so.)

I’m almost out of time so ... yup, that’s it for me. Back to writing this week’s Weekend Warrior! Tomorrow!

#30Me #ResetReboot #30minuteexperiment

[kazynsims]

February 2020 Patch Notes

To mark the 20th Anniversary of The Sims, Maxis released a big patch, fixing a lot of issues and bringing new content. As a birthday celebration, players were gifted a new hot tub and a new selection of songs, whist console players were gifted the Child Statue, which for some was a slight disappointment after the hype that surrounded this patch. Many of those players had paid for the Perfect Patio stuff pack, specifically for the hot tub, so I understand the frustration. On a personal level, I’m happy with the hot tub, the swatches a really nice and I can see myself using it a lot, however I do wonder whether bringing back some classic items from previous games would have been better received by the community. There was a lot of speculation around making babies actual sims, rather than objects, and whilst this would have been great, having a games designer husband, I know that there are engine limitations and the sheer amount of work that this would take is huge. All in all, the patch was ok, but missed the mark by some distance. Maybe another time.

Anyway, here are the patch notes, courtesy of EA: 

The Child Statue makes its grand appearance across consoles

The Music

The following music has been added to the alternative station:

“Nicknames”

Performed by Dayglow

Written by Sloan Struble

Copyright Control  

Recording courtesy of AWAL Digital Ltd.

“4am”

Performed by girl in red

Written by Marie Ulven

Copyright Control  

Recording courtesy of AWAL Recordings

“prom dress”

Performed by mxmtoon

Produced by Robin Skinner & mxmtoon

Written by Maia M-T

Published by Songtrust Music Publishing

Recording courtesy of mxmtoon LLC under exclusive license to House Arrest/The Orchard

By Arrangement with Bank Robber Music

“Win You Over”

Performed by Whethan & Bearson feat. SOAK

Written by Ethan Snoreck, Jakob Bjørn Hansen, Birdie Monds-Watson, Anthony Whiting and Emily Phillips

Published by Whethan Publishing/These Are Pulse Songs (BMI) c/o Pulse Publishing Administration, Next Wave Music Publishing, Universal - PolyGram Int. Tunes, Inc. on behalf of Universal Music Publishing Ltd.,  Universal Music Corp. on behalf of itself and PW Arrangements, and Domino Publishing Company USA (ASCAP)

Whethan appears courtesy of Atlantic Recording Corp.

SOAK appears courtesy of Rough Trade Records

Recording courtesy of Ultra Records LLC

General Issues

Fixed an issue where Nice or High Quality harvestables would disappear from Sims’ inventories after Travel or Save/Load.

Fixed an issue where Freelancer Career tasks would not complete after Sims would Travel.

Fixed an issue in which the game would jump to Ultra Speed randomly when some Service NPC, specifically Maids, were on the Lot. Talk about speed cleaning!

Photo frames used within Gallery Uploads would not retain their chosen color once those lots were downloaded from The Gallery. They’ve been properly chastised and will listen to you now.

Freelancer gigs can now complete and/or update accordingly while on Vacation. So if you want to work while you vacay I guess you can now. Sucker.

Fixed an issue where two “Tuck In” interactions were able to be selected when Children slept on any bed.

Sims that were seated at a 6 seat round table can now clean up the dishes.

Child Sims will now be able to enjoy Quick Meals again!

Fixed an issue where Sims didn’t write a genre book when “Write Genre Book” was selected.

Multiple duplicate interactions should no longer appear in pie menus when you have certain objects in your inventory.

The Jet Set Luxury Bath was listed as being Unbreakable when but Sims took that as a challenge and broke it. It has been recalled and fixed so now it truly is unbreakable.

Speaking of Unbreakable, we fixed an issue with Hot Tubs and Stereos where unbreakable upgrades would not work if these objects were in use when upgrading them.

Fixed an issue in which some Sims could stand on, or walk through solid objects.

Adding a Sim to an existing household via the Create a Sim Stories feature will no longer subtract Simoleons from the household.

You can now extinguish a fire, even if the fire is within another object.

Sims can now Scrap the unfinished paintings of visiting Sims

Light intensity will no longer reset when setting Auto Lights options

Fixed an issue which made the item Tiny Globe & Sycee of the Prosperous Moon appear twice in Build Mode

Half Wall Trim can now be applied to half walls on all levels of your lot

Fixed an issue that caused Lots downloaded from The Gallery to be placed backwards and not being able to rotate them to an appropriate view

Households downloaded from The Gallery should now have their starting funds set to the correct amount, and not just the base 20,000 Simoleons

Child Sims will no longer receive Whims related to workouts

Walls no longer disappear when Taking a Photo in a Basement level room that does not have a staircase

Fixed an issue in which Hygiene was not being resolved when Taking a Shower on any Bathtub and Shower Combo

Bookshelves will no longer have the option to purchase University books if you do not own Discover University

Sims will no longer flicker on and off the landing pad, when in the Rocket Ship using the WooHoo or Try for Baby interactions

Sims in the Supreme Villain career working on the mischief interaction task can now use the Slablet to Troll the Forums to complete the task

Small rugs can no longer be placed over the cutouts created by stairs

Caterer Sims will now be able to make a Cake and complete their Party event goals

Some example interactions that were reported: “Play Fetch”, ”Give Potion”, “Blackmail”, “Scan Here”. The LastException related to this issue should also be fixed.

Still not sure a stereo and hot tub are the best combo from a safety perspective

Specifically Baby Bassinets…

This could occur if a large object caught fire. You would have to wait until the fire spread outside the bounds of the large object in order to extinguish it.

Artistic types can be so rude, just leaving their unfinished work for you to clear up

Get Together

Toddlers will now route appropriately when selecting ‘Plan Outfit’ on Closets. Well, as appropriately as those slow little Sims move anyway

Get To Work

Aliens will now display selected options for Eyebrows and Beards accurately in Create A Sim.

Fixed an issue where Scientist Sims would record their findings in Notebooks twice.

Fixed an issue where Scientist Sims would record their findings in Notebooks twice.

We addressed an issue that could prevent Sims from not being able to ring up customers who attempt to purchase from the warming rack.

Some boots, along with the Sims feet, were disappearing when the camera was zoomed all the way out. This should no longer occur.

The "Refer for Surgical Treatment" interaction is now available on surgery tables that have had their color altered with the bb.enablefreebuild cheat.

Oh wait, now I see where they picked up that habit.

City Living

There were a number of confusing situations that arose as a result of Invites your Sims would receive. In some cases these would appear as two invites for the same event, one that was the “hey, I just wanted you to know” invite, and the other would be the real invite.

Sims with the Shrewd reward trait weren’t as shrewd as they thought they were. We have restored their shrewd’ness and they should now actually receive the money they so rightfully shrewded away at the end of each week.

Fixed an issue in which some shirts in Create A Sim would not tuck in appropriately into skinny jeans.

Some Sims just want you to know that their invite was coming by sending a pre-invite I guess.

We blame it on bad investments, the cd market apparently didn’t mean compact discs.

Seasons

Sims can now complete New Year resolutions on any lot, and not just their home lots.

The Lottery Holiday is back in your calendars! It should not be a surprise disappearing act any longer.

Solved an issue with swimwear that made it display incorrectly and no one wants a swimsuit malfunction!

We spoke to the Holiday Gnomes and they have agreed to stop dropping seed packets if your Sims are not on Lot when the Holiday ends.

Fixed an issue where Weather would affect items inside buildings.

Flower Bunny’s contract has been renewed for them to appear on any Holiday or Tradition that they are scheduled to.

Mandrake and Valerian Root plants are now able to be planted indoors when it is Too Cold if Simmers have Realm of Magic installed.

Holiday Gnomes will no longer break Unbreakable objects when having a negative relationship with them.

The pedestal gnome will no longer spawn as part of the Harvestfest gnomes tradition.

They wanted to spread holiday cheer… or they were attempting to bring about the end of Simanity, and usher in a new world order. Tomayto, tomahto.

We don’t know what was done to make them angry, but even as magical as they are, they should not be breaking the Unbreakable.

Get Famous

Married Celebrity Sim Couples will no longer React in Disgust with each other then they enter the same room.

Household members will no longer react to members with Pristine Reputation every time they travel together.

Fixed an issue that caused Recording a Product Review to fail if the Sim had previously interrupted a review by traveling to another Lot.

The Well Suited and G.R.A.N. talent agencies are back in business! Gigs from these agencies will now display appropriately.

Super Speed 3 should now work when Sims sleep in their Sleeping Pods and have a pet.

Actor Sims can now Check Open Auditions properly when returning from Work. Get that bread! Be a starving artist no more!

Sims’ Acting Gigs Career Panel will now get updated properly on performing tasks. Credit for your work? Imagine that!

They are just B-list celebrities though, can you blame them?

Island Living

Fixed an issue where Odd Jobs tasks were not able to be completed.

Fixed an issue where Conch Shells were not able to be put in Sims’ Inventories.

Sims can now see their recorded findings in the Notification Wall when performing “Examine Water Thoughtfully” on the Fishing Board.

Released Fish will actually be released back into the water and not be stored in Sims’ Inventory.

Discover University

Sims will no longer be accused of cheating on their coursework or homework if they don’t actually cheat.

Term Presentations should not have missing interactions any longer

We addressed some feedback that getting A’s was too easy. Please be aware that your Sim will have to complete the coursework in order to consistently get good grades

Students will no longer autonomously taunt each other about University Superiority unless they're at the Game Day organization event or have one of these traits: Childish, Evil, Hot-Headed, and Bro

Please be aware that a Sim’s hunger, energy, and bladder motives will no longer refill on their own just before class

Fixed an issue in which Enhancing Utility Bots would get cancelled inappropriately

Roommates should no longer Bring Food home every time they return

Sims can now Turn Off Computer Glasses when moving to other neighborhoods

Sims that complete the debate showdown, will once again be able to change into their other outfits

Term Papers will now always count toward the course’s final grades

Fixed an issue where the following Build Mode items were not able to be placed on the LearnWell Desk: Lex Light By Dex Pix, Q-Bik Tabletop Mood Light, and Great Gramps’ Light can now be placed properly

Fixed an issue where “The Secret Society Masks” were not being unlocked in Create A Sim

The shower wall will no longer turn on when a Sim attempts to repair it

Active Sims should no longer get the “Not Enough Exercise” tense buff if they have enrolled in the Soccer Fútbol after school activity, or choose to juggle a soccer fútbol ball

Sims must now meet all of the promotion requirements in order to be promoted in the Education Career

Attempting to interact with a bike rider should no longer cause your Sim to route fail when performing the interaction

The Make Offering to Sprites interaction should no longer be unavailable if you only have harvestables in your inventory

Reaching level 5 of the Law Career now correctly unlocks the lawyer suits for your Sim in Create a Sim

Bots enhanced to level 3 will no longer automatically enhance to level 4 upon activation

Interacting with a Sim riding a bike will no longer cause the Sim, your Sim, the bike, parts of the world, or any other potential object or thing to disappear

Inviting your professor to hangout will now actually have the professor arrive to hangout

Servo can now complete the StrangerVille story

Servo Fun and Social motive descriptions no longer incorrectly refer to Servo as a Sim

Bicycles can now be searched for in Build Mode by using the term “bike”

ExoMech suit can be worn by teen Sims, and are visible too

Sims already wearing a helmet, will no longer change into another helmet to ride a bike

Sims in the same household will now automatically know the others degree program

Sims will no longer receive multiple signing bonuses from degree relevant careers. Only one signing bonus is awarded in any seven day period

Woohoo in Shower will no longer give fame

“Chat About Scandalous Lawsuit” now provides fun

Choosing to cancel the Practice Presentation interaction will now cancel the interaction

Servos can no longer get sick

Servos can no longer purchase the Seldom Sleepy reward trait

Sims on probation can now be asked to study with

Sims should no longer route fail when attempting to take a Pregnancy test in a bathroom stall

Asking the Repo Person to not take your stuff will now provide you a Text Notification as to whether or not you had an impact on the Repo Person’s decision

Sprites no longer appear around the Sim after the buff expires after leaving the Secret Society

Sims will no longer see the option to remove Robo Arm when choosing to remove Computer Glasses

Fixed an issue in which the option to Pay Student Loans was available even though students had enough Simoleons to cover their Tuition

Sims can now be warned about losing scholarships if they choose to withdraw from the term

Some lots were unloadable in Britechester and made the game unresponsive. That should no longer be the case

Although I wouldn’t turn it down if they did

Outdoor Retreat

Sims can now roast at a campfire without needing a seating object nearby

A visual issue was resolved where highlighting the Granite Falls Blossom would result in a strange texture for Simmers who had StrangerVille installed.

Spa Day

Fixed an issue where Sims did not have the option to “Take Bath with Soaks” and “Take Mud Bath” on Showertubs.

Sims can now again get massages autonomously at Spas.

Dine Out

NPC Sims will now eat more at Restaurants.

Photos taken of Experimental Foods will now display correctly when put into frames.

Food was sometimes not able to be ordered or delivered when the game was exited or reloaded from the Main Menu.

Vampires

“Influence Emotions” interaction will no longer be available to Vampires that have not yet unlocked this perk

Jungle Adventure

Several objects were not properly being found when using color filters. These should be filterable now

StrangerVille

StrangerVille music has been added to the Lin-Z Smart Speaker

Realm of Magic

Two ‘Inferniate’ interactions display on some rugs. As much as some hate those rugs’ patterns, only one ‘Inferniate’ is more than enough

Fixed an issue where Occult eyes would not properly apply to Spellcasters

Unplayed NPCs not living in Glimmerbrook will no longer appear in Glimmerbrook performing Magic

“Challenge to Magic Duel at Dueling Grounds” performed by a broom and non-broom using duelist will now take place at the dueling grounds

Spellcasters with the “Knowledge is Magic” Perk will now be able to complete the “Finish Reading 3 Books” aspiration goal

Fixed an issue where some Spellcasters would not complete the “Learn a Spell” goal, even though they would learn a Spell

Spellcasters will now be able to Do Laundry while having “Always Transportalate” enabled

Fixed an issue in which Pet Familiars would not stop foraging, never bringing back their findings.

Sages now can be chosen to Play With for a game of Chess

Random non Spellcaster Sims no longer will show up as being Sages

Fixed an issue in which Cauldron made food was not able to be eaten as leftovers when looking at the refrigerator

Sims on cursed lots will no longer always catch fire in all attempts while using the Fireplace or the Stove

Fixed an issue in which sounds from The Magic Realm could be heard in Del Sol Valley if you had Get Famous installed

Fixed an issue in which some shirts in Create A Sim would not tuck in appropriately

Spellcaster Sims can now clean potty messes, child messes, and kitty litter messes by casting Scruberoo

Spellcasters will no longer have duplicate makeup options in CAS

Spellcasters should no longer land in unroutable locations when using the “Always Use Brooms” spell

Spellcasters that cast Mischief Spells will now get awarded Mischief Skill when doing so

Male spellcasters will no longer have a chance of going bald after performing Rite of Dissolution

yfHair_GP08Braids now properly appears within the Afro-Textured texture filter

Mischief spells are now counted towards the Criminal Career daily task Mischief Interaction

Spellcasters with the Spellcraft and Sorcery aspiration will no longer reset or cause a LastException after writing songs

Perfect Patio

We fixed an issue where hired Maids would often change into Swimwear and use the Hot Tub instead of completing their tasks.

It can be so difficult to find good help these days

Romantic Garden

Sims in the Freelance careers, including freelance photography, will no longer be able to Wish for Promotion using the Wishing Well

Sims in Conservationist, Educator, Actor, Style Influencer, Military, Critic, Social Media, or Politician careers will now be able to Wish for a Promotion using the Wishing Well.

Since they are freelance, they can promote themselves without wishing for it. They just need to update their business card.

Backyard

Fixed an issue in which some shirts in Create A Sim would not tuck in appropriately into skinny jeans

Vintage Glamour

Addressed several issues that caused the Butler to fail to perform their assigned tasks

Fixed an issue that prevented Butlers to help put Toddler Sims to Bed

The Butler should no longer make food for themselves when they are not hungry

Laundry Day

Clothes moved to the clothing line to dry were not getting dry. We’ve reduced the moisture in the air and it should work now

Moschino

Emotional auras in photographs can now be toggled on/off

Fixed an issue where some photos were taken were a bit blurry when placed in frames in Live Mode

Tripods placed on floors other than 1, 2, or 3, should no longer cause the camera to change floors when attempting to take a photo

Ask to Pose interaction should no longer fail if the Sim attempts to run the interaction from the Open Street

yfHair_SP15SlickedBackLong was displaying with a grey line.

“Take Photo Of” was allowed to target unmet NPC Sims. Creepy and awkward for sure. Go meet them first for goodness sake like a normal Sim

Freelance Photographer Sims can now see all proper tasks for gigs ‘Genius Professor Outdoor Wear Study’ and ‘Everyday Activities Fashion Shoot.’

Freelance Fashion Photography Gigs ‘Finding the Essence of Efficiency with Everyday Style’ and ‘Fantastic Formula for Formal Style’ now display the correct information for Pay, Due Date, and/or Required Skill Level.

The Amp Stack now functions as a Stereo, living to its full potential. Rock on!

Burnt photos would not be charred anymore once placed outside Sims’ inventory.

Happy simming folks!

#thesims4