Friday Wrap | 8/30/24

My Dad was in a car accident two weeks ago. Just rolling from a standstill when the light went green and someone buzzed the red and t-boned him. Two broken ribs and totaled car, but thankfully he was otherwise unharmed. He is on the mend and we went to pick out a new car three days later.

I’ve worked in insurance for too long to know if “indemnity” is a word normal people are familiar with. If they aren’t or you aren’t, it is the contractual obligation to make someone whole again after some sort of loss. Pain and suffering has a definition and covers an objective and subjective amount of money related to your pain and bills associated with it. But no one is willing to insure your time and inconvenience.

Need to get a family member to drop you at the rental place, spending 20 minutes on hold with the autobody shop, or being forced into the financial decision to buy a car now instead of the amorphous “in a few years” you tell others. Nope you deal with all of that. Life throws us curveballs all the time, but when they are the mistakes of other humans they stink that much more. No conclusion or solution here, just shaking my fist at the universe.

Playing

• Tactical Breach Wizards - I’ve been following Tom Francis since his transition from video game writer to video game developer and the release of Gunpoint. That was ages and ages ago. Now he is releasing his third game and you can really see the journey honing his craft as both a developer and game designer. Excellent stuff.

Watching

• Monkey Man - We have been threatening our kids with a good time all summer. To “come watch a movie with your mother and me”. They never do, they always have a friend waiting for them to play a video game. I get it, but man did they miss out with this one. Little weird and pace issues in the final act, but overall I loved this cocktail of violence, striking visuals, and cool vibes.

• Delicious in Dungeon - I’ve seen enough interesting, creative, and inspiring anime to not start a description with “weird”. But this is a little weird, and that is great. Cooking + fantasy dungeon crawling by Trigger, who also made Cyberpunk: Edgerunners.

Listening

• Fidlar: Sad Kids - A new album from a band I like in a genre I only rarely dabble in. Skate & surf punk are what I assumed they were, but not until I looked it up did confirm that guess. Fidlar’s self titled album from 2013 has been in evergreen rotation for me and some of the song’s off this new album will join that fold.

Car Channels? AutoTube?

I recently algorithmed my way into a new genre on YouTube. The video above popped into my feed and was entertaining, but not habit forming. But of course now they knew I was willing to watch a car video and a flood of them showed up in my feed. I’ve gravitated toward a specific type. Build videos that are equal parts entertaining and informative. 20-30 minutes long getting very detailed on a brake systems overhaul for example. All of them are for 80’s and 90’s cars and swapping parts for performance and comfort.

‘95 Civic Build (Donut)

A ten part series to almost completely gut and rebuild a ‘95 Civic hatchback to outperform a top of the line ‘23 Civic Type R.

‘87 BMW e28 Build (StanceWorks)

Not a series, but a single video converting a stock and vintage BMW e28 into a better performing and looking daily driver. All on a cheap-ish budget of $7500. This is the kind of project scope I can day dream about later in life. Just me in a garage confused as hell trying to replace the wiring in an ‘81 El Camino.

‘97 Nissan 240sx (Bigtime)

A brand new series from two host that left Donut to do their own then on their own channel. A garage project to overhaul a 97’ 240SX into a drift racer.

‘96 Ford Ranger Build (Donut)

By far the most extreme series of the bunch I’ve highlighted here. Converting a busted up Ranger into a Off-Road rally racer to compete in the NORRA 500. This project is in many cases down to the frame to build new structure for extreme racing parts. I love seeing people welding and welding well (a skill I’d like to learn), but this is the least achievable version of the hobby I am day dreaming about. Both from a skill building and monetary prospective.

Friday Wrap | 8/16/24

Back into the rhythms of work again, soccer practice for the 23/24 season has started, and the kids are back to school next week. The natural order of things has returned. With that comes my desire to get back into workout habits I slipped out of during the chaos of the summer. I am two weeks into running at soccer practices and lifting in the garage and it feels good.

Playing

• SteamWorld Heist II - Another Besties recommendation. This was no where on my radar, but I have played all of the other ones and this follow up to the 2015 turn-based tactics game is stellar.

• V Rising - I thought I was out and then a friend started a dedicated server and it pulled me right all the way back in.

Watching

• Bigger! with Brennan and Izzy - A 45 minute filmed improv in the vein of Middleditch & Schwartz that cracked me up from start to finish.

• Route None - New football explainer channel on interesting stories in the sport with slick animations. Yes, yes, and yes. There are only 5 videos up, so you could just watch all of them, but if you must start somewhere, go with “What is the Least Competitive League in world football?”

Listening

• Bando Stone and The New World - Childish Gambino - This album is sticky in a way that most albums aren’t for me these day. I find myself putting it on in the car regularly from start to finish.

• Search Engine - A new season of just spun up and opened last week with an excellent episode titled “Is there a sane way to follow this election?” featuring Ezra Klein.

Friday Wrap | 8/9/24

We just spent a week in Annapolis at a house on the bay with family. It was the chillest of weeks. Lots of naps, late night swims, board games at the dining room table, catching up with family, laughing, trips into town, and a tubing adventure. I caught up on a lot of reading, gaming, and podcast in between all of that.

Playing

• Destiny 2 - Running out my final return to Destiny 2 and their final DLC. It has been fun, but the UI is a joke and the tedious core mechanics masked by fun gameplay have revealed themselves once again. Also hard to support this company going forward.

• Deep Rock Galactic: Survivor - Grabbed this for the trip on the Steam Deck after hearing the Besties talk about it a while ago. Some mindless fun in the vein of Vampire Survivor that pairs nicely with podcast listening.

• Chained Together - Cheap thrills and big laughs playing this with the kids before we left for the Bay. It looks like crap, but as a group co-op activity it was a fun time to be chained together and count out “Three, two, one…ah you jumped early again!”

Watching

• House of the Dragon s2 - Wrapped this up, enjoyed the journey, but not the destination. It is hard to not assume this is a byproduct of the streaming wars. Max stretching out the content they are investing in to try and keep subscribers.

• Gawx Art - New to me YouTube channel that is a good blend of high quality production and art process. His Q&A “How To Make Videos Like a Pro” is a good place to start.

• The Mighty Grand Piton - A short that is being turned into feature film by The Line, an animation studio I’ve followed for a while now on Instagram.

Reading

• There Is No Antimemetics Division - Picked this up in the Spring, got distracted and set it down. Picked it up on vacation last week and fell for it hard. Still working on it slowly, but enjoying the concept of memory manipulation in a sci-fi clandestine government setting.

• How to Watch Football - This showed up in the mail while we were away. A fun coffee table/bathroom book for bite sized bits on soccer both modern and it’s history by the Tifo guys.

So anyone checking this space may have noticed that I ran out of steam on what had basically turned into a weekly YouTube recommendation post. I’ve been in a YouTube rut and I got bored with the concept. So on to new things. Trying out a Mikey Short inspired mini-journal. We’ll see how it goes.

July was a good month for soccer

Planned and unplanned we ended up at three soccer matches in July. In a month that also contained the hottest day on earth, that would seem like a bad thing. But between great soccer, surprising weather, and good friends/family it ended up being a killer month for football.

Colombia v. Uruguay - Copa America (Charlotte, NC)

This might be a once in a lifetime sporting experience, let alone soccer one. The crowd was 95% Colombia fans that sang, cheered, booed, and poured out support for their national team the whole game. The 75,000 capacity stadium was sold out and swayed with a crowd that never sat down. The soccer on the field was great too. Luis Diaz was an unstoppable force, bending defenders two at time one way while he went another. Seeing Darwin Nunez on the other end of that spectrum was wild too. Doing everything right, pace, space, passing, and then letting it all down with wild shots off the mark. It was a night I will never forget and has me hyped to see the World Cup here in two years.

Manchester City v. Celtic - 2024 FC Series (Chapel Hill, NC)

We have been to a few of these summer exhibition games before. They pit big European clubs against each other in friendlies to promote the clubs and the leagues in growing markets. They are generally a fun time and this was no exception. We lucked into tickets from a friend and had 50 yard line seats to see a mostly B-team Man City face a near full strength Celtic. The highlights were a grip of goals, with a 4-3 Celtic win, getting to see Haaland play again, and seeing the much smaller Celtic fanbase out cheer the largely new to City crowd.

Richmond Kickers v. Greenville Triumph SC - USL League One (Richmond, VA)

The very much smaller of the three games we attended is a good night out regardless. Our local club offers up good beer, a fun crowd, and a ratty old stadium that is our ratty old stadium. And we like it that way. Two years ago were a top of the table team and have since slid down to the lower end. Not a deal breaker though, because as mentioned, good beer and good crowd. We got invited, through one of the boys teammates, to sit up in a box above the crowd which was a cool/different experience.

Still not out here skating

I don’t know that I will ever be compelled in my old age to regularly skate again. But I will likely still be watching new parts until the day that I die.

Local legend and named shoe possessor, Gilbert Crockett, put out extra clips from a 2015 part I had not seen before. It is jammed packed with spots from all over Richmond, including the high school I went to.

Secondly, Andy Anderson, who I’ve mentioned over and over again here, just put out a brand new part that bends the mind. A chef’s sampler of every cuisine that exist in skating, at the least the interesting ones, all done with care, craft, and perfection.

Friday YouTube Wrap Up 4/19/24

Went down a Penn & Teller Fool Us rabbit hole this week. Submitted for you, is the very best one I watched.

Friday YouTube Wrap Up 4/12/24

Kasso! This Japanese reality skateboarding competition couldn’t have aired originally in such a compressed format, but boy do I love carving off all the cruft and just getting to the exciting bits.

Media Log - March 2024 Edition

These months are flying by. Just like January and February, below is an accounting of my media diet for the past month. Tracking what I watch here and loading this draft up with show, movies, music, and games I might consume, a backlog, has been useful too.

Dan Soder: On The Road - I’ve been following Dan Soder via his podcast and old stand up clips since he did his first guest appearance on Pablo Torre Finds Out back in September. He has been promoting this straight to YouTube special for a bit and I was looking forward to it. Happy to say it delivered. (B+)

Adventure Zone vs. Dracula - The McElroy father and sons are back at it with a new setting and story in their ever evolving table top podcast. This one is monster themed D&D 5e and one of the best arcs they’ve done in a while. I’ve been keeping up with this podcast since it started and this might be my favorite version of this thing since the original story. (A)

Abbott Elementary Season 3 - It’s back, it’s great, and we always walk away from each episode with sore faces (from the laughing) and full hearts (from the positive vibes). (A)

Schoolboy Q: Blue Lips - My album of the year so far, hands down. A long awaited album from his last outing that delivers on so many fronts. Catch me talking more about it on the podcast. (A+)

Lil Guardsman - A light hearted Papers, Please with fun cartoon art? Didn’t work for me at all and was the first game I’ve ever returned on Steam. The game parts aren’t that compelling and the story conveyed through a lot of dialogue was tedious. I found myself looking for the “Skip” button within the first 15 minutes. (C-)

That Mexican OT: Texas Technician - This sophomore album dropped the same day as Blue Lips (3/1/24). It isn’t fair to compare them, but I had to pick how I spent my listening time this month and Q won. This is still a good album with 3-4 bangers that have made their way into the Rap Shit 2024 playlist. (B)

Shogun - A 2024 reimaging of a 1980’s adaptation of a 1970’s popular novel that is very well done. Killer acting, visuals, effects, music, it’s got it all, and set in a time period I have been fascinated by since watching the original show back in the mid-90’s. (A)

The Vince Staples Show - I wanted this to rival Atlanta or at least match it. I had very high hopes and Vince Staples might be on my top 5 rappers list. It didn’t disappoint, but this is not Atlanta. It is it’s own great thing that you should watch and enjoy. (B+)

Formula 1: Drive to Survive - Showing up late late late to F1’s moment in the sun, at least in the United States. Huge If True and Search Party both recently did videos on the 2024 season and that finally pushed me to watch this docuseries that starts with the 2018 season. It is made by the same folks that did Break Point. (B+)

Friday YouTube Wrap Up 3/29/24

Do I need a laser cutter?

FRIDAY YOUTUBE WRAP UP 3/22/24

FRIDAY YOUTUBE WRAP UP 3/8/24

Monster Factory is back! Everything else is icing on the cake.

Could have used this on a recent project.

Media Log - February 2024 Edition

I liked capturing and talking about the things I consumed for the January 2024 edition of the media log and I can say the same is true for this one. Lots of gaming per usual, some solid shows, and I really do need to make some time for the movies on my backlog.

Helldivers 2 - What a peach of a cooperative game. There are many games that come out and show promise in this space these days. But either they don’t quite stick the landing or they don’t amass a player base that reaches far enough into my friend group. Talked about it on last weeks podcast. (A+)

Taskmaster New Zealand s2 - I came for the Guy Montgomery, I stayed for the task, David Correos, and Laura Daniel. I stayed despite the host being flat and not really adding much. Hard for anyone to hold a candle to Greg and Alex, but Jeremy Wells barely feels like he is participating. (B)

Palworld - All the rage, no like a true rampage. 19 million copies sold in it’s first month compared to the last Pokémon game that sold 23 million copies in a year. But like all survive together games if you show up late, your friends will will spoon feed you the tech tree, and undermine everything that is compelling about the game. (B-)

Mr. and Mrs. Smith - Fun television based on a fun movie. Donald Glover is great, and it turns out Maya Erskine is also great. A lot of similar energy to Atlanta in how it is shot and written. I love how well it nails couples conversations. (A+)

Warzone Fortune’s Keep - They are playing their return of “old” map trump cards. It feels desperate, short sighted, and I can’t help myself to not enjoy it. Rebirth is up next and I can’t wait. (B+)

Against the Storm - The game release cycle in 2024 has already netted us a great list of games. But sometime you go wandering into OpenCritic to see what you missed last year. Good game, but the turn time on each map at 30-40 mins is a little too long for me. (C+)

Total Forgiveness - Still getting a ton out of my year subscription to Dropout. I am watching a ton of the new content, but also dipping into the old stuff too. Back in 2019 there was a show that pitted two cast members against each other in a series of challenges to pay off their student loan debt. It stars off Jackass and quickly gets a lot more compelling than simple pranks. And it is all free on YouTube. (B+)

Rap Shit 2024 - Lastly this years playlist is taking it’s first steps towards toddlerhood:

Friday YouTube Wrap Up 3/1/24

I used to watch a lot more car and motorcycle process television when I consumed cable television as a primary feed. I haven’t really established new sources for this content, but this Killer Mike + Grand National build series feels like something old made new.

FRIDAY YOUTUBE WRAP UP 2/23/24

An eclectic mix presented, but not really representative of how much of a deep dive I made into diorama YouTube this week.

Friday YouTube Wrap Up 2/16/24

A fascinating 33 minute video on inventing the blue led. Something I assumed would have been trivial and absolutely was not.

Episode 226

Do the picks even matter? What is your go to drive thru McDonalds order?

• (11:27) Past Lives

• (16:41) Michael - Killer Mike

• (24:19) OGRE Sound - “Ballard”

• (29:39) Very Important People

Drinks!

• Adam - Hendricks Orbium Lotus Flower + Elderflower Tonic

• Mike - Negroni with New Amsterdam Gin and Dolin Rosso

Followup and Footnotes

• Merch: Shirts, mugs, and more

• Break: 08 Demonator - OGRE Sound

• Argylle

• Anatomy of a Fall

• Great Grains: Raisins, Dates & Pecans

• Great Grains: Banana Nut Crunch

• Special K: Vanilla Almond

Friday YouTube Wrap Up 2/9/24

Another week in the books. Guy Montgomery of Till Death Do Us Blart and The Worst Idea of All Time fame got me in the door with the second season of New Zealand Taskmaster this week.

FRIDAY YOUTUBE WRAP UP 2/2/24

Episode 225

Dry January is tearing us apart!

• Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown

• For All Mankind (Apple tv 2019)

• Bobby Fingers

• Poor Things (2023)

Drinks!

• Adam - does it even matter?

• Mike - Boulevardier with a fun bottle of Bulleit

Followup and Footnotes

• Merch: Shirts, mugs, and more

• Special K with fruit and yogurt

• Cracklin Oat Bran

• Blue-Eyed Samurai (ep. 220)

• Train show re-run (ep.201)

• The Holdovers (2023)

• Killers of the Flower Moon (2023)

• Break Point s2 (Ep. 201)