I Haven’t Got the Words.
We all know that life sucks. There are things to wrestle with. Relationships, money, jobs, friends, enemies, family, …your local sports team is underperforming. (again)
Whatever your personal hell contains. We’ve all been there.
That doesn’t excuse you from smiling and spreading joy wherever you can! …never has
I was contacted by my mother this past weekend. She was telling me about her coworker’s son. He seems like an overall good kid. According to my mom, this kid was at daycare, school, or whatever. While he was there, he was playing with his treasured Pokemon cards. Shocking, I know, a kid with Pokemon cards. Another child approaches and offers a trade. My young friend’s cards for a few “really good cards.”
Now at our age, we know better, but this particular boy is rather young so the trade is made. He was left empty handed. His prized Pokemon cards are gone.
My mom asked me if I still had any of my old cards and if I would be willing to part with them.
Why the hell wouldn’t I?
The next day, I gave my mom 95 “really good cards” to present to this boy.
Two days after that, I was given this hand-made card and a story about how I am being worshiped as a god by this child for my kindness and contributions to his card collection.
Some kid I don’t even know sees me as his hero.
My name is Robert…and I’m fucking awesome.
Only the Lonely
I’ve had a little extra free time on my hands as of late.
-Putting yourself on the personal bereavement list will do that.-
Finding things to occupy my time isn’t hard. I have video games, TV, work (which I was skipping Monday) sports and alcohol. What lifts my spirits most, these days, is surfing the world of Revision3.
I know it’s not a new thing. Their website, however, is organized. Like a specialized Youtube where you can rely on scheduled web-shows and news to entertain yourself. If you are new to things like “epic meal time” or “tekzilla,” I suggest you check this site out.
It’s essentially how digital TV should be.
If you don’t like to watch clever iProgramming…there’s always porn.
Virtue Needs Some Cheaper Thrills
For those of you who are not familiar with the almighty StumbleUpon application, it’s an incredible time-waster but occasionally you find something altogether wonderful.
This evening, as I trolled through Reddit and checked my Facebook, I hit that unassuming “Stumble!” button out of sheer instinct. THIS is what I found.
So, I read Calvin & Hobbes pretty religiously as a kid, and when they took it out of the newspaper I was hard pressed to find any and all publications I could get my hands on. There was something so alluring about the imagination of that particular duo that has always held my fascination. Calvin is impulsive, bratty, hates school, and hates girls even more. Hobbes is clever, snarky, fun-loving, and just plain adorable. Whether they are flying F-14 tomcats or trying to survive another night of the babysitter, those two together hold a very special place in my heart.
What comic strips did you read? Are they any you still follow in the paper or online? Sometimes I wonder if web-comics (e.g. Penny Arcade) may have already replaced our old Sunday funnies as the advent of the blog follows the mighty fall of the ink and paper newspaper. Leave us a comment and let us know what you like to read (besides us, of course).
I’m off to play some Calvinball.
Parody
I don’t know how many of you out there play Minecraft and don’t know about this; but there was a youtube video posted recently that is a parody of an Usher song (DJ Got Us Fallin’ In Love Again) with Minecrafters in mind. The video is entitled “Revenge” a Minecraft parody of Usher’s DJ Got Us Fallin’ In Love Again- you’ll find the link below.
Cheers
~Echo
New Demos
As of two, maybe three days ago two new downloadable demos have been released on XBL (Xbox Live.) :
Bodycount- I have yet to try it so I’ll get back to you (I’m currently downloading it…)
Warhammer 40,000 Space Marine: I’ve been a fan of the 40k franchise since I was a child (about 7 or so.) I’m also a former player of the tabletop war strategy game. I can say that I’m quite pleased with the feel and look of the game. The character feels heavy and powerful, the weapons are devastating, the enemies are plentiful and blood flows like water. The environment is grand and epic in scale compared to the already seven foot tall marine; it’s dark and gritty and the sounds are amazing. As I expected all the characters are voiced by Englishmen but that’s fine (GW is English after all. ) The graphics are beautiful and deep with long draw distances and bold colors. I think that Relic and GW used the Havok engine to its potential.
All in all in my (slightly) biased opinion I suggest you give it a download and try it yourself: 4/5
People can say that it’s a knock off of Gears of War or Starcraft but I have to say that the company behind the game- Games Workshop- has been around for years and years; at least as far back as 1988 to my personal knowledge; and there have been strategy games on the PC (Space Hulk and Dawn of War) as well as card games (Space Hulk CCG.)
Free Music Ain’t Cheap
There has been an epidemic of “free” music hosting lately, and I think a lot of it may have branched from the fall of music-based social networks like Myspace… but that’s for another post. In this article, I’d like to go over a couple of latest and greatest ways to listen to music, legitimately, for free.
PANDORA: Probably one of the easiest and most popular ways to listen to music online for free. Yes, it might kill your bandwidth locally, but it’s nice to be able to tune into music based on what you already know you like. The free service does include some advertisements, and yes, they can be annoying. Once you’ve listened to the same ad for 50 free business cards for the eighth time, you begin to question using that channel anymore. Fear not! For those without a college-strained finance regimen, they offer “Pandora One,” which is a sexy no-advert version of Pandora for a meager subscription cost. Check it out at Pandora.com.
8-TRACKS: This is one that I’ve recently gotten back into, after creating a profile on there about a year ago. This fast-growing community of music-lovers is based around the concept of music by genre/idea. User created mixes of at least eight tracks, with no more than two tracks by the same artist, push you to think outside the box. Free to sign up and free to listen, 8tracks is an interesting group of people. You can really find anything on there, as well; from dubstep to country, from indie rock to classic ragtime jazz, you’ll find what you want to hear. Check it out at 8tracks.com.
SPOTIFY: A very recent addition to the free music scene, Spotify is a new, downloadable program that lets you listen to music and, if you want, purchase it. With a very iTunes-esque interface, Spotify is still pretty sleek and user friendly. Unlike its Apple cousin, Spotify lets you listen to full songs and albums without the obligation of buying them. A growing community of users also help keep things fresh. As of now, the free version is only available by invite, but the subscription service is fully up and running. Check it out at Spotify.com.
There are plenty more ways to listen to free music out there, but these are just a few I’ve recently found interesting. If there’s one you’d like us to talk about in a future post, throw us a comment and we’ll check it out!
The Luck of the Draw
So I find it amusing that I’ve recently started playing the various “nerdy” card games again: Magic, Pokemon, Yu-gi-oh.
It’s funny because when you go out in public and see people playing these games, you want to call them nerds. In the privacy of my own home now, I respect these people
A Silly Remake
So I saw Fright Night this last weekend. I dare say it was magnificent. The film is a re-imagining of the classic film involving a kid and his neighbor who’s actually a ruthless vampire.
This version, in my opinion, was better. Not just because of the stars in it, but because it wasn’t a straight remake. The characters were completely different.
Peter Vincent: once an old late night TV character is now a Vegas showman-Timelord. Brilliant.
I’m a little saddened by the fact that it opened so poorly this weekend. Seriously, everybody, go see it. It’s worth it.
All I’m Missing is an MMO
As I write this, I notice that there are several tabs open on Safari. Each one with a different social media site. Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, etc. I may or may not have Netflix playing in the background somewhere as well.
I’m working hard here. Geeking out because I need to. The fact is, we here at 8BitAntics miss doing the show. We miss touching nerves, arguing over music, and interacting with our listeners online. Thus, we’re bringing it back.
This has been in the works for a long time coming now!
If you’ll notice above (I’ll wait while you look) we have some social media icons in the banner. We want you to follow us on Twitter, Facebook, and Youtube too. You never know when we will start making movies or “vlogging.”
ALSO!!! We have a poscast in the works. Robert Siskipedia has been hard at work putting one together.
All in all, we’re back. Deal with it.
Welcome to the new home of 8bit
The show must go on. No we don’t have a radio station to broadcast from, but who cares? We have each other. This site is a new avenue for 8 bit antics. We’ll update you on everything nerdy and cool…to us at least. Please feel free to chat with us, send us ideas and complain about our points of view. Welcome to our brand new (totally epic) home.
Thank you for listening when we had the show,
-Rob (Siskipedia)
Posted from my office (the bathroom) on my iPad
