Selfsurprise

Strife: A campy yet sincere sci-fi action series from the 90's. Despite the often hammy acting, dated CGI and a consistent habit of "jumping the shark" in every other episode, this series has a cult following due to some ineffable charm and distinctiveness as a program. A new edgier, reimagining of the series will be debuting on Netflix soon which will feature unwarranted interpersonal drama, depressing lengthy side plots and a well-meaning but extremely forced dosage of sociopolitical worthiness.

If I had a secretary I'd ask them to cancel my appointments for the rest of the evening. x3

1) Given the disparaging comments about YouTube poop (or "spazzanimation") you made in previous videochats, I've got the impression that you aren't especially keen on so-called "internet humour". Is there any kind of humour that is ubiquitous to the internet (i.e. webcomics, comedy Youtube channels, memes, etc) that you like, and if so can you name a few examples? 2) Although I suspect that I know your answer already, subjectively between ghosts and zombies which of the two do you find the most disturbing and frightening prospect? I only ask because I've been having this debate with a close friend of mine on-and-off for about a month now. He is very much on the side of zombies whereas I'm leaning towards ghosts. We decided to defer to your ineffable wisdom on the subject.

http://accursedfarms.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=21&t=8443 - It's over here, actually Thank you!

Free From Your Spell by The Hazytones

Eat everything in your house. Just keep doing it and don't think about the consequences. :3

^ The thing that got me was the URL in the bottom corner. There is something very satisfying about the knowledge that there is apparently a Russian website dedicated to pictures of fat cats...

This is breathtaking... Does anybody mind if I wade in seriously on this for a moment? Whilst a feminist reading of the latter point about the evolving habits of assigning gender to non-human things is interesting (let me emphasize, not inherently good or bad), what on earth is the first point supposed to be? You might be able to reasonably argue that geopolitical history has resulted in placing certain demographics (often poor, often a result of racial or national diaspora and displacement, etc) into environments less ideal to settlement, less conducive to human industry, perhaps even more prone to natural disruption and instability. Am I being too optimistic if I forward the suggestion that this melodyinn character was aiming for this general point but had difficulty articulating it? Or was he/she emphatically arguing that a cabal evil white wizards redirect hurricanes to places with higher non-white populations? I'm not so much angry as I am utterly bewildered by the latter implication. Am I an evil white wizard? Is everything I've ever sought to understand about history, racial politics and geography up until now all been in vain? Am I a hurricane?

Thanks for throwing some well needed ice water in my face Jeb and Helio, I probably needed that. My post wasn't a proper whine anyway, it was more an expression of unease of having to spend the whole day with someone that I ironically have a lot in common in with despite our past ambivalences. I certainly wouldn't mind getting to see the aforementioned staff again. Moses staff or not it's an intriguing artefact in of itself. Absolutely they do! I'm not surprised that you are interested in psychology, you seem to have an instinctive knack for seeing things in others that they themselves lack the self-awareness or inclination to notice, and that you are rather naturally self-reflexive in your posts. Reading can often give a sense of accomplishment and meaningfulness to a day that you might otherwise "write off" due to a lack of drive or confidence. Even if you've done nothing else all day, having done or engaged with something you actually care about to any degree can sometimes be enough. It's suspiciously close to the kind of tired and trite engineered optimism or "blue sky thinking" one is torturously subjected to by a world that cannot admit it's weariness out loud, but at least these minor goals can be fulfilled and executed on your own terms rather than someone else's insincere pathos. Oh he's definitely not a bad person! He's a great guy to talk to, loves his family, is as kind and proactive a soul as you'll ever likely meet. He is budding film director whose sparse means outstrip his enthusiasm for the medium, and we've plenty of fascinating conversations about religious artefacts, various mythological figures, our respective countries history, his passion for films in general, etc. I suspect it's just a matter of spending time with each other is somewhat problematic. Our interests are similar but our particular ideologies and stances on myriad things are rather different. We just rub each other up the wrong way, I guess.

Gorka Mohamed, Maria Spirulina del Instagram (2016)

I've never played any of the Gears of War games, but your post piqued my interest. I used to think the standard of storytelling in games was generally rather low and that, in all honesty, narrative strength was a secondary consideration in most examples of the medium. But outside of "story-driven" games (which is certainly no guarantee of great writing) the more maligned and dismissed variety of "bro" titles the thread infers to can sometimes surprise you. I'm reminded of Jim Sterling's praise lavished on the 2016 iteration of Doom Guy, for giving him a meaningful and utterly unpretentious personality despite his mute anonymity and largely through simplistic gestures articulated via the characters hands. It's the same reason many of us liked Dante from Devil May Cry despite his corny, sub-anime, macho smugness - there's a hard-to-define charisma therein that other characters just like him couldn't get away with. This Don character seems like a slightly less flamboyant individual than Dante (basing my observations solely on the death scene video you supplied) but it is curious that he engendered no mean amount of affection in you - certainly enough to warrant this topic! I wonder if this no-nonsense lowest-common-denominator appeal is similar to the phenomena of the charismatic villain? Gothic literary nerds like me enjoy the introspective evil of Comte de Lautréamont's ghoulish Maldoror, or fans of 20th century comedy find knowing underachievers like Jaroslav Hašek's titular "good soldier" Švejk endlessly charming. Are we seeing something similarly rarefied with the straight-laced unfussy typically male characters in computer games that occasionally transcend their generic role? Are they more than the sum of their banal traits?

Bad news: the opening acts are ten individual Ricky Martin tribute acts. All of them are from Tamworth. Good news: we have finally constructed a fully-functioning perpetual motion machine!

(not technically a vent, more of a thinly veiled angling for advice from strangers on the internet) Do any of you remember that Greek brother-in-law I mentioned in this thread a while back? The somewhat religious one who doesn't want his son to play with my old Monsters In My Pocket stuff when I'm babysitting him? He invited me to join him on an excursion next monday to Birmingham Museum to go see a famous artefact in the Egyptian wing that is reputed in some quarters to be the surviving staff of Moses, the very same one rumoured to have transformed into a serpent before the Pharaoh, or most famously parting the red sea in order for the pursued Israelites to escape from the Pharaoh's men. The providence of the Birmingham staff is largely due to the research of author and historian Graham Phillips involving an elaborate theory about a certain burial site and two individuals that history has distorted into a single biblical figure - you can read a little more about it here. I've actually seen the staff a couple of times and in my brother-in-law's defense, despite my open agnosticism, we both enjoy reading about national and cultural history and holy relics are of interest to us both. But for the whole eight years or so I've known him neither of us have been inclined to "make a date" and do something together. On the one hand it's because we are both busy with our own lives, but I've always suspected a lot of it is simply to do with the fact that we kind of get on each others nerves. Brief visits are usually cordial but if we spend considerable time in each other's company there is a sense of mild alienation between us. I'm curious to know why he feels the need to invite me to go look at slightly dubious (though otherwise fascinating) object that he is certainly bound to be more convinced by than I. And besides the context why does he want my company now? You don't think he's going to drive me into the wilderness and subject to me a shotgun conversion or am I just being ridiculous? Is there anything you live for that you can always remain positive about? If there is literally anything in your life or sphere of interest that you never tire of, or become averse to, then hold onto that thing despite of how awful you feel about everything else. "Depression" in the literal sense might be an overprescribed thing these days, but speaking as somebody with a pessimistic mindset I've often found that separating your situation by a few degrees from your own weird headspace is often enough to cope. Don't let that sneering ass we call reality grind you down Jeb... :3

"Ravnica's most ancient streets take on a life of their own. A few have decided to move to nicer neighbourhoods." "Beware a scarecrow bearing gifts - especially sloshing barrels of acid." That one had slipped my mind...

About six minutes in I had to pause the video after your musically-induced freakout It took me a while to compose myself... As always you've done a smashing job on the video Ross. Maybe the reason why everything feels a little off in the game's world is because some unspeakable disembodied evil created Plant #4 as a personal hell for Zack - but his apparent unflappable optimism and clinical disassociation made him immune to the psychologically torturous effects of it. It's like a saturday morning equivalent of Silent Hill.

"It's alright... It's alright... It's al-HOLY CRAP THAT THING IS AS BIG AS JUPITER GET IN THE CAR!"

You might possibly remember a few videochats ago, I asked Ross which of the games featured on his Gaming Dungeon series he would most like to see adapted into a movie or some sort of television series. If I recall correctly he suggested hyper violent taxi driving simulator Quarantine as a game ripe for a screenplay reimagining. Months later, after thinking about this particular question again with more deliberation than I care to admit out loud, I began to wonder what sort of unlikely yet potentially rad reiterations of these games could make for a good television program. I was hoping that if I posted a few of my own goofy ideas it might encourage others to share their own, no matter how silly or sincere and hopefully get a worthwhile topic going. Feel free to be as serious or as humorous with your particular pitches for whichever game/s you choose as like! Nyet 3: A suspenseful and utterly skin-crawling thriller filled with gut wrenching twists and shockingly violent scenes. The premise effectively centres on an unnamed character waking up in a decrepit bunker who cannot seemingly remember anything, about his life or even the outside world. Soon after waking he stumbles upon a series of bizarre and lethal puzzles, all whilst being taunted by a grotesque boggle-eyed obese man via various media outlets, who offers thinly-veiled threats and occasional suspect aid. Wolfenstein: An extremely camp situational historic comedy that just so happens to be set in techno-occult Nazi Germany. A bit like 'Allo 'Allo but with more overt bloodshed and bloody carnage. Construction Bob Escapes From Hell: On the face of it, CHEFH is just another goofy saturday morning morning childrens cartoon series. But beneath the zany façade and playfully irreverent character design is a cartoon with surprisingly snarky humour and a sincere commitment to not patronizing it's young audience. A bit like Billy & Mandy's Grim Adventures but with more anti-papal overtones. For some reason the credits always have a different German metal band as the closing soundtrack.

If any of you are familiar with Magic The Gathering, you'll know that many of the cards contain bits of thematic text alongside their particular gameplay traits and rules relating to the imagery and title of the individual card. These are predominantly to do with the lore of various worlds in the MTG multiverse and it's numerous timelines and events. Often they will be metaphors culled from the respective fictional cultures of the world, or quotes from recurring characters, heroes and villains of the background narratives of each expansion - although in the many editions of the so-called "basic set" real world literary quotes are sometimes appropriated. The bodies of it's victims are the only tracks it leaves. I felt like making a thread and this was the best idea I could come up on the spur of the moment. Are there any examples of MTG flavour text you like? Anything you want to single out as being particularly interesting to you? Flavour text can often summarize the situation in the story succinctly, or elaborate upon the culture and context of the world being portrayed therein, can simply be amusing, poignant, thought-provoking or even downright badass at times (see the Bog Wraith card above; I don't care if it's a bog-standard 3/3 black creatures, don't fuck about with Bog Wraiths) whatever appeals to you about a certain card/s flavour text, please share it with us here! "Marit Lage lies frozen in a glacier's heart. Still her dreams take form in our world, stealing the heat from our souls." ؄ Halvor Arenson, Kjeldoran priest "The Lemures looked harmless, until they descended on my troops. Within moments, only bones remained." ؄ Lucilde Fiksdotter, Leader of the Order of the White Shield "Kobolds are harmless." ؄ Bearand the Bold, epitaph During the giant crabs' mating season, Skyshroud nights are filled with the clatter of their skirmishes. "So like men they are: a hardened shell with fragile flesh beneath." ؄ Selenia, dark angel Incase you are curious, all the picture scans were sourced from the very handy Gatherer Card Database.

I assume I can post questions for the November update here? 1) Given the disparaging comments about YouTube poop (or "spazzanimation") you made in previous videochats, I've got the impression that you aren't especially keen on so-called "internet humour". Is there any kind of humour that is ubiquitous to the internet (i.e. webcomics, comedy Youtube channels, memes, etc) that you like, and if so can you name a few examples? 2) Although I suspect that I know your answer already, subjectively between ghosts and zombies which of the two do you find the most disturbing and frightening prospect? I only ask because I've been having this debate with a close friend of mine on-and-off for about a month now. He is very much on the side of zombies whereas I'm leaning towards ghosts. We decided to defer to your ineffable wisdom on the subject.

Bad news: The Hawaii Hotel of course! The finest hospitality to be found in the whole of Belarus. Good news: The world's panda population is steadily increasing.

I have to say, seeing as I don't watch a lot of modern telly or even many films for that matter (and prefer obscure European literature anyway) spoilers really have little or no affect on me. And even then if I'm entirely honest, I've read so many history and literary-criticism books that I've probably been clued into "plot developments" long before I've picked up any given book. Still though it is nice to experience a narrative twist when one least expects it, not to be contentious but I suspect the reason why some people react so hysterically to uncourteous spoilers is that they are attempting to engineer a serendipitous moment when one is genuinely surprised by a story - experience ought to tell us that trying to forcibly shoehorn some sincere emotion into your day results in either disappointment or dishonesty for all concerned. I'll occasionally avoid playthroughs of games I plan on getting at some point, but then how many computer games have genuinely great story-writing? [warning : an actual film spoiler I'm sure you all know about already contained below]