J.C.

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Posts posted by J.C.

  3. Posted

    On 2017-02-14 at 1:49 AM, marginalgloss said:

    Lately I've been enjoying a podcast called The Relentless Picnic (soundcloud, iTunes) which I discovered because it has lazenby on it. I only know him as one of the best writers to fall out of the tumblr scene - a blogger in the old sense of the word, I suppose. Read his stuff: it good.

     

    The podcast is mostly about post-Trump trends in American politics. It shares some of the trappings of the 'dirtbag left' but it is quite often better than that, though they are not entirely above cackling at easy targets on social media.

     

    The first couple of episodes are a bit rough - I'd be inclined to start with episode 3, which focuses on the extraordinary career of Vladislav Surkov, a sci-fi novelist who may or may not be one of the most influential spin doctors of the current Russian administration.

     

    I just finished ep 5; I never knew that I needed to hear Sean Spicer dubbed over Modest Mussorgsky's 'Pictures at an Exhibition' until now.

     

    It feels strange to encounter a podcast in this way because I know almost nothing else about any of the presenters - it's quite well edited but there's no introductions, no explicit mission statement, no pleas to 'like and subscribe', no personal framing of any kind. Not that there's anything wrong with that stuff but there's something refreshing about this more austere style.

     

    On 2017-02-14 at 9:27 AM, mondryle said:

     

    Yes! So glad you wrote this up for the uninitiated. Anyone who follows georgelazenby should give it a shot (he's Nick on the podcast). It's so good and so hard to pin down despite the focus on news and politics. The hosts are incredibly funny and have an obvious rapport, but they also bring an intellectual seriousness to the table in an affectless way that is very bracing. And on the production side the editing and use of music is inspired. 

     

    I don't think they're in the same room for the first few episodes so the audio quality takes a hit, but I'd say don't skip them, the discussions are absolutely worthwhile and I suspect knowing where these guys are coming from in terms of their sensibility and worldview makes stuff like the virtual CES episode even funnier.

     

    Thank you both for the recommendation. This is now permanently on my feed. 

  4. Posted

    15 hours ago, eRonin said:

    All right, I've set up a Twitch community for folks here. The link can be found here: https://www.twitch.tv/communities/Thumbs_Readers though unfortunately right now there doesn't seem to be a way of following or saving a community to your favourites list. Nor can you search for a community...but hopefully this page will soon be populated and can be an easy way for folks to check if people are online, without committing to following or even having an account. 

    I'm not really sure I get how communities work? Is it not a thing I can join so I can broadcast to it?

  6. Posted

    I've been listening to Reply All lately and it's just plain great all around. It's equal parts bizarre, touching, funny, and interesting.

     

    Per their about page:

     

    Quote

    Reply All is a show about the internet and trained rats, time travel, celebrity dogs, lovelorn phone scammers, angry flower children, workplace iguanas, and more.

     

  7. Posted

    After not really streaming for a while, I've kinda picked it up again (from my PS4). Did some ABZU over the weekend, which had a couple viewers. 

     

    I'll have to see how well my laptop can handle streaming and maybe do some games on there too.

     

    I don't really know what people look for with streaming though, as it's not really a thing I usually go for? If I watch someone playing a thing, I generally just want to get an idea of what a game is to see if I may like it. Many streamers I've seen try far too hard to be "personalities" and end up being intolerable.

  9. Posted

    2 hours ago, Yasawas said:

    I'm terrified to load up that save state now as I was barely understanding how to play the game at the time never mind now.

     

    I'm in the same boat. I got a fair ways into Seasons and stopped playing for some reason. Having to restart is kind of off-putting.

  10. Posted

    22 hours ago, Vulpes Absurda said:

    Well Vault Of Glass was fun! Still maybe my favorite raid.

     

    Anyways we talked about doing Crota next. Anyone down to do it two weeks from now on the 5 starting around noon MT?

    Should be good for that one!

  23. Posted

    So long as timing works for me, I'm in for most raids. Raids I've done with Thumbs have been the best raids!

     

    If you've got me on your friends list and see me online, or even if you don't (I've got the messages app on my phone), shoot me a message to see if I'm around to play!

  24. Posted

    Yeah, after typing that I realized there are a lot of parallels for how they are talked about vs the actual experiences. Unlike most "Dark Souls of" comments, this one may actually work!

  25. Posted

    7 hours ago, osmosisch said:

    I hate hate hate the mythos around this book as being hard. All it asks of you is to pay some attention and be willing to be puzzled for a while, knowing it will eventually pay off and tell you everything you need to know.

     

    Would you say it's the... Dark Souls of books? :barf:

     

    Seriously though, it's not a hard book, it's just huge, and likely to take you a while so some things may not be clearly remembered. The thing I had the hardest time with was keeping the years of Subsidized Time straight in my head.