June 18th, 2011 by The Grey Ghost
Back before the term “podcast” was coined for internet-bast media, there was Rantmedia. It was founded by James O’Brien (aka Cimmerian), but the Voice of the community is Sean Kennedy (The Fucking Man). For almost a decade now, Sean has been my guiding light into counter-culture. If Fight Club was my red pill, SKTFM was my Morpheus.
What separates Sean from the other kooks and conspiracy nuts is that he’s down-to-earth and is a talented entertainer. Rather than pumping out fear and paranoia, he’s constructive and inspiring. What I admire most about his performance are his fast wit and vision of an engineer. These are qualities I try to emulate when I work on creative projects of my own.
Below is a clip from Newsreal, his own podcast which has unfortunately just come to a close. The show’s entire archive is available on Sean’s site, Dark Atlas, along with links to all his other projects. I encourage everyone to give it a listen.
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October 28th, 2010 by The Grey Ghost
Little did we know that our review of Four Loko would be echoed so harshly in the news, as word of its banishment is now on the tips of every media anchor’s tongue. This week, college students in Washington danced carelessly along the banks of the River Styx, abusing this “loko” toxin; some foolishly spiking it further with additional hooch.
What tickled my dark sense of humor was that the police arriving on the scene at first believed that multiple drug-induced date rapes were in effect, when the students were all consensually getting crunked and fucked. (Okay, so that last bit didn’t rhyme as well as I’d hoped.)
While I will forever frown upon Phusion Projects for what now cannot be uninvented, I do somewhat sympathize with their response. Four Loko can be an interesting recreational experience, if consumed responsibly… These students did not act as such. They were underage and gambled in excess. They were lucky to survive and I pray this serves as a lesson to them and anyone else tempted to experiment with these 23oz chambers of horror.
Posted in Food, Random | 2 Comments »
October 15th, 2009 by The Grey Ghost
Bonus Episode 01: “Yo, Dawg, I Heard You Like Trans-Fats…”
Run Time: 43min 44sec
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In the Method to Madness podcast, I’m joined with my good friend Kevin “The Business” Gray to discuss great anime and video games that you should be watching as well as ones you should feel ashamed you are watching.
This episode, we discuss…
NC State Fair Food
The North Carolina State Fair has just begun, and we are there! The fair is a big deal around these parts; especially the variety of fried foods, limited only by your darkest imagination.
While hyping up this grand event, “The Business” and I converse over high-tech food science, the proper way to make a peanut butter/banana/marshmallow sandwich, and the history of Nascar. Also, bunny barns.
Posted in Podcast, Random | 1 Comment »
September 4th, 2009 by The Grey Ghost
If you happen to be in Japan this November, the Force will be with you.
Kotobukiya, a company that specializes in producing and importing high-quality statues, has crafted a set of chopsticks in the form of lightsabers. Ramen-hungry nerds will have their choice of three from the set: Darth Vader (red), Luke Skywalker (blue), and Yoda (green). Fans like myself hold high hopes for the possibility of a purple Mace Windu set.
Unlike the versions seen above, the blades will actually be translucent in the final product, to best reflect their Jedi inspirations.
Each set is the standard 20-23cm chopstick length and will run for approximately $10 per pair. The chopsticks will be released in late November in Japan, though you’ll most likely be able to get your hands on a set through your favorite online importer.
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September 1st, 2009 by The Grey Ghost
BBC posted a video reporting on a new trend for combating stress in Japan: Bunny cafés.
They’re not the Playboy-themed maid cafés that you might assume; these cafés have actual bunnies. The idea is that when you need to relax, you enter one of these cafés to indulge the cute, soothing effects of interacting with bunnies. There’s some science to that, since owning pets has often been suggested to improve a person’s health and stress levels. (Unless they’re a pain in the ass, like in my house.)
If you’re looking for a nibble, the café serves a selection of bunny-shaped dishes. The establishment also welcomes people to bring their own pet bunnies so that they too can spend time with fellow long-eared friends.
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August 24th, 2009 by The Grey Ghost
I did an awesome interview with
Phoenix Kasai last night… It will be up on GotGame either this Friday or next.
After the interview, I added her as a friend on MySpace so I could see when she uploads new photos and because that’s currently her primary homepage. She returned the befriending, adding the following comment to my page:
Hey it was great chatting with you tonight! I forgot to mention during the interview.. I will never look at my C Viper figure the same way after your piece a couple weeks/months ago on her “flaw”. I’m now obsessed with showing people my figure when they come over b/c they just don’t believe how bad it really is. ^__^;
The “flaw” she’s referring to is the one that I’d mentioned in an article she’d seen about the Crimson Viper action figure. Knowing this, I clicked the “Comment Back” link to send this reply:
I’m usually in favor of a little camel toe, but holy cow! There are limits! O_o
When I looked again at my MySpace homepage, I was confused to not find my reply underneath her comment. I’d assumed that replying to comments was like any other thread, but apparently this is not the case for MySpace.
It then occurred to me to look at her homepage, finding my response with no context connecting it to her original message to me. I thought, “Well, that’s going to look inappropriate.” Thus, I quickly composed a second comment, clarifying my true meaning from the first.
I fail at MySpace. Good thing I don’t use it much.
Though thankfully, I’m not as careless, I was reminded of this recent post of FaceBook fail (under the break):
Read the rest of this entry »
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July 24th, 2008 by The Grey Ghost
Where are all the dead squirrels? Where do they go when they die? Not in a theological sense; I mean seriously, where the frick are they?? I see squirrels frolicking about wherever I may venture, but not a single dead one upon the ground.
The only instances where I’ve ever seen a dead squirrel is in the aftermath of being tragically hit by a car or caught by a predator. It leads me to wonder…do squirrels ever die of natural causes? Like old age or cancer? You never see a case where a squirrel is gleefully stowing acorns into his nest, then suddenly clench his chest and drop like a stone to the earth below. Color me morbid, but this world would just make so much more sense if occasionally squirrels would appear to fall from the sky.
The death doesn’t have to be the result of an ailment… What if the squirrel is just clumsy? Do not even squirrels apply to the laws of natural selection? All it would take is one miscalculated leap from tree to tree and he’s boned. Be that as it may, you never go for a stroll and suddenly hear the sound of a squirrel’s equivalent of “AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!!!!!”, followed by a terminal *SPLAT*. Why is that??
Are squirrels immortal? Do they laugh in the face of the Grim Reaper, immune to his touch? Can they not die unless life is stripped from them? Or is it just a the formula of coincidence and timing that they appear to only be killed by outside forces? Do the numbers add up between the rate that they reproduce and the rate at which they’re killed? Have squirrels as a species been blessed with such a dealt hand…or cursed? The world (or at least I) may never know…
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July 17th, 2008 by The Grey Ghost
In Akihabara, Japan you’ll find this little stand that offers watermelon milk, among other mixed fruit drinks. This alone would pique my interest in that I’m certainly down with fruit-flavored milk-based goodness to cool me down on a hot day. However, the stand felt it needed a little something extra in it’s marketing. It claims that their drinks are a sexual aid, increasing one’s sex drive. They base this claim on the pretense of a supposed discovery by an American research group that eating watermelon is just as effective as taking Viagra.
I think we can chalk this one up to over-sensationalism of the media and then by someone trying to market the concept. I can see how watermelon can affect one’s circulatory system, but I’ve yet to eat some magic seedless that gave me an 8-hour erection. Both playing on men’s desire to increase their sexual prowess. I can see how it would work out for the guy hosting the milk stand since, let’s face it, what isn’t considered an aphrodisiac in Asia? Between rhino horn and bat’s balls…at least I can palate some watermelon.
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July 14th, 2008 by The Grey Ghost
I just thought of an awesome idea for a 1970s style cop show.
He’s a straight-laced cop who’s tough enough to handle the street, but still plays by the book.Years of taking out the trash have turned him into a chain-smoking hard-ass. He wants to retire, but they keep pulling him back in.
She’s a rookie who grew up on the streets, looking to get her kicks on the night beat. Hip to the disco scene, she patrols the city in her pink bell-bottomed sequin fabric uniform. Careful, fellas! She’ll break your heart…and your collar bone!
Together, they’re the departments hottest new team to clean the streets. Coming this fall…
SMOKE & MIRRORS
Friday’s at 9 / 8 Central
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June 29th, 2008 by The Grey Ghost
I like to pretend that I’m a writer. One symptom of this is that I’m a stickler for precise use of the English language. That is to say that I’m constantly examining my own grammar, vocabulary, and those of others.
Sometimes, though, there are issues that I have with the English language itself. For example, placing words like “that” twice in succession in the same sentence. To illustrate: “I believe that that is annoying.” When spoken, such a phrase would make complete sense, since one would normally place extra emphasis on the second “that”, distinguishing the two. Yet when in written form, it could be mistaken for a typo.
I can see some people suggesting to omit the second “that”, believing that that would be acceptable. (You see what I did there?) It’s not that simple since there is a value to the second “that”. It serves as a qualifier, directing your attention to a specific point in the idea you’re expressing in such a sentence.
For example, “You can see that color is red,” is different from “You can see that that color is red”. In the first form, it gives the sense that you could be looking at that color anywhere around and acknowledge that it is red. On the other hand, in the second version, the speaker is still identifying the color, but on a specific object. Or it could be that the speaker is differentiating that color from other colors that are visible.
It’s a personal pet peeve of mine and it’s a challenge to construct sentences that detour from using that syntax. Some of my alternative sentences may appear a bit funny as a result, but I believe that they’re still far less confusing to read. Or maybe no one cares but me.
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