baladec

Thank you

Because when I hear familiar sounds I can’t identify drives me insane until I figure out what they are: could someone please help me identify the section that plays after the descending Mac startup noises?

I made the mistake of touching the circuit board of a disposable camera in high school. The charge of the capacitor bucked my body and I was left with an empty tingling sensation. That's how I feel after watching episode 18: like I have been electrocuted. Dale Cooper feels like Roland from the Dark Tower. He's just completed his first cycle and there's signs he's making progress. Dale knew after seeing Diane that something was wrong, there was still something out there pulling the strings, which made what would be a severely happy moment feel worthless. The final moments of season three is going to give me nightmares. I am deeply unsettled.

This brings a whole new meaning/layer or intrigue to the mushroom cloud photo hanging in Cole's office.

Has in been discussed how Bad Coop knows so much about good Coop? It's doesn't strike me that his doppleganger knows anything about his counterpart, but instead is being directed by BOB who had an incredible amount of exposure to Coop and those close to him. The through-line I get is that BOB is a being of dark chaos and Bad Coop wishes to unravel every good thing Coop has done and turn it for his own profit.

Did anyone else find the murder scene with Ike "The Spike" Stadtler especially disturbing? It's probably the most gruesome murder I've seen in Twin Peaks. It didn't have the suspension of belief like being murdered by a special effect, and I found myself looking away from the screen for the first time in the series.

Wraith Night is great and I would like to talk shop about it.

Very surprised this episode was not titiled: “Allards, kings, men."

Something amazing happened while listening to this episode. When Jake was in the middle of talking about Mario 3D Land, he skipped like a CD and everything fell silent in my headphones. I couldn’t help but laugh, because it was a pretty fitting gag when paired with the context of the Stanley Parable, repeating and restarting. I was anticipated someone to chime in with the Idle Thumbs introduction, but enough silence warranted investigation. Turns out, my podcast app had crashed.

To extend the topic of “What game would you suggest to someone who hasn’t played games?” I would have to throw Fez in there. At it’s core it’s very simple: jump here to get these things. Then, it expands into a quest for information to solve these puzzles: what do these symbols mean? These rooms clearly hide something, but what? All while being surrounded by a soothing, welcoming environment that doesn’t hold any consequence around character death. I could see someone getting a lot out of it, slowly, over time.

It is definitely a time commitment. My approach has evolved since I began playing to the point where it feels more like team sports than any other comparison I can think of. The notion of being expected to play a match to completion or be penalized, is a type of expectation that hasn’t really existed much in video games. Companies instead tend focus to design a game where a player wouldn’t want to quit early, to a point where the common loss is not getting precious XP that would let you unlock something new. The consequence Dota’s penalty requires an extra level of planning on my part, that often makes me consider my real life surroundings and scheduling much like leaving the house to play an intramural sport or running an errand would. The intensity on the other hand, like any group activity, depends on who you play with. When I play with friends, there’s a lot more room to make mistakes and take risks, because there always an option to play against bots with a low difficulty, even without a full team five in your party. The intensity mostly comes from playing against other people that unlocks that primal desire to win and crush your enemies to dust. When things don’t go that way, is when you see a darker side of people that throw blame, or generally make people feel like shit. Again, it reminds me so much of the dynamic of team sports, and it’s had me consider who I choose to play with, and consider if my mood will be affected by someone acting up if I play with a random group. It’s certainly not for everyone.

I loved the Monty Python-level of randomness in this episode. It's something I loved from the earlier 'casts. This is an odd sidebar: has Chris played Dota 2? I can't see him getting into the game with Sean, because the second they try to play against people, the matchmaking will probably rocket to a level that would make the game very unfulfilling for a new player.

D’oh. I idly paused the cast with like a minute left. I don’t think that’s the one I’m thinking of.

The “SIR! SIIIR!” is going to haunt me. I don’t think it’s Caddyshack, it might be Blues Brothers, but I don’t know. This will eat away at me until I figure out what it is. EDIT: I think it’s the end of the fancy restaurant scene after the brothers leave. EDIT 2: Or was it Ferris Bueller?

Out of curiosity, when is everyone gathering to play the Ship or Bloody Good Time?