Today I Smiled: Random Funnies and Musics

Hmm, its been a minute since I've used a title like that. Anyway, here are some random things that I'm enjoying at the moment - starting with Vought International. If you're a fan of the Boys and/or Gen V, this has a fair bit of extra content in here that ranges from intentional cringe to really hilarious. I've also been enjoying the FreeMMAGyms channel for both its humor and instruction.

Onto pure silliness we have this Catan clip that anyone can enjoy (sound on), translations of Westeners Chinese Tattoos, stealing a girl's car skit, and proof that live action anime style openings done well can work for anything. As I am compelled to add music stuff, here's Lord Vinherio playing some chickens!?

If you prefer some better musics, here's the One Voice children's choir with a Wicked Medley and their rendition of Golden from KPop Demon Hunters, and an orchestral one of Soda Pop. Note that last one is purely just the music, the visuals are "fake". Speaking of fake, Rick Beato has a quick vid of how easy it is to make an AI Artist. If you prefer something more live and less produced, here's Laufey on tiny desk.

Today I Smiled: I scared the Boogeyman

It's a great feeling when Strahd's pet wraith "the night terror", which serves as a wandering boss in Barovia who hunts down and kills people, decides to run and hide from you in its little sphere of invisibility.

I see you! Get out here and fight me!

Obviously its AI broke because after declaring it was chasing me, I spied him fleeing down the hill at the ruins of Berez and get stuck in a corner. Took some coaxing before he finally came out to be slaughtered. Hehehe.

That's almost as good as the time I was harvesting cyclops eyes from the soon to be "old" Sharandar, and upon killing a single cyclops was surprised to find it dropped two eyes...

July 2020 Review: The Music "War"

Covid has really gotten me watching more youtube and two music channels in particular. Davie504 is a talented and entertaining bass player slapper while TwoSetViolin are a pair of classically trained violinists who often review music in TV and movie shows. I'm not sure where the battle began, but now the two are at "war" to try prove which instrument is better... and it's hilarious as they start giving each other challenges and ripostes.

Let the battle begin!

It's now gotten to the stage where they've made rap-style "diss" tracks against each other and involves instrument hostages? Lol! I'm quite enjoying this rivalry and I thought some of you might too, if you haven't yet been exposed to any of it. It's InTeReStInG! :)

The "war" even has anime fan art.

I guess I'll make this a fully music related post and include the more cooperative videos of Gary Barlow. One with JC Chasez with "Back For Good", and this one with Delta Goodrem with "You've got a friend". Excellent stuff if you just want to listen to good music.

Anyway, not much to report for myself other than I'm being surprisingly busy at work which is somewhat unexpected.

   End 2020 with less weight (-2 kg from last month, running total: +5 kg)
   Make 1 web comic page (nope)
   Make a board game (nope)

BACKLOG
Just Cause 4 [free from Epic Games]
Idle Champions of the Forgotten Realms [free on Steam]
Overcooked [free from Epic] (had enough)
Zombie Army Trilogy [gift]
GTFO [gift]
AER Memories of Old [free from Epic] (done)
Stranger Things 3 [free from Epic] (had enough)
Alien Swarm: Reactive Drop [free from Steam]
Dishonored 2 [gift]
Resident Evil 2 [gift]
Metro Exodus [gift]
Metal Gear Survive [gift]
Assassin's Creed Odyssey: Season Pass [gift] (done)
+Hue [free from Epic] (had enough)
+Killing Floor 2 [free from Epic]
+Lifeless Planet: Premium Edition [free from Epic] (done)
+The Escapists 2 [free from Epic] (had enough)
+NWO: Avernus [0/2]
+Warhammer 40k: Rites of War [free from GOG]
-+Next Up Hero [free from Epic] (had enough)
+Tacoma [free from Epic]

Board games:
Zombicide: Black Plague (10/11)
Mice and Mystics: Heart of Glorm (5/6)
-+Horrified

BLOG STATS

One Year Ago

I was playing through Assassin's Creed: Odyssey and Neverwinter Online's Undermountain.

Five Years Ago

I'm pretty sure this is when I stopped playing Mabinogi, probably helped along since we were playing through Sniper Elite: Nazi Zombie Army 2 coop while Batman: Arkham Origins took up my solo game time.

Most Viewed Posts last Month
Fallout Shelter: The Raiders
Inner Space
Farming Simulator 19 (lol what?)

Top Search Terms last Month
multiplayer 7 days to die
multiplayer battletech solaris l
multiplayer orchestra   

Guess some people are definitely getting lonely out there with the multiplayer searching? Haha. While I've not played 7 days to die, I did have a play through of BattleTech tucked away somewhere.

Today I Smiled: Elevator Ladies

I joined two random ladies (I'll call them Blondie and Spunky) waiting in the elevator today. They were clearly good friends, sharing a story and laughs. I am positioned near the buttons while the two of them are behind me, checking themselves out in the elevator mirror. On the ride up there was a short lull in their conversation broken by this...

Blondie [loudly]: My bum is soooo sore.

I smile to myself in the awkward silence that follows, knowing only Spunky can see the side of my face. A side wards glance confirms she's smiling too.

Blondie [stammers]: ... from exercising!

The elevator doors open at my floor and I step out, still grinning. As soon as I get out of view, Spunky cracks up and laughs hysterically. Blondie ends up laughing too as the elevator doors close again. It's addictive.

Thanks for the laugh ladies!

Today I Smiled: I forgot to post about Eurovision 2019!

Ah the perils of having lots of content prepared in advance. This one got quite buried and only now, months after the event do I remember that I wrote about it at all!

If you missed it, don't know about it, or just want to relive it - the Eurovision stage was lit this year up by musical acts of all sorts, including a quite bad one by Madonna. She might not look it but she's getting too old for this. It was a very weak performance.

Hatari won the award for weirdness this year!

This year the contestants had belters, awesome dancers, a guy in the shower, a giant chair, a singing dentist (who can't sing), a mandatory stripper act, bondage crew "arts group" Hatari (singing "Hate will Prevail!"), a sand artist, and Australia's Kate Miller-Heidke flying around on a pole. She should have won!

Of equal winning material was Sweden's John Lundvik, but as usual my picks never do well. Other acts I quite enjoyed were "Spirit in the Sky" from Norway, and the "S!sters" from Germany who deserved to place better than they did.

As a final bonus link: here's Kate Miller-Heidke with the same song again - but this time just with piano. I prefer it to her stage performance!

Today I Smiled: The Sword of Reddit

While I was supremely negative about reddit before thanks to games hosting official conversations there rather than their own forums, it has really grown on me as a place for news, shocks and entertainment. There are some really odd channels too... did you know about the great Emu War? I do highly recommend the two sentence horror channel for any writers though.

For those more inclined for visuals there are some cool instagram sites floating about, and for the more stalkerish you can even keep those stories you find. Someone's even made money selling other people's photos (Richard Prince and his "New Portraits" gallery)!

For those interested in medieval combat here are some nice HEMA clips I've found. The more "modern day" version looks so out of place in comparison. Speaking of out of place, what the heck is Geralt doing in Soul Calibur, or Negan in Tekken, or Franky Zapata flying across the English Channel on a hoverboard? Ok, that last one is kinda cool.

I'm going to wrap this up with some music courtesy of our bardic guildmate Lyv with her songs "Priestess Priestess" and "Little wings can do Grand Things"!

Today I Smiled: Scattershot Links

Been awhile since I did one of these, but I found these links to be entertaining if not informative. First up, is a story from the realm of r/MaliciousCompliance which is quickly becoming one of my favorite haunts.

As I've also been trying (and failing) to do some world building, here's a nice clip about creating fictional geography. When you are good enough at that, you might be able to make amazing D&D posters like this fellow too!

Speaking of D&D, here's a method to "win" as a sharpshooter and if that's not enough, how about a list of ways to defeat the Tarrasque, one of the most powerful creatures in the game?

Overcoming impossibility is not just in the realms of fiction though as proved by tarantulas that keep pet frogs, or Count Felix von Luckner who used an out dated three masted sailing ship to capture 16 enemy vessels in World War 1.

Usually I end these with a music clip but this time, here's the trailer for Death Stranding which looks both amazing and WTF at the same time.

Today I Smiled: High Voices

I'm taking a short blogging break for a few days so I thought I'd leave you with something to listen to, courtesy of DL who is currently sucked into Filipino singers.

Marcelino Pomoy and Morisette are pretty good, but I was most impressed by Gary Valenciano who sings Chick Corea's jazz standard: Spain. It is amazing! Here's a low res version but with less ads in the middle.

I also can't help but share a few more Brexit funnies. At some point I feel the Queen's just going to line up those politicians and...

Clean house!

slakmehl (on getting further Brexit extension)
Because when you're sitting in a car with a perfectly good steering wheel careening towards a cliff, your only option is to figure out how to make the edge of the cliff slightly further away.

punchdrunkskunk
    Turns out Brexit negotiations are basically the Spice Girls:

    UK: I'll tell you what I want, what I really, really want
    EU: So tell me what you want, what you really, really want
    UK: I'll tell you what I want, what I really, really want
    EU: So tell me what you want, what you really, really want
    UK: I wanna Huh I wanna Huh I wanna Huh I wanna Huh
    EU: ...
    UK: I really, really, really wanna [unintelligible].
    EU: ...

Lastly, due to the fire at Notre Dame recently, Ubisoft are offering Assassin's Creed: Unity for free this week. As expected with this outcome, folks on reddit are now suggesting "We need to burn more historical monuments." LOL.

Today I Smiled: Brexit Analogies

Small break from the Dying Light story today to share some of these hilarious Brexit analogies and comments floating about reddit as once again "no majority" rules.

by allocater
The Brexit Quantum State: It can be everything everybody wishes, as long as it is not observed and always in the future.

by allocater
Only one thing has majority: Delaying Brexit by 1 month, every month.

by janggun100
Can we have Theresa May's deal?
Parliament: No
How about a new PM since the leadership is so bad?
Tories: No
Ok, how about a general election?
Parliament: No
Ok, so how about a slightly altered version of May's deal?
Parliament: No
So a no deal Brexit then?
Parliament: No
Fine, here are 8 different options just pick one.
Parliament: No

by slakmehl
The UK voted to eat at the restaurant, and now finds every option on the menu to be disgusting. So what's it going to be, Brits? Maybe leave the restaurant? Or are you just going to order whatever "poopsteak" is and take your chances?

by one_man_difference
Do you want a blowjob from a piranha?
Yes
Did you hear me just now when I said it was from a piranha?
Alright I change my mind
But you already said yes though

by arbyD
How many of you want a blowjob from a piranha?
    52% Want piranha blowjob
    48% Do not want piranha blowjob
Piranha blowjobs for everyone then!

by xenopizza
Would you like to stay or leave the EU ?
[ ] No

by chillidoor
I never thought I could be more embarrassed to be British than when we voted Leave, but here we are.

Today I Smiled: Insight

Gevlon's farewell post made me realize that I should probably be sharing some gaming insight and not just stories and reviews all the time. We'll see how that goes in future posts as I'm probably not that good in "gamer skills" so my teaching qualification might not be up to par. :P

On to other stuff, with all the flooding that happened here you would think pilots would be busy delivering supplies or helping with evacuations. Not this guy, he's just bored.

Speaking of a different type of catastrophe, did you know there was actually a "High Priestess of Blood"? Had she been imprisoned in Russia I suppose she would qualify to be sent to the Black Dolphin Prison, where they most likely have bear hunting dogs skilled in Barkour. Yes, today I learned Barkour is a thing.

I'll leave you with what actually made me smile - the insights of comedian Jo Koy in this short clip. Enjoy your day everyone!

Today I Smiled: Historical Lego

Been awhile since I did one of these, and since this clever use of lego did leave me smiling I thought I'd share it with you all:  WWI In LEGO - The Capture of the Amiens Gun - By Brickmania :)

Not lego but equally entertaining is this commercial I stumbled on for Trulicity. I'm guessing the format is normal for US citizens but it is so hilarious for me given that the disclaimers take up more time than the rest of the ad.

Tech wise did you know about this thing called Gate Box which gives you a holographic companion at home? The invention is cool, but the users border on creepy. Anyway, I'm going to finish off with a music link as per usual - this time the legendary Sir Tom Jones being coaxed by fellow Voice judges and the audience to give an impromptu performance. Despite his age, his voice is still fantastic!

Hope you enjoyed at least some of those! ^_^

Today I Smiled: Eurovision 2018

Another year means another Eurovision! As you all know I'm a bit of a fan of this event, and this year had a combination of nice eye candy,  a douchebag intruder for the UK's entry, a wiggly Australian, a pyromaniac piano vampire, some heavy metal screamers, an opera singer in a cool laser dress, and some peace loving vikings.

Sometimes I think there's a secret "who can burn the stage" contest too.

I quite liked those last two, as well as Greece's song and Albania's Rock entry. Even if you skip all the above, the next three you probably should watch: Moldova's superbly choreographed and humorous number, the actual winning entry from Israel which involves a bit of clucking and eye gymnastics, and my personal favourite this year: Germany's touching "You Let Me Walk Alone".

Last but not least, here's a clip of Deadpool (Ryan Reynolds) questioning why Canada isn't a part of Eurovision. :)

Today I Smiled: Quiet Easterling

Hi all! It's going to be quiet here for a few days over the Easter weekend as I'm off on a small holiday! Hope you have a safe and happy one! Since you took the time to stop by, here are some random links for your amusement until I return:

Space X's reusable rockets!
Earth Wind Fire Map.
Jetsun Pema, currently the world's youngest queen.
Trump Criticizes himself (without realizing) on reddit.
Sir Nils Olav. He probably outranks you. He's also a penguin.
Honey Badgers are resistant to machetes, spears and arrows.
"Don't just stand there, come in!" Ants play Stalker too.
Chipmusic from Toni Leys - "Through a cardboard World".

Today I Smiled: Winter Olympics 2018

Taking a break from the Direbug Saga today to give a nod to the PyeongChang 2018 Winter Olympics which has proved to be very entertaining. :)

My personal faves were: Chloe Kim's amazing halfpipe run, Ester Ledecka's unexpected Super G win, the pairs free skate (Germany starts at 12:54) and Javier Fernandez's silly Gala performance.

Aljona was flying!

I'm not sure if those links will work for everyone, but just in case they don't I looked for more so people wouldn't be left out in the cold.

Since I'm very into figure skating, here is the Alina Zagitova in practice, a tribute to Canada's Scott Moir and Tessa Virtue (20 years of pairs ice dancing), and Evgenia Medvedeva as Sailor Moon (not performed in these Olympics, but still cooky. Volume warning)

Didn't get to see much curling which is a shame, but watching the final shots for the men's tournament was great. Just for kicks I've also been ranking the Google Doodles during the Olympics (because I'm an animator too sometimes) and here are the results:

Rank 6
Rank 5
Rank 4
Bronze Medal
Silver Medal
Gold Medal

Also interesting that there are a few things not allowed or simply missing from the games. Lastly, for those who need that "Olympic" itch scratched - have no fear, the Marbelympics are free to watch on Youtube! Enjoy! :)

Today I Smiled: The Gift of Gaming

What do you give a guy who doesn't buy himself games? My friend Juris had a good answer, giving me two big plastic bags filled with his old games as an early Christmas present! Sure, I've already played one or two and half probably won't work due to Steam validation or whatnot but there are still lots in there for me to get through! Thanks Juris! :)

That, along with my eldest brother and his family staying over for Christmas means I'll be going dark for a bit, so have a Merry Christmas all! Here's an online "game" for all of you too, courtesy of ASIO - Australia's Spy Agency. Not sure if it will work for those out of the country but give it a whirl. All I can say is I'd make a terrible spy.

Today I Smiled: Less is More

As a break from my Battle Brothers play through, I thought I'd share a few "less is more" lessons I am in the process of learning: the first being "use less words" which is frustratingly challenging! I find it's akin to developing a "clean" and efficient board game system which is so far eluding me. For the record, I'm up to "Game 17".

Apparently I should also do less in Neverwinter Online. After helping someone amidst a swarm or dinosaurs, I got angrily told off for kill stealing. Sigh. On a positive note, I'm improving when fighting T-Rexes. The secret is to stand between its legs as the "charge attack" is the only one you need to evade or block from that position. Easier than evading flaming bats, which to my surprise was a weapon being developed by the USA.

Now I shall leave you with the Adventures of Business cat. You can find more at his home page. As a bonus, here's another music clip from Walk off the Earth - Taekwondo. Have a good day everyone!

Today I Sighed: Where to Find Time?

Seems that I'm back in a "so much to do and not enough time too lazy to do it" phase at the moment, with my gaming addiction strangling out most other things once more. Thanks Neverwinter Online. Lol. At least I've got Chult done now, along with the long outstanding Tyranny of Dragons (thanks to the Linu improvement).

This leaves the Storm King's Thunder, the Day of the Dungeon Master event (too many dice required), and the PvP campaigns (no interest in that, so no biggie) unfinished. All that is also eating into my blogging time, which is annoying since I want to continue the Fate of Heroes story at some point.

I did do something different last weekend by attending Comic Con where I was surprised at how many people purchase boxes of random gear. That is, you get a box but don't know what's inside it. Haven't these guys played MMOs? Lol.

I also learned that the world of war gaming is very varied if this list is anything to go by, and that for each kick ass "good guy", there are psychos to balance it out.

In honor of one of our guild mates who has left I'm putting her favorite bands up here as my closing musical numbers: If these Trees could Talk and Explosions in the Sky. If that's too heavy for you, perhaps you'd enjoy this piece from the Eurovision Choir contest instead.

And as a bonus for bird lovers: here's a live feed for some roosting Peregrine Falcons.

Today I Smiled: Power Up!

The grind through the River District and Chult continues in Neverwinter Online, so much so that I've not been typing blog posts! Oops! It's great to see my characters improving again though, using Baphomet as a measuring stick.

Once I put some thought into what enchantments I actually used in my gear, my mounts and my npcs companions (who I previously didn't equip at all), I'm now easily beating the demon prince.

Speaking of training, here is the real-life weapons training of Keanu Reeves for John Wick 2, which is pretty awesome. Thank you to the poster who told me about it. Also cool is this site about military strength by country which is an eye opener. Some are higher than I thought!

If that is too violent for you, I've also just learned that Japan has a cat island and a rabbit island which is cute-overload at first, but when carefully thinking about it are islands full of a) rabbit poop or b) critters that actively seek to overthrow the human race. :P

As usual I'm going to end with some musical links - the first one being the Coconut song on an airplane and the last one is Peter Hollen's version of Hands of Gold from Game of Thrones! Have a great weekend everyone! :)

Today I Smiled: Neverwinter Birthday!

The Fourth Protector's Jubilee, which is the annual in-game celebration of Neverwinter Online's birthday, has come and gone - leaving those who attended and participated in the optional events with a lot of free goodies. While I missed out on the last one, I still recall there was speculation if it would ever reach year IV. I'm happy to report that the game is going stronger than ever!

It wasn't only Neverwinter's birthday recently, but also mine, which meant I got even more free stuff in game courtesy of my brother, Dragonlord, who gifted me with a Celeste and lesser bonding runes among other things, and a random stranger named EdwinaVC of the Blackcloaks (alliance) who gave me a Hell Emblazon Worg mount! Thank you very much!

As a PSA for those who play NWO: get the Wanderer's Fortune mount boon if you don't have it already. It's a fantastic source of refinement points, so much so that bag space is again an issue for me.

Wish I could put these thrones as static statues.

While on the topic of Dungeons and Dragons I'm also happy to report that my group has finished the Legend of Drizzt boardgame, and have now moved on to Castle Ravenloft to face the ever present Strahd. It's pretty cool so far - I'll have a review up on that after we play it a bit more. Nice to know the next module, the Tomb of Annihilation, has a board game slated for simultaneous release.

More blog posts coming up shortly, here are some interesting clips for you to watch: a very impressive coin magician and a kid who solves the Rubix cube in his head. Might look like he's doing nothing, but just wait till that blind fold goes on. What's worse - this is a tournament - so there must be others doing the same thing. :O

Have a great day everyone!

Today I Smiled: Throttling Back

Phew, finally my Creative Writing Experiment is finished! While it was kinda fun to do, it also did take a lot of work doing it - not to mention a gap of around a year halfway through. I think I'll be returning to my simpler writing styles like in my Skyrim journal, which is also finished for now. This isn't the end of my stories though, as I still have many "survivors" on my list who need a chance to shine. :P

I will be throttling back my post frequency though. I know I keep threatening to do it and never actually do it, but this time I actually want to focus on a few other projects so don't be surprised if I start only posting once or twice a week for awhile. When said "other things" are out of the way, I will revisit the post scheduling.

What those other projects are? Well, I'd like to make more headway with this Game 13 thing that seems to keep going through cycles of re imagining / re configuring. There's also a tiny bit more story coming to Tales at the Bonfire when I get it written. Lastly I'd also like a bit more time to grind in Neverwinter since I'm way "behind" (behind who or what, I'm not really sure, probably "everyone" is a suitable answer), but I'd like to be ready for dinosaurs. ^_^