“Amélie: the real story” a short film by Jean-Pierre Jeunet (2023; 6min)
JimmyTheGiant: Why Rollerblading DIED... (2021; 20min)
I was just wondering what exactly had happened to rollerblading and randomly tripped across this video. I tried rollerblading once in a Detroit-area sports stadium that was torn down, but after I rollerbladed there. I was not good at it; I did not like it. I went back to occasionally “gleaming the cube,” as the kids say, on my rat-ass skateboard. I liked it; I was not good at it.
Side note: I may or may not have explained purchasing a Brunswick Snurfer, the antecedent to snowboards, at a Detroit-area garage sale back in the late 70s. I rode down a hill or two a few times, holding on to the front rope and regretting my decision. I was not good at it.
Now I have a skateboard and two longboards. I haven’t ridden them in years. I’m good at eating; I like my teeth.
Mark Rober: Amazing Invention ‒ This Drone Will Change Everything (21min).
The drone shown is to be used for domestic deliveries of food etc. Large drone drops smaller drone down wire from 400 feet in the air. But you should watch this video to see the current Zipline operation in Rwanda, delivering critical medicine/blood/etc to hard-to-reach villages etc. It’s been running for six years, half a million flights, 24/7, 90 seconds between launches.
Conner O’Malley: Endorphin Port (2022; 5min).
I finished up my Watchdogs: Legion hard/permadeath campaign replay (Ubisoft was disappointed in the lackluster sales of WDL and stopped add-on DLC/online work two years after it had been released; this is probably the last Watchdogs release ever). Given its “play as anyone” mechanic I shouldn’t have been surprised that the deaths of operatives were also treated as disposable and not worth properly documenting. I’ve already shown the operative-death screen, here’s the end credit scroll which features the names of the last nine dead operatives. The actual operative names are the least-memorable and never-spoken/used bits of data about each of them. (A) Faces would have been nice (B) even nicer, all the operatives ‒ I lost about 22. But even during play, it would only show the last nine to eleven lost ‒ I had no idea, so I’m not sure of the exact count. There is a random cut scene (from about 30?) that shows you at a gravesite, it is unmarked. “Poor NAME.VOC. What a waste.” [FX: places empty can of in-game brand soda on top of gravestone]
The end credits run 17 minutes if you have it on fast-forward 95% of the time. And now, more random whiny bits.
- No growth to characters. They’re disposable, and it’s more beneficial to use specific characters with specific traits for specific jobs but there’s always a cut scene/delay when you switch (that you can’t skip) and a re-gen of enemies that you put down w/the previous character, so what exactly is the point? W/hard mode you can’t use the unfinished transit system to “fast travel” so I ended up using character transfer to jump around the map w/o driving back and forth all the time. You can’t upgrade your weapons, you can only switch your “special” weapon when you’re out of danger (and even this is a sub-sub-menu crap UI interaction), you can’t get new weapons. Potential operatives either have good traits (again, another thing you can’t upgrade), or good weapon(s). Only some operatives “own” cars with the ability to spawn them nearby. If you have a mission that requires a fast car and you don’t have a car, you can try to find a car. I spent 10 min looking for the fastest type of car in the game that has at least two models, finally gave up.
- No challenges. I’ve complained about this before, but if there’s a job that requires a spiderbot, it doesn’t matter if you don’t have it, it’s not something you need to earn ... there’s always a spiderbot-generating box right next to it, which you can see (also on the map), and hear clicking away in the background. Wither odor/taste? Way, way too much handholding. They had an idea, then self-sabotaged it.
- Random drones fly above major roads. This is called the “drone highway.” It is incredibly flaky. If you pluck a drone out of the highway, the endless trundle of drones stops. If you are positioned in the wrong place, the drones stop. If you have a mission that damn well 100% requires plucking a drone from the highway (in the one I’m thinking of, the AI specifically says “use a drone”), rest assured, there are not going to be any drones available. So you have to do all of this deck chair switching bullshit just to use/call a more distant drone. “Fun.”
- If you deactivate a drone, it drops to hover just above the ground, constantly beeping. That’s its end state, the beeping, not ... just ... being deactivated, and dead, and lying on the ground shutting up. I have enough irritating beeping things in my actual real life, I like to drill into electronics to rip out the speakers. So you’re in a big battle, and you deactivate a drone while you’re taking cover from fire. Your new chatty friend settles down beside you: “Beep beep beep beep beep beep.” “Busy here.” “Beep beep beep beep beep beep beep beep beep beep”
- Approximately 50% of the living spaces in the game feature short looping audio tracks of either a strange baby crying or (this is a different track, just to be clear) a strange dog howling. This is profoundly irritating. I don’t get this broken versimilitude in open-world games, reminds me of the flies buzzing around in Grand Theft Auto. Oooh, it’s like I’m right there being annoyed.
- Car physics, wherein your two-ton beast does a high-speed slam into a large truck and both just kind of trundle/roll down the street like they’re models made out of hollow tin. Additionally w/every minor hit, cars automatically jettison license plates in the same manner every time, and the windshield fully spiderweb-cracks in the same manner every time. Car camera work: I don’t get motion sickness, but the car camera work is the closest you can get to it virtually.
- The horrified reactions of people to a hijacked cargo drone are always the same and everyone nearby has to say something about it, just like crossing the yellow line in GTA5. Zooming out, all anyone talks about is either a specific faction/gang or mindless samples you have to hear hundreds of time (“it’s in the kitchen ... over there, on the right-hand side ...”). Please just ... if you’re making an open-source game, throw in a checkbox for npc chatter.
- Another entry from the GTA5 playbook: homeless people on the street begging, yet no way to give them money; but you can steal money from their encampments. Their chatter makes you think they’re being beaten by the militaristic police force if you can’t see them. “Help me please!” Oh right, I can’t.
- “Microdrones”: odd endless do-same-thing-over-and-over mission w/o save points. Then after you’ve struggled through 70% of it, hey, new type of mechanic w/next objective hidden/unclear. “Microdrones” pre-flight spiderbot mission: don’t let any of the 27 lasers touch the spiderbot. Oh jeez, the lasers touched the spiderbot, so that means an alarm sounds. “And?” Weeooo it is blaring.
Finally, stop putting graphics and text on the screen when/where I’m trying to do a thing. Speeding down a road, suddenly BAM, right at the horizon line “IMPORTANT ALERT: AN OPTIONAL DRAG-ASS MECHANIC UNRELATED/SECONDARY/TERTIARY TO YOUR CURRENT SITUATION ... NEEDS ATTENTION OR SOMETHING LOL” I don’t have good images of the text impinging on gunfights/driving because for the most part ... I was already doing things and then a thing interrupted and you want me to record that as well, what, I’ve got three hands or something?
Bobby Fingers: Michael Jackson on Fire Diorama (via metafilter)
Martin’s Capsules tin. Each capsule contains acetophenetidin (1 1/2 grains), p. e. hyoscyamus (1/4 grain) (equiv. to 0.0003 gr. total alkaloids) aspirin, phenolphthalein, caffeine, alkaloid / packed and distributed by Mrs. W. S. Martin, Canton, N. C.
Not Just Bikes: These Stupid Trucks are Literally Killing Us. “Engineers, planners, politicians, and advocates all around the world are trying to improve their cities and build more great walkable places with viable alternatives to driving. But there’s a looming trend that could undo all of that hard work: the growth of SUVs and light trucks.”
The Pez Outlaw (thanks to Steve)
Process X: The process by which ultra-large MRI aluminum parts are made. Interesting Japanese aluminum factory.
Scooter/motorcycle shop, Macau, 2004. One of those places that I think of from time to time.
Watch Dogs Legion Cinematic Trailer (2020). Reflecting back on reflections while wrapping up a permadeath/hard replay of the main campaign. Of course this is a fanciful version of actual gameplay, but also of course they HAD to show something happening that can not happen in any of the three Watch Dogs releases: riding on top of a bus while it’s tootling down a street. Just saying. Every form of transit immediately comes to a stop as soon as you clamber aboard. You can “hack” the vehicle at that point, but sometimes you just want to be an open-air passenger. But you know, pretty colors fast running person.
The protagonist of the moviefilm Pinball: The Man Who Saved the Game is Roger Sharpe, and he authored a book in 1977 called Pinball! The accompanying photos are amazing, full-page, numerous, close-ups, etc. Includes a large number of photos of pinball environments: arcades, laundromats, etc, people playing pinball. This book always makes the cut every time I move, it’s not even a question.
the STORY of the MOVIE of the GAME of the TRAILER
the TRAILER of the GAME of the STORY of the MOVIE
Saw a bumper sticker for a taco joint, design was parody of the Mystery Spot bumper stickers. Tacos Oscar ... bumper stickers are $10, all proceeds go to Black Organizing Project.
I am re-reading Arbitrary Stupid Goal, Tamara Shopsin’s wonderful account of the early days of the Shopsin family’s adventures running a store/restaurant in the East Village. The restaurant is still running. This is a must-have in your personal library. Related:
Canadian Grocer Ford one-ton truck advertisement, April 5th 1918. Chassis only, sit on the gas tank.
Begiragons: Vending Machine Game Episode 1 (2014).