My New Gaming PC

My Pandora Radio Stations

Pandora is still the best at finding music that is musically similar to other tracks you like. With a little patience and a little luck, it’s possible to train Pandora to hit all the right notes. I listen to a lot of different music so I have a list of stations for whatever I feel like at the moment.

Metal Mash-Up – updated off and on since 2005 with all the kinds of metal I like Expert Mode – prog rock and guitar solos that would be difficult in Guitar Hero Fun – a catch-all for punk rock, nerd rock, electropop, and much more Electronic Skill – hard EDM and industrial you’d hear in frag videos Chippy Jams – chiptunes, game soundtracks, and other tracker-sounding music Sequencer Beats – DJ grooves and hip hop instrumentals for chillin’ and Marvel Lyrical Hip Hop – only real MCs and classics, no repetitive radio-friendly rap here Wheel of Pandora – randomly plays any genre on Pandora; use in shuffles! Hitstun’s QuickMix (autoplay) – all of the stations above shuffled together

I'm aware I've got a couple stations reversed in the bottom row. You know, I almost didn't put an image in this post, but it would have looked way out of place for a post to not have a featured image. My one extension that grabs YouTube video thumbnails probably would have put that Quake 3 video's preview image in there, but this post isn’t about Quake 3.

Source: Pandora Radio

Grant Kirkhope – Donkey Kong 64 Soundtrack

30-Day Video Game Music Challenge (Bonus Stage) Day 31: All 30 prompts with one game From Donkey Kong 64 (N64, 1999)

Jiko points out that DK64 has a song for everything on this list. That’s a lot of music! DK64 is fun to play and fun to break.

1: Title screen music: Main Menu 2: Opening level music: DK's Treehouse 3: 8-Bit music: Donkey Kong 4: Music from a console exclusive series: Hideout Helm 5: Hub world or overworld music: DK Isle 6: Music that makes you feel relaxed: Crystal Caves 7: Music from an indie game?: Mine Cart Carnage 8: Music from a shooter (first or third person): Angry Aztec Underground 9: Music from a licensed game: uh...the N64 Logo? 10: RPG battle music: Dogadon 11: Puzzle game music: Frantic Factory R&D 12: Music that makes you sad: Wrinkly Kong 13: Music you like from a game you don't like: Bonus Barrel 14: Music featuring vocals: DK Rap 15: Boss battle music: King Kut-Out 16: 16-Bit music: Jungle Japes 17: Music you never get tired of: Enguarde 18: Music in a game released the year you were born: off by 1 but Jetpac 19: Cover of music by a different artist: Jungle Japes Underground 20: Music from a racing game: Frantic Factory Car Race 21: Music you associate with frustration: Angry Aztec Race 22: Town/village music: Fungi Forest Day 23: Underrated music: Mad Maze Maul 24: Music you constantly have stuck in your head: Snide's HQ 25: Music that gets you pumped: Rocket Barrel Blast 26: Music you like from a game you haven't played: Monkey Smash 27: Music from a handheld game: uh...Mini Monkey? 28: Music that makes you nostalgic: Pause Menu 29: Final boss music: K. Rool Duel 30: Credits music: Staff Credits

Source: YouTube, challenge by OverClocked ReMix I think?, via NintendoCapriSun

Asano – Taisho 103: Battleship Island

This reminds me of the Imperial Boy background art I posted here several months ago. So much detail! I'd make this my wallpaper but I can't crop it to 16:9 without losing lots of details.

Source: 「大正一〇三年・軍艦島」/「浅野」のイラスト [pixiv] via pixiv每周排行 – 前50

大正一〇三年　軍艦島

TBS様「WADAIの王国」 という番組で別ver.をセット背景に使って頂きました。

Yuumei – Glass Instruments

Hi, blog! It’s been a couple months! I almost forgot how to do these posts. Yuumei, designer of the original Cat Ear headphones, painted some musical instruments made of glass. I wonder how they would sound. Crystal flutes exist, and I imagine string instruments would sound pretty normal too. When hitting a drum with water in it, the air and the water would make two different sounds at the same time. Then there’s the fish tank piano, which would take physical strength to play but make super deep, eerie tones. Underwater performances are possible!

Source: Yuumei via Pixiv several years ago

My glass instruments series :) I’ve been meaning to add more instruments in the future but it’s hard to find time between all the projects. They are all available as prints, wallscrolls, post cards and tote bags at https://www.yuumeiart.com/shop/

Crappy Design

/r/CrappyDesign is a blindingly colorful Subreddit that collects unfortunate design mistakes from all over the world. They’re the Engrish.com of half-baked engineering. Good old TwistedSifter recently did what I do with artists and made a post of the best/worst of the bunch.

The first animated gif on my blog took three years and is actually an mp4, not a gif. The gif was 10.7MB. I'll be using this modified Reddit gifv code to bring you more fake gifs in the future. You should be able to click this and go to TwistedSifter's post. Will it work, or is this just another crappy design? (For Tumblr, I corrected Giphy’s downsized medium version of this into a proper 3MB gif.)

Source: TwistedSifter via RSS feed, video of a stairway at University of California, San Francisco by Frank Farm via Luutamo on reddit

Japanese TV Commercials Best Of 2015

Anime Hell brought the pain to Ohayocon again this weekend and, like I promised, I took notes. Most of their Japanese TV commercials this year came from the same source: JPCMHD’s Very Best of 2015 compilation. Just put this on in front of a room full of friends and soak it in.

Source: YouTube via Anime Hell

This is the very best from 2015. Hope you guys enjooooy! (^_^)–b

Cookies n' Creme Oreos

Thanks to some creative food scientists, you can now go to Walgreens and buy Oreo ice cream flavored Oreos. Sure enough, they taste like cookies and cream ice cream.

TVTropes calls this Recursive Adaptation. Another one I'd like to track down: the Words with Friends board game.

By the way, this post is a test of writing and publishing a post entirely from my phone. This picture might be huge.

Source: My phone camera and SPOTTED ON SHELVES – 9/16/2013 | The Impulsive Buy via Consumerist

New Games From Columbus

I’ve updated the Bakamo Studios site with a new post about three locally developed games that could use some hype right now. While you’re waiting for Evo 2014 Championship Series to start, why not watch these trailers?

Lemma – first-person parkour playground

Breaking Block – polished creative Arkanoid-like

Hatch-It! – cute ice physics puzzle

Source: Columbus Game Developer Spotlight » Bakamo Studios which sources Evan Todd, Smiling Cat Entertainment, and Multivarious Games

16-Bit Bar+Arcade

I visited 16-Bit Bar+Arcade tonight, and I've never seen that many people in an arcade in Columbus. Most games are in excellent shape, and there are some unique cabinets like Baby Pac-Man and Slick Shot. Here are the new high scores on Gorf, Space Invaders, and Rally-X. I'll be coming for the others later. I hope they get a good 90s shmup in there soon.

Source: good ol' cell phone camera and NerdKO

Mieko Ishikawa – Trading Village of Redmont

30-Day Video Game Music Challenge (Super Hard Mode) Day 22: Town/village music From Ys III (PC-88/PC-98, 1989)

Yeah, My Life in Gaming picked this song too, but I’m not changing it now. Those nerds have lots of good picks, so check them out too.

Source: YouTube, challenge by OverClocked ReMix I think?, via NintendoCapriSun