Exfanding Your Horizons is pleased to announce its very first extended hiatus!
...I guess sounding excited about it doesn't change the fact that we're going to stop posting here for a while.
As previously discussed, things have changed a great deal for us over the last several months. What was once a two-man blogging team gradually became a one-man blogging team; what was once our blog has gradually become my blog. Initially, I was holding down the fort for a few weeks until my blogging buddy Alex returned in October or November.
Happy New Year, incidentally.
Though it's a tough decision for us, Alex and I have agreed that it's time to bring this boat ashore, at least for a month or two or five. We've kept up with this blog since 2008, posting every day of the week (except possibly Sunday, our self-imposed day off) for the majority of that time. Nobody maintains that level of dedication for some random side project.
Exfanding has been our home for the last four years. We haven't always looked or sounded like the most professional blog on the planet, but I doubt your home has always looked presentable enough for company from around the world at all hours of the day. We've been honing our writing craft. We've thrown up some truly pitiful filler posts just to keep us in the habit of writing every day. I've been teaching myself enough HTML to tweak and tinker with the blog's layout from time to time (calling in my wife on occasion).
It's the coolest thing in the world that other people want to read what we've written, but that's not why we write. Exfanding is for us, first and foremost, and it always has been—sharing what we do with the global community just makes it better.
That's why it's time to say farewell, if only for a time. Exfanding isn't the same when it's me writing for us.
I've still got a couple of in-progress posts that'll take a while to finish, and I know there's at least one more guest post on the way. At the very least, we'll be returning for a few days whenever those are all ready—but when we return, I mean we will return. I'm volunteering Alex to write the next post you'll read here. In the meantime, we've got a lot in the archives, and our Month in Review posts might help highlight things that even longtime readers might have missed.
As of the end of this post, Exfanding is officially on indefinite hiatus. However, that doesn't mean that we, the writers, are just going to poof out of existence. I've got a personal website now that serves as a hub to all my other Internet activities, and I'm continuing to blog (and blather about Mega Man) over there:
http://nathanielhoover.weebly.com
Look for updates from Alex on his Comic Art Fans page, as well as on the website for his book, Sarah Faire and the House at the End of the World:
http://www.comicartfans.com/GalleryDetail.asp?GCat=30149
http://sarahfaire.com/
We'll still be checking in on Exfanding to respond to new comments, maybe clean up the archives a little bit, and perform whatever technical and administrative tasks we see fit, so it's not really goodbye.
But...um...until next time...goodbye.
Showing posts with label News. Show all posts
Showing posts with label News. Show all posts
Tuesday, January 1, 2013
Sunday, December 16, 2012
Livestreaming Mega Man Marathon Is a GO!!!
The livestreaming Mega Man 25th Anniversary Marathon is ON!!! The all-day gaming madness will start at (or a little after) 5 AM Pacific / 8 AM Eastern / 1 PM UK on Monday, December 17.
Contrary to what was previously reported, the livestream will be viewable on my friend (alias DashJump)'s Twitch TV channel—he's the technical maestro who actually knows what he's doing:
http://www.twitch.tv/dashjump
I (AKA Flashman85, AKA GeminiLaser) will be playing through Mega Man 1-10 with DashJump, and my wife (codename Z-Saber) may be flitting in and out. By the time we're done, we'll have no idea what our real names are anymore.
If my 2010 Mega Man marathon was any indication, this whole endeavor should take 15+ hours, meaning you can expect us to finish at the earliest by 8 PM Pacific / 11 PM Eastern / 4 AM UK—it all depends on how many Game Overs and horrendous technological setbacks we suffer. If we're making fabulous time and finish Mega Man 8 before 8 PM Eastern, we might test the limits of our sanity and throw Mega Man & Bass into the mix. (Note: This will be a terrible idea.)
If you miss any part of the marathon, fear not! I'll follow up in a day or so with a link to where you can watch the whole thing, recorded, at your leisure. Hope you can join us!
http://www.twitch.tv/dashjump
I (AKA Flashman85, AKA GeminiLaser) will be playing through Mega Man 1-10 with DashJump, and my wife (codename Z-Saber) may be flitting in and out. By the time we're done, we'll have no idea what our real names are anymore.
Saturday, December 15, 2012
New Twitch.TV Channel!
In anticipation of my possible upcoming all-day Mega Man marathon, I've set up a Twitch.TV account for live streaming video footage of my video game adventures. You can find my channel here:
http://www.twitch.tv/flashman85
If all goes well, Monday will be filled with 15+ hours of Mega Man. If all does not go well, I still hope to use the channel for at least a few less-ambitious projects, such as a blind playthrough of Street Fighter X Mega Man, a marathon of the Game Boy Mega Man games (which, for a few reasons, would be much simpler than a marathon of the console games), and probably even something that isn't Mega Man, if you can believe that.
I'll be sure to post updates here on Exfanding when I'm planning something in advance, but you may wish to tune into my GeminiLaser Facebook page, our Exfanding Facebook page, my YouTube channel, or our Twitter...thingy. Whatever it is you call a channel for people on Twitter.
Probably safe to say you won't hear about it on Twitter.
http://www.twitch.tv/flashman85
I'll be sure to post updates here on Exfanding when I'm planning something in advance, but you may wish to tune into my GeminiLaser Facebook page, our Exfanding Facebook page, my YouTube channel, or our Twitter...thingy. Whatever it is you call a channel for people on Twitter.
Probably safe to say you won't hear about it on Twitter.
Monday, December 10, 2012
Street Fighter X Mega Man = 25
So this happened over the weekend:
Now, let's go back for a minute to 2010, to my reaction to Capcom's last official mainstream installment of the Mega Man series: "Because I'm a hopeless Mega Man fanatic, and because I wanted to write a truly comprehensive review of Mega Man 10, I made it a point to play the game into the ground—at this point, I hope it stays buried there a while." I left the game with the satisfaction of having blown stuff up real good, and with the disappointment of my favorite video game franchise heading off in a direction more appealing to hip, young gamers and people who hated everything after Mega Man 3.
Part of me is looking forward to this new game, assuming it's not some sort of belated April Fools' gag—it appears that whoever's responsible knows what makes a Mega Man game fun, and loves Street Fighter enough to pull off a worthy crossover.
The other part of me is saying, "Really? This is how we're celebrating Mega Man's 25th anniversary—with another Street Fighter game?"
In other words, I don't really care. Or, at least, I've given up on caring.
Capcom announced Mega Man Universe, then pulled the plug on it, and I really didn't mind. Same deal with Mega Man Legends 3—though, I have yet to play any of the Legends series, so perhaps I should have been enraged. Then there was Mega Man Xover, the sad-looking iOS game that no one in the fan community seemed to want to play. Now we've got yet another crossover. Yes, people love crossovers when they're done right. Yes, it looks like this one will be done right. No, I'm not enthusiastic about it. I'm tired of my favorite series being dragged in every direction but the one that actually matters to me.
I don't want a level editor for Mega Man 2 that looks like a Flash game, or a messy mashup of multiple Mega Man series that looks like a Flash game, or a crossover of two completely unrelated series that looks like it was originally intended to be a Flash game. Those are all good fodder for a fangame or three, but it raises some questions about the future of the franchise when Mega Man 11 and its hypothetical brethren are ignored for over two years while these other games are touted as The Next Big Thing. Crossovers, cameos, and out-of-continuity spinoffs are fun in moderation, but Zero's appearance in Tatsunoko vs. Capcom is no substitute for Mega Man X9.
What's reassuring to me is the last line of the announcement article: "We know it's been a hard year for Mega Man fans, but I hope this proves our love and intent to the series, and that we have not heard the last of the little guy." In the wake of the physical and economic devastation Japan suffered last year, along with the departure of Keiji Inafune, it's understandable that Capcom has needed some time to regroup and figure out what, if anything, they should be doing with this franchise. I still wasn't entirely pleased with where things were headed before that, but I'm willing to accept that these past few years have been a time of transition. Perhaps this new game is just to hold us over until The Real Next Big Thing comes along later next year.
All I ask for are upbeat music, plot and dialogue that at least make sense, new challenges, new weapons, AND THE CHARGE AND SLIDE BACK THANKYOUVERYMUCH. As long as I can get a new Mega Man game like that every couple of years—or if they finally bring one or more of the existing series to a satisfying conclusion—then I suppose I don't mind the occasional "fluff game," especially one that looks to be as promising as Street Fighter X Mega Man.
Unless they keep making games for iOS, in which case I'll never be able to play them.
Now, let's go back for a minute to 2010, to my reaction to Capcom's last official mainstream installment of the Mega Man series: "Because I'm a hopeless Mega Man fanatic, and because I wanted to write a truly comprehensive review of Mega Man 10, I made it a point to play the game into the ground—at this point, I hope it stays buried there a while." I left the game with the satisfaction of having blown stuff up real good, and with the disappointment of my favorite video game franchise heading off in a direction more appealing to hip, young gamers and people who hated everything after Mega Man 3.
Part of me is looking forward to this new game, assuming it's not some sort of belated April Fools' gag—it appears that whoever's responsible knows what makes a Mega Man game fun, and loves Street Fighter enough to pull off a worthy crossover.
The other part of me is saying, "Really? This is how we're celebrating Mega Man's 25th anniversary—with another Street Fighter game?"
In other words, I don't really care. Or, at least, I've given up on caring.
Capcom announced Mega Man Universe, then pulled the plug on it, and I really didn't mind. Same deal with Mega Man Legends 3—though, I have yet to play any of the Legends series, so perhaps I should have been enraged. Then there was Mega Man Xover, the sad-looking iOS game that no one in the fan community seemed to want to play. Now we've got yet another crossover. Yes, people love crossovers when they're done right. Yes, it looks like this one will be done right. No, I'm not enthusiastic about it. I'm tired of my favorite series being dragged in every direction but the one that actually matters to me.
I don't want a level editor for Mega Man 2 that looks like a Flash game, or a messy mashup of multiple Mega Man series that looks like a Flash game, or a crossover of two completely unrelated series that looks like it was originally intended to be a Flash game. Those are all good fodder for a fangame or three, but it raises some questions about the future of the franchise when Mega Man 11 and its hypothetical brethren are ignored for over two years while these other games are touted as The Next Big Thing. Crossovers, cameos, and out-of-continuity spinoffs are fun in moderation, but Zero's appearance in Tatsunoko vs. Capcom is no substitute for Mega Man X9.
What's reassuring to me is the last line of the announcement article: "We know it's been a hard year for Mega Man fans, but I hope this proves our love and intent to the series, and that we have not heard the last of the little guy." In the wake of the physical and economic devastation Japan suffered last year, along with the departure of Keiji Inafune, it's understandable that Capcom has needed some time to regroup and figure out what, if anything, they should be doing with this franchise. I still wasn't entirely pleased with where things were headed before that, but I'm willing to accept that these past few years have been a time of transition. Perhaps this new game is just to hold us over until The Real Next Big Thing comes along later next year.
Unless they keep making games for iOS, in which case I'll never be able to play them.
Thursday, October 18, 2012
Taking a Look Around
It's gotten quiet around here again. The number of monthly posts has been dwindling, and it's clear that I've just been phoning it in for most of the last two months. From the look of it, Exfanding is dead; I've merely been playing Weekend at Bernie's with the blog.
Hm. Apparently, I've already referenced Weekend at Bernie's three times before on this blog, but in completely different contexts. Guess it belongs up there with toasters.
I look at posts like this one and this one, and despite their optimism, I keep hearing myself sound like the guy on the Titanic who's telling everyone it's just a scratch and the ship probably won't sink. I think back to our one-year anniversary celebration, and this particular question:
How long do you plan to continue with this blog?
Alex: That’s kinda like asking Frodo and Sam when they’ll stop their silly journey and go back to the Shire with all the dancing. Really. It’s just like that.
I wanna keep it going for as long as it’s fun for us to write (and read), and for as long as we have something to say.
Nathaniel: Ah, but in the case of Frodo and Sam, there’s a clear endpoint; I’m not sure that’s the case with this blog. Besides, if the alternative is dancing, then I have no intentions of ever stopping!
Honestly, I can't remember the last post that was fun to write. Cathartic, maybe; comfortable, sure. And fun to read? I do go back and re-read some of my posts from time to time, and my wife worries about me when I laugh out loud at things I wrote a few years ago. But most of the time when I look at my newest material, I think, "Huh. That post is still at the top of the page." Guest posts have been refreshing, but looking at my own work just reminds me that it's time to write something else. And when I do sit down to write, either the inkwell is dry, or I just don't have the energy to prognosticate the future of the Mega Man series based on Mega Man Xover or introduce this new anime series that I kinda liked. By all accounts, it's time to close up shop, admit we had a good run, and not Simpsons our way through another 15 seasons for no other reason than that we don't have to stop.
Good plan. But you're forgetting two things, Me: This is just as much Alex's blog as it is yours—he might not have the time to be writing right now, but at last check, he was still reading.
And you hate dancing.
There are days like today when I want to write, not just for the sake of writing but for this blog. There's a real Presidential election right around the corner, which means it's time to roll out the candidates for Fake President once again. I've got a beginner's episode guide to Star Trek: The Next Generation that I've been toiling over for months, off and on. There's a comprehensive guide in the works to becoming a better Mega Man player, and the only reason it hasn't been posted yet is because I need to take some screenshots. And I'll be darned if we get to 2013 without posting our Year in Review of 2011 first. I've been keeping our blogging boat afloat by patching it up every few days while it's adrift at sea, rather than bringing it ashore to plot a real course and hammer out good new material for it. And it's time to change that.
Exfanding Your Horizons is going on hiatus. Might be for a month; might just be until tomorrow. But when we come back, we'll have something worth reading. It might be silly, it might be philosophical, it might just be a YouTube video I forgot I wanted to share with you. But it will not be fluff. It'll be something we wanted to write, enjoyed writing, and will enjoy re-reading. Until such time as we're both able to keep up with this blog on a daily basis again, we'll be taking as long as we need to write another post. And once we've written another post, we'll be taking our time on the next one.
It's right there in the blog's charter: "We're both geeks. But we're both different kinds of geeks. We've joined forces to introduce, explain, discuss, and demystify various hobbies and fandoms to promote an understanding between geeks and to spark an interest in the things that interest us." Nowhere does it say we have to do this on a regular basis. Nowhere does it say the blog is over if we go too long without visible new content.
Maybe I'm not the guy on the Titanic who's saying the boat probably won't sink. Maybe I've mistaken which boat I'm on in the first place.
See you soon, Exfanders. And whether "soon" means tomorrow, or sometime next month, this is a promise I intend to keep.
Our blog rules.
Hm. Apparently, I've already referenced Weekend at Bernie's three times before on this blog, but in completely different contexts. Guess it belongs up there with toasters.
I look at posts like this one and this one, and despite their optimism, I keep hearing myself sound like the guy on the Titanic who's telling everyone it's just a scratch and the ship probably won't sink. I think back to our one-year anniversary celebration, and this particular question:
How long do you plan to continue with this blog?
Alex: That’s kinda like asking Frodo and Sam when they’ll stop their silly journey and go back to the Shire with all the dancing. Really. It’s just like that.
I wanna keep it going for as long as it’s fun for us to write (and read), and for as long as we have something to say.
Nathaniel: Ah, but in the case of Frodo and Sam, there’s a clear endpoint; I’m not sure that’s the case with this blog. Besides, if the alternative is dancing, then I have no intentions of ever stopping!
Honestly, I can't remember the last post that was fun to write. Cathartic, maybe; comfortable, sure. And fun to read? I do go back and re-read some of my posts from time to time, and my wife worries about me when I laugh out loud at things I wrote a few years ago. But most of the time when I look at my newest material, I think, "Huh. That post is still at the top of the page." Guest posts have been refreshing, but looking at my own work just reminds me that it's time to write something else. And when I do sit down to write, either the inkwell is dry, or I just don't have the energy to prognosticate the future of the Mega Man series based on Mega Man Xover or introduce this new anime series that I kinda liked. By all accounts, it's time to close up shop, admit we had a good run, and not Simpsons our way through another 15 seasons for no other reason than that we don't have to stop.
Good plan. But you're forgetting two things, Me: This is just as much Alex's blog as it is yours—he might not have the time to be writing right now, but at last check, he was still reading.
And you hate dancing.
There are days like today when I want to write, not just for the sake of writing but for this blog. There's a real Presidential election right around the corner, which means it's time to roll out the candidates for Fake President once again. I've got a beginner's episode guide to Star Trek: The Next Generation that I've been toiling over for months, off and on. There's a comprehensive guide in the works to becoming a better Mega Man player, and the only reason it hasn't been posted yet is because I need to take some screenshots. And I'll be darned if we get to 2013 without posting our Year in Review of 2011 first. I've been keeping our blogging boat afloat by patching it up every few days while it's adrift at sea, rather than bringing it ashore to plot a real course and hammer out good new material for it. And it's time to change that.
Exfanding Your Horizons is going on hiatus. Might be for a month; might just be until tomorrow. But when we come back, we'll have something worth reading. It might be silly, it might be philosophical, it might just be a YouTube video I forgot I wanted to share with you. But it will not be fluff. It'll be something we wanted to write, enjoyed writing, and will enjoy re-reading. Until such time as we're both able to keep up with this blog on a daily basis again, we'll be taking as long as we need to write another post. And once we've written another post, we'll be taking our time on the next one.
It's right there in the blog's charter: "We're both geeks. But we're both different kinds of geeks. We've joined forces to introduce, explain, discuss, and demystify various hobbies and fandoms to promote an understanding between geeks and to spark an interest in the things that interest us." Nowhere does it say we have to do this on a regular basis. Nowhere does it say the blog is over if we go too long without visible new content.
Maybe I'm not the guy on the Titanic who's saying the boat probably won't sink. Maybe I've mistaken which boat I'm on in the first place.
See you soon, Exfanders. And whether "soon" means tomorrow, or sometime next month, this is a promise I intend to keep.
Our blog rules.
Tuesday, August 21, 2012
Double (Dungeons &) Dragon(s)
It's like I'm back in college again. I've got two D&D quests I'm currently writing--one is a new long-term campaign with a dedicated group of players and characters, which I haven't had since I graduated; the other is a D&D quest...based on a video game.
Toward the end of my time in school I held a one-shot quest where the players used (loose) D&D rules to create an anime or video game character of their choice, banding together as a ragtag bunch of heroes fighting their way through everything from a level of Mario Kart to Worms: Armageddon. It was utterly ridiculous, and an absolute hoot, and now I'm working on smashing tabletop roleplaying together with video games once more for a very unusual edition of The GameCola Podcast. I won't spoil the surprise of the game our quest will be based on, but it's safe to say it's one I've talked about before on this blog.
As for the long-term quest, I'm finally able to bust out an idea I've been sitting on for about five or six years, and that alone has me very excited. I'm taking my time to map this one out, though; I've got a few story arcs in mind, all wrapped within one main plot, and I want to make sure I do it right. No doubt there will be at least one gelatinous cube somewhere, a magical crystal, and an incomprehensible number of pillars and tapestries.
All I mean to say here is that there's some fun story potential on the horizon, and to not worry too much if you don't see me quite as often around here for the next few weeks--it just means that I'm writing D&D instead.
Or playing Morrowind. For inspiration.
Oh, man. Or blogging about playing Morrowind instead of blogging. I'm so doing that this week.
Toward the end of my time in school I held a one-shot quest where the players used (loose) D&D rules to create an anime or video game character of their choice, banding together as a ragtag bunch of heroes fighting their way through everything from a level of Mario Kart to Worms: Armageddon. It was utterly ridiculous, and an absolute hoot, and now I'm working on smashing tabletop roleplaying together with video games once more for a very unusual edition of The GameCola Podcast. I won't spoil the surprise of the game our quest will be based on, but it's safe to say it's one I've talked about before on this blog.
As for the long-term quest, I'm finally able to bust out an idea I've been sitting on for about five or six years, and that alone has me very excited. I'm taking my time to map this one out, though; I've got a few story arcs in mind, all wrapped within one main plot, and I want to make sure I do it right. No doubt there will be at least one gelatinous cube somewhere, a magical crystal, and an incomprehensible number of pillars and tapestries.
All I mean to say here is that there's some fun story potential on the horizon, and to not worry too much if you don't see me quite as often around here for the next few weeks--it just means that I'm writing D&D instead.
Or playing Morrowind. For inspiration.
Oh, man. Or blogging about playing Morrowind instead of blogging. I'm so doing that this week.
Friday, August 10, 2012
We're Still Here
We haven't forgotten about the blog, I promise. Despite all but completely abandoning our new posting model, and despite Alex's extended leave of absence, we're still here. I'm working on GameCola stuff, and Alex is working on literally every other thing on the face of the planet there is to do.
It's how I feel about Morrowind sometimes, with all the sidequests I pick up--"Hey, aren't you supposed to be out saving the world?" "Yeah, but first I've gotta solve this murder mystery and deliver this clay pot to somebody and follow a magical white guar into the hills." Writing for Exfanding is in our quest journals, but we're devoting more attention to other things at the moment.
Alex promises (and you can quote him on this) to return in a week or two or three; I promise (and you shouldn't quote me on this) that I'll at least continue with Sunday Spotlight and a minimum of one post somewhere else during the week in the meantime. That's our new new posting model. I.e.: subject to change whenever we feel like it.
It's refreshing, in a way, to not be constrained by a regular posting schedule. Conforming to a daily deadline for over three years was a great help in keeping us sharp, in practice, and dedicated to continuing this blog. Even if we go a few days at a time without posting nowadays, we've developed enough discipline to not let a few days turn into a week, a month, a year, and another abandoned blog. Would it be easy at this point to casually stop posting and let the blog fade out on its own? Sure. But we've got plenty more stories to tell, lots more fandoms to share, and a blog birthday coming up that we're definitely not going to miss.
And Alex still owes me his half of the Year in Review for 2011, so I'm not letting him go without that.
Even if you've been following us from the beginning, chances are good at least one post slipped by you at some point; we've got nearly four years of posts in the archives, and these frequent lulls between posts are a perfect opportunity to get caught up, and to marvel at how much we've changed over the years (for better, for worse, and for different). There's even one or two posts that I haven't read, because I'm holding off until I've read or watched whatever it is that Alex is spoiling in said posts. Who knows what you'll find?
Aside from the obvious, of course. You'll find almost four years of posts.
We're open to suggestions about posting topics, too, so feel free to toss some ideas our way. So, until next time...
It's how I feel about Morrowind sometimes, with all the sidequests I pick up--"Hey, aren't you supposed to be out saving the world?" "Yeah, but first I've gotta solve this murder mystery and deliver this clay pot to somebody and follow a magical white guar into the hills." Writing for Exfanding is in our quest journals, but we're devoting more attention to other things at the moment.
Alex promises (and you can quote him on this) to return in a week or two or three; I promise (and you shouldn't quote me on this) that I'll at least continue with Sunday Spotlight and a minimum of one post somewhere else during the week in the meantime. That's our new new posting model. I.e.: subject to change whenever we feel like it.
It's refreshing, in a way, to not be constrained by a regular posting schedule. Conforming to a daily deadline for over three years was a great help in keeping us sharp, in practice, and dedicated to continuing this blog. Even if we go a few days at a time without posting nowadays, we've developed enough discipline to not let a few days turn into a week, a month, a year, and another abandoned blog. Would it be easy at this point to casually stop posting and let the blog fade out on its own? Sure. But we've got plenty more stories to tell, lots more fandoms to share, and a blog birthday coming up that we're definitely not going to miss.
And Alex still owes me his half of the Year in Review for 2011, so I'm not letting him go without that.
Even if you've been following us from the beginning, chances are good at least one post slipped by you at some point; we've got nearly four years of posts in the archives, and these frequent lulls between posts are a perfect opportunity to get caught up, and to marvel at how much we've changed over the years (for better, for worse, and for different). There's even one or two posts that I haven't read, because I'm holding off until I've read or watched whatever it is that Alex is spoiling in said posts. Who knows what you'll find?
Aside from the obvious, of course. You'll find almost four years of posts.
We're open to suggestions about posting topics, too, so feel free to toss some ideas our way. So, until next time...
Thursday, July 26, 2012
Regressive Progress and the Crisis of Communication
I've been observing two trends recently that are causing me to become more of a curmudgeonly hermit than I already am. The first trend is one that's been going on for years, but I feel has really snowballed in the last two or so: a shift to a culture driven--not aided--by technology. The second trend is one I've only started to feel in the past few months: a shift toward a culture of mass outrage and mass hysteria over any kind of news--good, bad, or otherwise--frequently spearheaded by informed citizens.
I had an idea for a short story the other day where a grandfather is explaining to his grandson why everyone from the older generation is so hunched over: they had all been enslaved, and their backs have become permanently bent from the positions their bodies had been in for decades. At the end of the story, the grand twist was to be that the grandfather hands the kid an ancient iPhone or BlackBerry, telling him something like, "This is what slavery looked like to us." We have become a culture not aided by our devices, but ruled by them.
It was, what, the 1950s or so when dishwashers and vacuum cleaners first arrived? I'm no historian, but everything I've read and seen about technology from the postwar years was that the United States, at least, enjoyed a few decades of increased domestic prosperity and happiness thanks to machines that made work easier, or did all the work for us. More time for leisure; less time wasted on chores. The American dream, some might say. A dream that, from my perspective, is twisting more and more into a nightmare.
I followed a link from Facebook recently to a news article about this grand invention that detects when the milk in your refrigerator is about to spoil, notifying you with a light-up display and via text message. Thank goodness for that; I've always found the expiration date on the bottle to be so hard to read. I realize we've had inventions like this for decades, but something about this one in particular caused me to pause and sigh at the state of technology in our world, or at least this country. We are creating devices that improve the quality of life by consuming more time and money than we can save without these devices.
Time and money are two things I have been especially aware of in the year and a half since I proposed to the woman who is now my wife. Weddings cost money. Planning takes time. Maintaining a home costs money. Working the job to support it takes time. Spending an evening or weekend with friends and a now-expanded family involves both time and money, whether it's gas money or snacks for your D&D session. Making YouTube videos and writing posts and articles is free, but the equipment costs money, as do the forms of entertainment that inspire the content, and the time investment to see a project through to completion can be considerable.
As the administrator of GameCola.net's official YouTube channel, and as a staff writer and editor for the main site, I feel it's my responsibility (and joy) to keep up with everything my comrades post. I've been finding time to catch up on a video playthrough of Phoenix Wright: Trials and Tribulations, and was stunned to discover that the last episode in a five-episode video series contains over eight hours of video footage.
In the time it takes me to watch that one episode, I could finish off an entire anime series. And when I start thinking that way about something that only takes a handful of hours, I begin to see entire months of my life disappear when I think about following through on my crazy plan to watch through the 35 years of Saturday Night Live that are available on Netflix. This is something I'm doing both for my own enjoyment and--as with any of the crazy plans I undertake anymore--so that I can share and discuss the experience with others...but it's staggering to think of how many 15-minute YouTube videos I could make in that same amount of time. (At the current rate of recording, about three.)
Even though the dilemma of what to do with my free time is shaped in no small part by the technology available to me, Netflix in particular simply makes it easier and cheaper to view the content I want than buying everything on DVD. In my mind, this is what technology is for: that 1950s vision of a more leisurely, more efficient way to live. Virtually everything I see around me today utilizes technology to make things different, and the increasing pace of technological developments--which require money to buy and time to learn--is driving a wedge between me and the rest of the tech-savvy world.
Where lifestyle-changing technology is involved, I don't do different. I do better. I'm more than content to stay on the sidelines while I observe the impact of new technology on the world before I consider jumping on the bandwagon. I did this with online shopping. I did this with texting. I did this with Blu-ray. I did this with Facebook.
I can no longer afford to be a few years behind everyone else and still expect to fit in with the culture of this generation. If I'm more than a few months behind, I'm archaic and out of touch. Things are changing too quickly, and I don't have the time, money, or interest to discover what's truly better until something is forced on me. Unsurprisingly, I'm discovering more and more that better is whatever I had before the forced change. I am a creature of habit, but more than that, I'm only seeing technological solutions to things that were never problems for me. Telephones shortened the distance between people in ways the postal service never could. E-mail opened up an additional means of communication that has many benefits over telephones. Now we've got technology that allows us to share everything we're looking at the press of a button, effectively eliminating the need to communicate at all.
That brings me to the second trend I've noticed: In a world where opinions are expressed with a Like button, we're veering away from meaningful discussions and unleashing our thoughts and feelings on polarizing issues in 140 characters or less. As my wife pointed out, everything good we post about is the best thing ever, and everything bad is the worst thing ever. Whether we're excitedly slapping up a link to this hilarious cat video or heralding the downfall of western civilization with whatever [pick one: Obama, Romney, Chick fil-A] did today, it's increasingly rare to see well-articulated opinions that take the extremist edge off of our concise gut reactions. We blow things out of proportion, or we present our completely rational and justified responses in such a inarticulate or reactionary way that we lose friends who would have at least tolerated us if we'd taken the time to explain ourselves over a cup of tea.
The trouble isn't just on an individual level, though: news travels fast through our social media-oriented culture, and our enthusiasm or outrage over something we post prompts someone else to retweet or repost the same content, adding their own enthusiasm or outrage. Repeat, ad nauseum. Now, instead of one person who's ecstatic or upset, everyone you know is ecstatic or upset. We are now statistics: X number of people think this way about animal testing, while X number of people think that way about it. There may be actual conversations that stem from the initial posts, but a quick skim through your feed tells you who you real friends are. In our solidarity, we have lost our individuality, along with our relative objectivity.
It has been unbearable to be around social media in the wake of the shooting in Aurora, Colorado that left 12 dead and 58 wounded. Unbearable to think about the loss of life, the suffering of the victims and their families, and how something so terrible could happen at all. Unbearable to think about it every hour of every day as new details emerge that encroach upon the personal privacy of the victims. Unbearable to have a flicker of concern about seeing The Dark Knight Rises on opening weekend because "midnight premiere of The Dark Knight Rises" was almost more prominent in the media's first news reports than the shooting itself. Unbearable because, from the perspective of someone who was not following the news and only seeing the headlines and snippets of coverage, the entire tragedy had spiraled into a nationwide Kickstarter campaign for actor Christian Bale to pay a visit to the victims in the hospital.
It seemed to me a surreal cause where the American people could demand the involvement of a celebrity whose only connection to the tragedy--as far as I knew from headlines and the one or two articles I'd read--was that he starred in the movie that was playing at the time. I know there's more to it than that. But my gut reaction to such a horrific event has given way to media fatigue and a sort of irrational indignation over how the whole country seems to be rallying behind a community that lost twelve people, while we remain silent on how, say, suicide is claiming almost eight times that many people a day in the U.S. Without understanding the full story, I'm just looking at the headlines and the numbers and the secondhand information, and forming opinions that make me sound like a bad person if you don't agree, and a worse person if you don't have the context of the rest of this post behind you.
So you can understand why I don't post things like this on Facebook. I couldn't even condense my feelings into a punchy blurb if I tried--but, as my wife points out, a punchy blurb is all we have to catch anyone's attention anymore. By the time you've written a thoughtful response, the Next Big Thing is here, and people have already forgotten what you're talking about. Yet writing brings clarity, and spilling my thoughts out on paper (or the electronic equivalent) allows me to sort through those gut reactions and come to a conclusion about why I feel as I do. Sometimes I need to say the wrong thing before I can get to the heart of why I said it. Sometimes I'm right, and "the wrong thing" is merely an unpopular, but valid, opinion. Sometimes I truly am wrong, which is why the door is always open for a civilized rebuttal.
My heart goes out to the victims in Aurora, and their friends and families. That there has been such a compassionate and supportive response speaks volumes about our culture. That I have mixed feelings about that response has me concerned. My willful ignorance of the full story, and my perception that social media and news media have inadvertently engineered such a massive response by skewing the story to keep Batman in the spotlight, make me worry that I'm becoming cynical in the face of something that clearly demands my sympathy. There's no question that we should care, but I worry that the media has needlessly emphasized the wrong information to draw out our genuine compassion for the right cause.
If someone on the sidelines can feel so conflicted about something so universally clear-cut, it's no wonder the people in the thick of debates about unclear issues such as politics and ethics can be so vitriolic toward those who disagree--they're probably all cynical, because people like me sound like idiots when they're firing off their gut reaction to an issue they're only partially informed about on their way to the hilarious cat video someone posted below you.
I think we'd all be happier if we started having real conversations again with each other, and started using modern technology the way it was meant to be used:
I had an idea for a short story the other day where a grandfather is explaining to his grandson why everyone from the older generation is so hunched over: they had all been enslaved, and their backs have become permanently bent from the positions their bodies had been in for decades. At the end of the story, the grand twist was to be that the grandfather hands the kid an ancient iPhone or BlackBerry, telling him something like, "This is what slavery looked like to us." We have become a culture not aided by our devices, but ruled by them.
It was, what, the 1950s or so when dishwashers and vacuum cleaners first arrived? I'm no historian, but everything I've read and seen about technology from the postwar years was that the United States, at least, enjoyed a few decades of increased domestic prosperity and happiness thanks to machines that made work easier, or did all the work for us. More time for leisure; less time wasted on chores. The American dream, some might say. A dream that, from my perspective, is twisting more and more into a nightmare.
I followed a link from Facebook recently to a news article about this grand invention that detects when the milk in your refrigerator is about to spoil, notifying you with a light-up display and via text message. Thank goodness for that; I've always found the expiration date on the bottle to be so hard to read. I realize we've had inventions like this for decades, but something about this one in particular caused me to pause and sigh at the state of technology in our world, or at least this country. We are creating devices that improve the quality of life by consuming more time and money than we can save without these devices.
Time and money are two things I have been especially aware of in the year and a half since I proposed to the woman who is now my wife. Weddings cost money. Planning takes time. Maintaining a home costs money. Working the job to support it takes time. Spending an evening or weekend with friends and a now-expanded family involves both time and money, whether it's gas money or snacks for your D&D session. Making YouTube videos and writing posts and articles is free, but the equipment costs money, as do the forms of entertainment that inspire the content, and the time investment to see a project through to completion can be considerable.
As the administrator of GameCola.net's official YouTube channel, and as a staff writer and editor for the main site, I feel it's my responsibility (and joy) to keep up with everything my comrades post. I've been finding time to catch up on a video playthrough of Phoenix Wright: Trials and Tribulations, and was stunned to discover that the last episode in a five-episode video series contains over eight hours of video footage.
In the time it takes me to watch that one episode, I could finish off an entire anime series. And when I start thinking that way about something that only takes a handful of hours, I begin to see entire months of my life disappear when I think about following through on my crazy plan to watch through the 35 years of Saturday Night Live that are available on Netflix. This is something I'm doing both for my own enjoyment and--as with any of the crazy plans I undertake anymore--so that I can share and discuss the experience with others...but it's staggering to think of how many 15-minute YouTube videos I could make in that same amount of time. (At the current rate of recording, about three.)
Even though the dilemma of what to do with my free time is shaped in no small part by the technology available to me, Netflix in particular simply makes it easier and cheaper to view the content I want than buying everything on DVD. In my mind, this is what technology is for: that 1950s vision of a more leisurely, more efficient way to live. Virtually everything I see around me today utilizes technology to make things different, and the increasing pace of technological developments--which require money to buy and time to learn--is driving a wedge between me and the rest of the tech-savvy world.
Where lifestyle-changing technology is involved, I don't do different. I do better. I'm more than content to stay on the sidelines while I observe the impact of new technology on the world before I consider jumping on the bandwagon. I did this with online shopping. I did this with texting. I did this with Blu-ray. I did this with Facebook.
I can no longer afford to be a few years behind everyone else and still expect to fit in with the culture of this generation. If I'm more than a few months behind, I'm archaic and out of touch. Things are changing too quickly, and I don't have the time, money, or interest to discover what's truly better until something is forced on me. Unsurprisingly, I'm discovering more and more that better is whatever I had before the forced change. I am a creature of habit, but more than that, I'm only seeing technological solutions to things that were never problems for me. Telephones shortened the distance between people in ways the postal service never could. E-mail opened up an additional means of communication that has many benefits over telephones. Now we've got technology that allows us to share everything we're looking at the press of a button, effectively eliminating the need to communicate at all.
That brings me to the second trend I've noticed: In a world where opinions are expressed with a Like button, we're veering away from meaningful discussions and unleashing our thoughts and feelings on polarizing issues in 140 characters or less. As my wife pointed out, everything good we post about is the best thing ever, and everything bad is the worst thing ever. Whether we're excitedly slapping up a link to this hilarious cat video or heralding the downfall of western civilization with whatever [pick one: Obama, Romney, Chick fil-A] did today, it's increasingly rare to see well-articulated opinions that take the extremist edge off of our concise gut reactions. We blow things out of proportion, or we present our completely rational and justified responses in such a inarticulate or reactionary way that we lose friends who would have at least tolerated us if we'd taken the time to explain ourselves over a cup of tea.
The trouble isn't just on an individual level, though: news travels fast through our social media-oriented culture, and our enthusiasm or outrage over something we post prompts someone else to retweet or repost the same content, adding their own enthusiasm or outrage. Repeat, ad nauseum. Now, instead of one person who's ecstatic or upset, everyone you know is ecstatic or upset. We are now statistics: X number of people think this way about animal testing, while X number of people think that way about it. There may be actual conversations that stem from the initial posts, but a quick skim through your feed tells you who you real friends are. In our solidarity, we have lost our individuality, along with our relative objectivity.
It has been unbearable to be around social media in the wake of the shooting in Aurora, Colorado that left 12 dead and 58 wounded. Unbearable to think about the loss of life, the suffering of the victims and their families, and how something so terrible could happen at all. Unbearable to think about it every hour of every day as new details emerge that encroach upon the personal privacy of the victims. Unbearable to have a flicker of concern about seeing The Dark Knight Rises on opening weekend because "midnight premiere of The Dark Knight Rises" was almost more prominent in the media's first news reports than the shooting itself. Unbearable because, from the perspective of someone who was not following the news and only seeing the headlines and snippets of coverage, the entire tragedy had spiraled into a nationwide Kickstarter campaign for actor Christian Bale to pay a visit to the victims in the hospital.
It seemed to me a surreal cause where the American people could demand the involvement of a celebrity whose only connection to the tragedy--as far as I knew from headlines and the one or two articles I'd read--was that he starred in the movie that was playing at the time. I know there's more to it than that. But my gut reaction to such a horrific event has given way to media fatigue and a sort of irrational indignation over how the whole country seems to be rallying behind a community that lost twelve people, while we remain silent on how, say, suicide is claiming almost eight times that many people a day in the U.S. Without understanding the full story, I'm just looking at the headlines and the numbers and the secondhand information, and forming opinions that make me sound like a bad person if you don't agree, and a worse person if you don't have the context of the rest of this post behind you.
So you can understand why I don't post things like this on Facebook. I couldn't even condense my feelings into a punchy blurb if I tried--but, as my wife points out, a punchy blurb is all we have to catch anyone's attention anymore. By the time you've written a thoughtful response, the Next Big Thing is here, and people have already forgotten what you're talking about. Yet writing brings clarity, and spilling my thoughts out on paper (or the electronic equivalent) allows me to sort through those gut reactions and come to a conclusion about why I feel as I do. Sometimes I need to say the wrong thing before I can get to the heart of why I said it. Sometimes I'm right, and "the wrong thing" is merely an unpopular, but valid, opinion. Sometimes I truly am wrong, which is why the door is always open for a civilized rebuttal.
My heart goes out to the victims in Aurora, and their friends and families. That there has been such a compassionate and supportive response speaks volumes about our culture. That I have mixed feelings about that response has me concerned. My willful ignorance of the full story, and my perception that social media and news media have inadvertently engineered such a massive response by skewing the story to keep Batman in the spotlight, make me worry that I'm becoming cynical in the face of something that clearly demands my sympathy. There's no question that we should care, but I worry that the media has needlessly emphasized the wrong information to draw out our genuine compassion for the right cause.
If someone on the sidelines can feel so conflicted about something so universally clear-cut, it's no wonder the people in the thick of debates about unclear issues such as politics and ethics can be so vitriolic toward those who disagree--they're probably all cynical, because people like me sound like idiots when they're firing off their gut reaction to an issue they're only partially informed about on their way to the hilarious cat video someone posted below you.
I think we'd all be happier if we started having real conversations again with each other, and started using modern technology the way it was meant to be used:
Monday, July 16, 2012
Time for an overhaul.
Anybody remember that banner?
We're coming up on four years of Exfanding Your Horizons, and if you remember that banner, there's a good chance you remember what the blog looked like while that banner was up--almost exactly how it looks nearly four years later. Aside from some minor tweaks and updates here and there, Exfanding has retained the same basic look and feel since August 2008--which is both a comfort and a curse.
As you may know from posts like this, this, and this, I am of the "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" school of thought. Exfanding, like many other blogs and websites, functions perfectly well the way it is. Exfanding, unlike many other blogs and websites, has fallen behind on everything from search engine optimization to the width of the reading pane. Without making any exact measurements, I can tell you we offer 20-40% less horizontal space for viewing images and reading text than anything currently on our blogroll.
I taught myself just enough HTML to get Exfanding to look the way Alex and I wanted it--sort of a comic book panel layout, adapted from one of Old Blogger's preloaded templates ("Rounders," if you're curious). Over time I've tinkered with the sidebar, requested updated banners from my Photoshop-inclined wife, and fiddled with that box at the very bottom of the page that nobody knows is there. Alex has been amenable to all of my changes because (a) he's a laid-back kind of guy, and (b) he has no idea how to undo the changes he doesn't like.
To be fair, I have no idea, either--aside from adding and removing the traditional holiday snow widget, I've jury-rigged things so hard under the hood that I can't change anything but the sidebar and banner and forgotten bottom box without completely retracing my steps to figure out what the heck I did in the first place.
After some discussion and consideration, this seems like the right time to give in to the trend of everyone completely overhauling their websites. The difference is that we'll respond to your feedback when you tell us the new layout is terrible, instead of hiding your comment even deeper behind more mouse clicks.
So, please pardon our appearance for the next few hours, or days, or weeks, or...however long it takes us to get this right. More streamlined and professional on the surface, and easier to manipulate below the surface--that's all we're going for. We're open to suggestions here, so please don't hesitate to let us know exactly what you think (constructive criticism preferable, but we'll take what we can get)!
For the benefit of readers catching this post after-the-fact, and for the sake of posterity, here's what the blog looks like right now (assuming you're not catching this post after-the-fact)--click to enlarge:
Sunday, June 24, 2012
Sunday Spotlight: Exfanding's New Posting Model
Last Sunday I talked about the preponderance of filler on this blog recently. This Sunday we have a solution: radically revise our posting model.
We've already tried a couple of straightforward ways to help ease the burden of posting regularly off of Alex in particular: I started this Sunday Spotlight column in part to give Alex a guaranteed day off every week; we moved our self-imposed posting deadline from 11 AM to 1 PM; I even put out a call for guest posts to some friends and family, and as you can tell from all those filler posts where there should be an introduction to The Dresden Files, or a Korean pop music primer, this was a roaring success.
Hint hint, you guys. ;)
All this time we've been fighting to maintain a 7-days-a-week posting schedule, but it's apparent that, between Alex's job obligations and my various side projects, it's infeasible to keep up. The fact that we're halfway through 2012 and still haven't completed our joint retrospective of our posting in 2011 (which was published by January 2 in 2009 and 2010) is a clear sign that we've got too much going on in our spare time, and/or too little spare time to begin with. So, it is with a pang of regret that I announce that, effective immediately, Exfanding Your Horizons will cease posting.
Cease posting every day by 1 PM, that is.
Our new model is as follows: Alex will post Wednesdays and Saturdays. I will post Tuesdays and Sundays. Rather than hold ourselves to a particular deadline, we'll post whenever we're done writing. If we happen to schedule something in advance, we'll aim for it to post at either 11 AM or 1 PM--whichever strikes our fancy. Otherwise, as long as the clock hasn't yet struck midnight, any time is fair game.
As for the rest of the week, Monday, Thursday, and Friday will be for grabs if desired. Posting on these days will be completely optional. As a result, you can expect to see more responses to YouTube comments during my lunch breaks, and heartier posts from the both of us on the days we do post.
We're also extending an open invitation for guest posts. It's been the unspoken rule that we'll consider unsolicited guest posts from anybody who offers, but I'd like to formally state that we will welcome any submissions you'd like to toss our way.
Provided they adhere to our guest posting guidelines, which our subject to change at a whim.
That's all for now. We'll try this modified posting schedule, and maybe we'll have some more guest posts, too. Enjoy your Sunday, and--unless we're feeling particularly motivated--we'll see you again on Tuesday.
We've already tried a couple of straightforward ways to help ease the burden of posting regularly off of Alex in particular: I started this Sunday Spotlight column in part to give Alex a guaranteed day off every week; we moved our self-imposed posting deadline from 11 AM to 1 PM; I even put out a call for guest posts to some friends and family, and as you can tell from all those filler posts where there should be an introduction to The Dresden Files, or a Korean pop music primer, this was a roaring success.
Hint hint, you guys. ;)
All this time we've been fighting to maintain a 7-days-a-week posting schedule, but it's apparent that, between Alex's job obligations and my various side projects, it's infeasible to keep up. The fact that we're halfway through 2012 and still haven't completed our joint retrospective of our posting in 2011 (which was published by January 2 in 2009 and 2010) is a clear sign that we've got too much going on in our spare time, and/or too little spare time to begin with. So, it is with a pang of regret that I announce that, effective immediately, Exfanding Your Horizons will cease posting.
Cease posting every day by 1 PM, that is.
Our new model is as follows: Alex will post Wednesdays and Saturdays. I will post Tuesdays and Sundays. Rather than hold ourselves to a particular deadline, we'll post whenever we're done writing. If we happen to schedule something in advance, we'll aim for it to post at either 11 AM or 1 PM--whichever strikes our fancy. Otherwise, as long as the clock hasn't yet struck midnight, any time is fair game.
As for the rest of the week, Monday, Thursday, and Friday will be for grabs if desired. Posting on these days will be completely optional. As a result, you can expect to see more responses to YouTube comments during my lunch breaks, and heartier posts from the both of us on the days we do post.
We're also extending an open invitation for guest posts. It's been the unspoken rule that we'll consider unsolicited guest posts from anybody who offers, but I'd like to formally state that we will welcome any submissions you'd like to toss our way.
Provided they adhere to our guest posting guidelines, which our subject to change at a whim.
That's all for now. We'll try this modified posting schedule, and maybe we'll have some more guest posts, too. Enjoy your Sunday, and--unless we're feeling particularly motivated--we'll see you again on Tuesday.
Monday, April 30, 2012
GameCola Recap: April 2012
Holy Hatris! Thanks to a frenzy of podcasting activity, some exciting news in the adventure gaming world, and the celebration of its tenth anniversary, videogame humor website GameCola.net was inundated with my participation in the month of April. Looking back through the archives, there haven't been this many articles with my name attached to them since February 2010!
I need a nap.
Column:
- The Archive Dive: GameCola's 10th Anniversary Edition [Collaboration with Paul Franzen]
News:
- See Ya on the Chronostream...Again?
Podcasts:
- GC Podcast #38: UNCUT [April Fools' gag]
- GC Podcast #39: It's Pronounced "Crystalis"
- The GameCola 10th Anniversary 10-Hour Podtacular Is Live NOW!
Videos:
- GameCola 10th Anniversary Blowout Extravaganza Collaboration Celebration
- GC Podcast #33 on YouTube: 3D Games
I need a nap.
Column:
- The Archive Dive: GameCola's 10th Anniversary Edition [Collaboration with Paul Franzen]
News:
- See Ya on the Chronostream...Again?
Podcasts:
- GC Podcast #38: UNCUT [April Fools' gag]
- GC Podcast #39: It's Pronounced "Crystalis"
- The GameCola 10th Anniversary 10-Hour Podtacular Is Live NOW!
Videos:
- GameCola 10th Anniversary Blowout Extravaganza Collaboration Celebration
- GC Podcast #33 on YouTube: 3D Games
Saturday, March 31, 2012
Saturday Satire
Just a quick hello from behind my desk this afternoon.
I’m hunkered down for the weekend, working my way through my company’s busiest week (and weekend) of the year. At this point, there’s still an awful lot left to do, but the end is now in sight and I plan to get back to normal posting by Tuesday, or so.
Well, you know, about as normal as I’m capable of.
In the meantime, however, let’s talk comics. This past week, Avengers vs. X-Men, issue zero, hit shelves, and issue one ships this coming Wednesday.
AvX, as it's becoming known to us nerds, is supposed to be the Next Big Thing.
And, since I'm the one who officially decides such things (clearly), I'll say this: I read issue zero (at some point between buying it on Wednesday and right this moment), I liked it, and I think there's something intriguing about the book.
However, the last thing comics needs right now is an all-encompassing cross-over event. That said, comics really, really needs a meaningful event, and we need one now.
I will not pick up the tie-ins to AvX; I plan to read the main book and that's it. My hope is that Marvel puts the actual story of the event in its main event book. If that sentence sounds funny to you, then you obviously didn't follow The House of Ideas' last big event--Fear Itself.
For that story, most of the actual event occurred in places other than the main book.
I wasn't a big fan of that decision, and I pretty much stopped reading a whole mess of Marvel books out of complete apathy.
I'm hoping that AvX is the thing that pulls me back in.
As I said, issue zero was good, so I do have high hopes for the book. Will it be The Thing That Brings Me Back to Marvel? We'll have to wait and see. One thing's for certain, though--either way, I'll be writing about it here in the coming weeks and months.
So stay tuned...and cross your fingers.
Tuesday, March 13, 2012
Coping with the Time Change
OK, here's the deal: Our ability to post at 11 AM every day has been compromised. Alex and I both have been struggling for the past few weeks with meeting our self-imposed daily deadline, and instead of giving up on sticking to a routine, we've decided to change our posting time to 1 PM.
That's 1 PM Eastern US Time.
This will afford us a few extra hours of sleep on the weekends and the possibility of writing during our lunch breaks if we don't get around to writing until the day our post is intended to go up (a more common occurrence than we'd care to admit). And, as I recall, there was a period of time in the early days of our blog when we posted at 1 PM anyhow.
So, there's your announcement for the day. In case you were going to panic or something.
That's 1 PM Eastern US Time.
This will afford us a few extra hours of sleep on the weekends and the possibility of writing during our lunch breaks if we don't get around to writing until the day our post is intended to go up (a more common occurrence than we'd care to admit). And, as I recall, there was a period of time in the early days of our blog when we posted at 1 PM anyhow.
So, there's your announcement for the day. In case you were going to panic or something.
Wednesday, January 4, 2012
Waiting for Wednesday, Volume 4, Issue 1
Welcome to the very first Waiting for Wednesday of 2012! To celebrate this column’s fourth (!!!) year of existence, I have something special.
And, by special, I mean, self-promoting. Disgustingly, unabashedly self-promoting.
I mentioned last week that I started a new job at World Wrestling Entertainment, working for their website. My first day at the gig was Monday and since then I’ve had two articles published on the site--both of them dealing with the CM Punk/Dolph Ziggler feud heading into the Royal Rumble.
If you know what the heck all that means, and if you’re so inclined, you can check the pieces out here and here.
I know, I know.
But I did warn you about the self promotion, so you can't be that mad at me. Also, as long as I'm a self-aware self-promoter, I think it's okay. Hang on...lemme check in with Nathaniel on that, though.
Whoops. Actually, he's busy writing an article for GameCola, so he can't answer me right now.
[Editor's Note: Now that's how you burn your blogging buddy! And don't worry, kids. I don' mean nuthin' by it.]
Okay. Let's get this thing back on (some sort of) track. It's Wednesday, as you know, and like I've done (nearly) every Wednesday for the past (nearly) four years, I'd like to talk comics. Specifically, I'd like to talk comics that I'm looking forward to buying when I head to the LCS today (or at some point this week).
There are a number of books that are lighting up the old Exfanding radar today, but because I have quite a bit going on this morning, I'll only cover one of them. it's okay, though, because that one book is a good one.
Let's talk The Goon. Mostly because I like talking about The Goon, but also because, since the title has gone to a bi-monthly shipping schedule, lots of time has to pass before I can get my Eric Powell fix.
But, happily, today is that...um...bi-week...because issue 37 is sitting in your local comics shop right now.
What can we expect from Powell this time around? Madcap adventure? Gangsters fighting zombies? A pie-eating contest with a skunk ape?
Actually...none of those things. Nope, in today's issue, Powell tackles unions rights. No, really. Check out the description of the issue, below.
When several workers die in a girdle-factory fire due to poor safety conditions and an out-of-control taco cart, the union is in an uproar. But when the fat cats bring in a supernatural union buster, there's only one man for the workers to turn to: The Goon.
"The Goon is the product of a contentedly demented mind."-Comic Book Resources
"A great gurgling gumbo of EC Comics horror, Monty Python wit, and 1930s pulp."-EW.com
As always, I'll be first in line to pick up this latest issue of Powell's brilliant and irreverent series. With the new bi-monthly shipping schedule, there's plenty of time for new readers to catch up between issues, so you should go do that. Now.
Speaking of going...
Before I head out, I'll ask it for the first time in 2012. What are you Waiting for?
And, by special, I mean, self-promoting. Disgustingly, unabashedly self-promoting.
I mentioned last week that I started a new job at World Wrestling Entertainment, working for their website. My first day at the gig was Monday and since then I’ve had two articles published on the site--both of them dealing with the CM Punk/Dolph Ziggler feud heading into the Royal Rumble.
If you know what the heck all that means, and if you’re so inclined, you can check the pieces out here and here.
I know, I know.
But I did warn you about the self promotion, so you can't be that mad at me. Also, as long as I'm a self-aware self-promoter, I think it's okay. Hang on...lemme check in with Nathaniel on that, though.
Whoops. Actually, he's busy writing an article for GameCola, so he can't answer me right now.
[Editor's Note: Now that's how you burn your blogging buddy! And don't worry, kids. I don' mean nuthin' by it.]
Okay. Let's get this thing back on (some sort of) track. It's Wednesday, as you know, and like I've done (nearly) every Wednesday for the past (nearly) four years, I'd like to talk comics. Specifically, I'd like to talk comics that I'm looking forward to buying when I head to the LCS today (or at some point this week).
There are a number of books that are lighting up the old Exfanding radar today, but because I have quite a bit going on this morning, I'll only cover one of them. it's okay, though, because that one book is a good one.
Let's talk The Goon. Mostly because I like talking about The Goon, but also because, since the title has gone to a bi-monthly shipping schedule, lots of time has to pass before I can get my Eric Powell fix.
But, happily, today is that...um...bi-week...because issue 37 is sitting in your local comics shop right now.
What can we expect from Powell this time around? Madcap adventure? Gangsters fighting zombies? A pie-eating contest with a skunk ape?Actually...none of those things. Nope, in today's issue, Powell tackles unions rights. No, really. Check out the description of the issue, below.
When several workers die in a girdle-factory fire due to poor safety conditions and an out-of-control taco cart, the union is in an uproar. But when the fat cats bring in a supernatural union buster, there's only one man for the workers to turn to: The Goon.
"The Goon is the product of a contentedly demented mind."-Comic Book Resources
"A great gurgling gumbo of EC Comics horror, Monty Python wit, and 1930s pulp."-EW.com
As always, I'll be first in line to pick up this latest issue of Powell's brilliant and irreverent series. With the new bi-monthly shipping schedule, there's plenty of time for new readers to catch up between issues, so you should go do that. Now.
Speaking of going...
Before I head out, I'll ask it for the first time in 2012. What are you Waiting for?
Monday, January 2, 2012
A Brief Interlude...Or Is That a Prelude?
Normally at this time of year, Nathaniel and I pat ourselves on the back(s) and tell you how great we are by ranking our best posts of the past 12 months. We won't be doing that today but rest assured, our egos won't allow us not to do exactly that sometime this week.
Complicated double negatives aside, the reason we won't be doing our yearly recap is an interesting one. And, come to think of it, there are actually two reasons. First and foremost, I start a new job today--I know, it's kinda weird that it's on the day after New Year's, right?--and I've been a bit preoccupied with getting things in order for my first week.
And second, my wireless router at home is acting all kinds of strange and I haven't been able to get online without interruption since Friday. My connection is still a bit wonky today, and I'm starting to think it's because of the (several) new devices I've introduced to the network in the last week or so.
It's working fine now, but it's been going in and out and driving me just a tad bit insane so I'm not overly optimistic that I won't get bumped offline before I finish writing this post up.
Even so, I will trudge on and attempt to provide you all with something (moderately) entertaining for this first Monday of 2012.
I haven't talked much about making this most recent transition to a new job, mostly because my last two weeks at my previous gig were filled with finishing up a book or two and tying up as many loose ends as was possible. More than that, though, I wasn't thrilled with the way things ended there, and I guess not enough time has passed to heal those wounds.
I can say that leaving turned out to be an incredibly emotional experience, and there's a long list of people I will miss quite a bit. I made enough friends there to warrant co-worker lunches and dinners for two weeks straight and I plan to stay in contact with as many of those folks as possible.
Sometimes you need to make a decision based on what's best for your professional life, and you cannot allow your personal life to get in the way, no matter how hard that may be. That was certainly the case for me, and while it's been tough to come to grips with my leaving, I am very excited to start something new.
Which is an entirely appropriate statement for New Year's, I'd say.
I'm incredibly fortunate to have this new opportunity in front of me, and I plan to dive into it just as I've done at my previous jobs.
Oh, and speaking of something new, I've got a couple things planned for this year that have me pretty jazzed. One's a book project that you'll be hearing about very shortly-- a children's book, to be exact--as my artist and I ramp up the production schedule heading into the spring.
The plan is to have the book ready and to the printer by May, and available for sale in October.
If you're interested in taking a quick sneak peek at the book's main character, you can check out this page, where my artist--the incredibly talented Abigail Larson--has posted the first teaser image.
Let me know what you think, or better yet, leave a comment on Abigail's DeviantArt page and let her know what you think. Needless to say, I can't wait for this to take shape and I plan to keep you guys updated as things move along.
I've decided that 2012 will be--for better or worse--the year I try a bunch of things I've either been planning for a while or that I've been thinking about planning for a while. (Don't worry. It makes sense to me.)
So here's to a new and exciting year, Exfanders. I know I'm looking forward to it.
Complicated double negatives aside, the reason we won't be doing our yearly recap is an interesting one. And, come to think of it, there are actually two reasons. First and foremost, I start a new job today--I know, it's kinda weird that it's on the day after New Year's, right?--and I've been a bit preoccupied with getting things in order for my first week.
And second, my wireless router at home is acting all kinds of strange and I haven't been able to get online without interruption since Friday. My connection is still a bit wonky today, and I'm starting to think it's because of the (several) new devices I've introduced to the network in the last week or so.
It's working fine now, but it's been going in and out and driving me just a tad bit insane so I'm not overly optimistic that I won't get bumped offline before I finish writing this post up.
Even so, I will trudge on and attempt to provide you all with something (moderately) entertaining for this first Monday of 2012.
I haven't talked much about making this most recent transition to a new job, mostly because my last two weeks at my previous gig were filled with finishing up a book or two and tying up as many loose ends as was possible. More than that, though, I wasn't thrilled with the way things ended there, and I guess not enough time has passed to heal those wounds.
I can say that leaving turned out to be an incredibly emotional experience, and there's a long list of people I will miss quite a bit. I made enough friends there to warrant co-worker lunches and dinners for two weeks straight and I plan to stay in contact with as many of those folks as possible.
Sometimes you need to make a decision based on what's best for your professional life, and you cannot allow your personal life to get in the way, no matter how hard that may be. That was certainly the case for me, and while it's been tough to come to grips with my leaving, I am very excited to start something new.
Which is an entirely appropriate statement for New Year's, I'd say.
I'm incredibly fortunate to have this new opportunity in front of me, and I plan to dive into it just as I've done at my previous jobs.
Oh, and speaking of something new, I've got a couple things planned for this year that have me pretty jazzed. One's a book project that you'll be hearing about very shortly-- a children's book, to be exact--as my artist and I ramp up the production schedule heading into the spring.
The plan is to have the book ready and to the printer by May, and available for sale in October.
If you're interested in taking a quick sneak peek at the book's main character, you can check out this page, where my artist--the incredibly talented Abigail Larson--has posted the first teaser image.
Let me know what you think, or better yet, leave a comment on Abigail's DeviantArt page and let her know what you think. Needless to say, I can't wait for this to take shape and I plan to keep you guys updated as things move along.
I've decided that 2012 will be--for better or worse--the year I try a bunch of things I've either been planning for a while or that I've been thinking about planning for a while. (Don't worry. It makes sense to me.)
So here's to a new and exciting year, Exfanders. I know I'm looking forward to it.
Saturday, November 19, 2011
New Music
Anyone willing and able to look beyond the FM dial knows that there's a lot of good, new music out there.
Bands like Young the Giant, Florence and the Machine, and The Gaslight Anthem and vocalists like Ryan Adams and Adele prove that on a daily basis as they rise up the charts.
But as much as I'm enjoying discovering a new sound, sometimes it's nice to hear an old, familiar voice.
This week, Soundgarden and Audioslave lead singer Chris Cornell releases a live and acoustic album.
Including solo versions of classics I am the Highway, Doesn't Remind Me, and Black Hole Sun, among others, Songbook hits iTunes tomorrow.
Most important for me, though, is the inclusion of an incredible cover of John Lennon's Imagine.
Imagine is a song with a deep, meaningful resonance for a great many people. And any time another artist covers it--even if I don't usually like the artist--I'll try to give it a listen.
When it's someone like Chris Cornell, though, I'll definitely seek it out.
Last week I heard Cornell play Imagine on the Howard Stern Show and I have to say, it might have been the best cover of my favorite song.
So I'll be picking up (or downloading, I suppose) Songbook when it comes out tomorrow. And if you're interested, check out YouTube for video of Cornell channeling Lennon.
Because it's pretty spectacular.
Bands like Young the Giant, Florence and the Machine, and The Gaslight Anthem and vocalists like Ryan Adams and Adele prove that on a daily basis as they rise up the charts.
But as much as I'm enjoying discovering a new sound, sometimes it's nice to hear an old, familiar voice.
This week, Soundgarden and Audioslave lead singer Chris Cornell releases a live and acoustic album.
Including solo versions of classics I am the Highway, Doesn't Remind Me, and Black Hole Sun, among others, Songbook hits iTunes tomorrow.
Most important for me, though, is the inclusion of an incredible cover of John Lennon's Imagine.
Imagine is a song with a deep, meaningful resonance for a great many people. And any time another artist covers it--even if I don't usually like the artist--I'll try to give it a listen.
When it's someone like Chris Cornell, though, I'll definitely seek it out.
Last week I heard Cornell play Imagine on the Howard Stern Show and I have to say, it might have been the best cover of my favorite song.
So I'll be picking up (or downloading, I suppose) Songbook when it comes out tomorrow. And if you're interested, check out YouTube for video of Cornell channeling Lennon.
Because it's pretty spectacular.
Tuesday, September 6, 2011
Flashback Week
We here at Exfanding Your Horizons have made the unprecedented decision to follow through on something we promised in our three-year celebration: we're preparing for a flashback week, bookended by Alex's regular Waiting for Wednesday column, to go back in time and discuss some geeky (and most likely quite heartfelt) stories from our youths.
Assuming we stick to the plan, you can expect to hear at least one tale each from elementary school, middle/high school, and college. Or, if you prefer not to dwell on the educational system as a means of measuring time, we'll be looking at our pre-teen, teen, and post-teen years.
If you've been following this blog for any length of time, you might be expecting us to spin yarns about baseball, video games, comics, and science fiction. Writing about our younger days (and really, we're not all that old) provides ample opportunity to flesh out the roots of our favorite interests, as well as to surprise you with stories of the fandoms that we have somehow avoided mentioning all this time.
There's a wealth of untapped history to share. If there is anything in particular you'd like to hear about, we welcome your feedback in the comments section (and you don't need to register an account to leave a comment--that's how much we love you).
Assuming we stick to the plan, you can expect to hear at least one tale each from elementary school, middle/high school, and college. Or, if you prefer not to dwell on the educational system as a means of measuring time, we'll be looking at our pre-teen, teen, and post-teen years.
If you've been following this blog for any length of time, you might be expecting us to spin yarns about baseball, video games, comics, and science fiction. Writing about our younger days (and really, we're not all that old) provides ample opportunity to flesh out the roots of our favorite interests, as well as to surprise you with stories of the fandoms that we have somehow avoided mentioning all this time.
There's a wealth of untapped history to share. If there is anything in particular you'd like to hear about, we welcome your feedback in the comments section (and you don't need to register an account to leave a comment--that's how much we love you).
Thursday, September 1, 2011
GameCola Recap: August 2011
For a while I was averaging three contributions per month to videogame humor website GameCola.net, and I seem to have developed a knack for frantically submitting an article at the end of the month in the hopes of nearly meeting that quota, only to have the article published at the beginning of the next month...and to have that article end up being my only contribution for that month, keeping me locked into this sad, sad cycle.
Thus, I bring you but one article--hang on; my other article just got published at the last minute, and now I need to actually write something for next month. Thus, I bring you two articles from August 2011. Failure to enjoy them will result in the untimely termination of...whatever it was that was making you happy before you started reading them.
Reviews:
- Tobe's Vertical Adventure (PC)
Videos:
- Big Changes for GCDotNet
.
Thus, I bring you but one article--hang on; my other article just got published at the last minute, and now I need to actually write something for next month. Thus, I bring you two articles from August 2011. Failure to enjoy them will result in the untimely termination of...whatever it was that was making you happy before you started reading them.Reviews:
- Tobe's Vertical Adventure (PC)
Videos:
- Big Changes for GCDotNet
.
Tuesday, August 30, 2011
The Next Trek
I don't have the mental or physical wherewithal to expand on this at all today, but I'd at least like to share something rather exciting for Star Trek fans such as myself who've been longing for a new TV series built on 40+ years of history, rather than a reboot with enough Star Wars in it to appeal to those who didn't get what they wanted out of the prequels, and just enough Star Trek in it to pretend like it wasn't actually a Star Wars prequel.
What I'd like to share is the news that there's the possibility of a new Star Trek TV show on the horizon. Real Star Trek. True to form, this news is a week old.
Whether or not this idea goes anywhere, I am heartened to know that people with honest-to-goodness clout in the entertainment world still care about the Star Trek universe beyond Kirk--and beyond Picard--and want to explore the countless strange new worlds that have yet to be visited there.
What I'd like to share is the news that there's the possibility of a new Star Trek TV show on the horizon. Real Star Trek. True to form, this news is a week old.
Whether or not this idea goes anywhere, I am heartened to know that people with honest-to-goodness clout in the entertainment world still care about the Star Trek universe beyond Kirk--and beyond Picard--and want to explore the countless strange new worlds that have yet to be visited there.
Saturday, August 27, 2011
Grant Morrison Vs. Comics (Not Really)
Well, here it is. This week's most controversial comics-related thing.
Comics writer, magician, and altogether genius Grant Morrison gave a fascinating interview with Rolling Stone earlier this week. The article, entitled Grant Morrison on the Death of Comics, features Morrison talking candidly about a whole mess of things.
Included in those topics of interest is his deteriorated relationship with fellow writer Mark Millar, a frank discussion about comic book groupies, and the obligatory promotion of Morrison's new book, Supergods, which is a history of the comic book medium.
But what's caused the biggest reaction from the comics community has been Morrison's comments on the state of the industry itself. The title of the piece certainly hits the nail on the head in terms of the long-time writer's feelings on today's comic book landscape.
I encourage you to read the article in full, but if you don't, here are the bits that have been most talked about online:
DC is relaunching its entire line – is there some desperation there?
There's always going to be a bit of that because comics sales are so low, people are willing to try anything these days. It's just plummeting. It's really bad from month to month. May was the first time in a long time that no comic sold over 100,000 copies, so there's a decline.
Do you think this is the death spiral?
Yeah. I kind of do, but again, you can always be wrong. There's a real feeling of things just going off the rails, to be honest. Superhero comics. The concept is quite a ruthless concept, and it's moved on, and it's kind of abandoned, the first-stage rocket.
And you know what the crazy thing is? I think what he's saying makes a whole lot of sense. "Death spiral" might be a bit much, as comics have been in a seemingly perpetual death cycle since the late 90s.
But comics has a readership of--at the very ceiling--one million people. If that was the amount of people watching a TV, on any channel, it would be cancelled after two episodes.
We hear a lot of creators talking about how things are actually just fine in comics right now when we all know that's simply not the case. It's refreshing--though a bit scary--to hear arguably the most important writer in the medium speaks openly about how he sees things from his side of the convention table.
Comics writer, magician, and altogether genius Grant Morrison gave a fascinating interview with Rolling Stone earlier this week. The article, entitled Grant Morrison on the Death of Comics, features Morrison talking candidly about a whole mess of things.
Included in those topics of interest is his deteriorated relationship with fellow writer Mark Millar, a frank discussion about comic book groupies, and the obligatory promotion of Morrison's new book, Supergods, which is a history of the comic book medium.
But what's caused the biggest reaction from the comics community has been Morrison's comments on the state of the industry itself. The title of the piece certainly hits the nail on the head in terms of the long-time writer's feelings on today's comic book landscape.
I encourage you to read the article in full, but if you don't, here are the bits that have been most talked about online:
DC is relaunching its entire line – is there some desperation there?
There's always going to be a bit of that because comics sales are so low, people are willing to try anything these days. It's just plummeting. It's really bad from month to month. May was the first time in a long time that no comic sold over 100,000 copies, so there's a decline.
Do you think this is the death spiral?
Yeah. I kind of do, but again, you can always be wrong. There's a real feeling of things just going off the rails, to be honest. Superhero comics. The concept is quite a ruthless concept, and it's moved on, and it's kind of abandoned, the first-stage rocket.
And you know what the crazy thing is? I think what he's saying makes a whole lot of sense. "Death spiral" might be a bit much, as comics have been in a seemingly perpetual death cycle since the late 90s.
But comics has a readership of--at the very ceiling--one million people. If that was the amount of people watching a TV, on any channel, it would be cancelled after two episodes.
We hear a lot of creators talking about how things are actually just fine in comics right now when we all know that's simply not the case. It's refreshing--though a bit scary--to hear arguably the most important writer in the medium speaks openly about how he sees things from his side of the convention table.
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