July 08, 2023
Midnight Movie Night on Kick!
Tonight (Sat7/8/23) at 21:00 EST/ 01:00 UTC we'll be doing another Testing and Breaking Things Stream over on Kick.com.
We'll be doing a bit of grinding in Disgaea to level up the new character and around Midnight we're going to watch some Silent movies, a silent short that is TBA and Der Golem (1920)
A German expressionistic Horror film set in the middle ages. The Golem is the last film in what was the very first Multimedia mass merchandising SciFi Horror Franchises, with Book, Radio, Film and Merchandise elements. It is also a prequel that serves as the origin story for the film series. https://kick.com/brickmuppet Come by, say "Hi!" and poke about while checking out the Beta of Kick.com!
(We actually showed this looonng ago on Twitch, but only had 2 viewers the whole night and this film really deserves to be seen. )
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July 04, 2023
Then and Now
So, in what is now called Independence Hall, in Philadelphia, 247 years ago today, a group of men, some more reluctantly than others, declared the independence of their homeland from their nation.
After a declaration of principles, they listed their grievances. Those grievances are highlighted in red below the fold.
Aside from certain ones that have a contemporary ring to them ("He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us...") and a few others that were products of their time, I am struck by how mundane many of these concerns seem to most of us today, yet back then were seen as sufficient infractions of liberty to inspire men to take up arms against the most powerful military in the world.
I'm further struck be the lack of anything approaching child genital mutilation amongst the grievances.
And yet today, there is no call for insurrection.
Perhaps we are more civilized than them.
Perhaps we are more...something else.
more...
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July 03, 2023
501(c)(3) .... Mercenary?
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June 26, 2023
WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT!?
I went to celebrate my Dad's 82nd birthday, and when I got home I noted there was news from Russia.
And...well...
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June 10, 2023
TRYING OUT KICK.COM
My internet alter ego had a short test stream last night that worked OK. Reviewing the V.O.D. it still looked OK from the viewer end. So I'm going to do a SURPRISE full-on stream tonight at 9PM/21:00 EST /01:00 UTC over on https://kick.com/BRICKMUPPET We will be grinding in the item world of Disgaea: Hour of Darkness while chatting and spamming ALL 30 of my emotes. (Twitch currently lets me use 5)
KICK.COM is a new streaming network that seems to be much more friendly to individual streamers than Twitch...whose recent TOS fiasco has got a lot of streamers very nervous. Kick is currently in beta but it does have the capability to stream and seems to work fine with few bugs. These are mostly very minor streamer interface related things and not at all apparent to viewers
Well.....
Stop by, say 'Hi!" and check out Kick.com.
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Well...Looks Like Rudyard's About to Get Lynched!
Rudyard Lynch has a good overview of the history an RELIGIOSITY of communist thought (and far leftism in general). Unlike a lot on the right he looks closely and fairly at the genuine appeal this malign force has, why so many are persuaded by it's arguments and why it spread so fast. This is more honest and helpful than assuming they are all 2-dimensional pulp villains. (Which, to be fair is a rational, if misguided conclusion if one looks only at Communism's results). It's 50 minutes, but it is worth the time.
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June 07, 2023
Bonjour From Banality-Land
Picture is Unrelated:
Art by Pochi
more...
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Beanie Boy Blissfully Boogies
Mr. Pool is enjoying a spot of schadenfreude.
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June 04, 2023
Peter Zeihan has Been Saying This for Years
Now, Next Big Future, which looks at future trends is noticing that demographic collapse is a real thing...and a very bad thing to boot.
Art by Tokyo-Genso. Buy his art book here!
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May 29, 2023
Remember
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May 27, 2023
SURPRISE!
Tonight, as mentioned on stream the last few days, Brickmuppet Channel on Twitch will be having a surprise stream featuring La Pucelle: Tactics. Starting at 21:00 EST/01:00 UTC......
WE'RE GONNA PLAY IT TILL WE BEAT IT!
It might take 4 hours. It might take 24.
We're also having a sub-athon, but that is ongoing while I pursues my far away goal of 15 subscribers, so the important takeaway is that I intend to actually FINISH a game.
If we finish exceedingly early we'll chat a bit and explore some of the other games that the channel has acquired.
Come by and say "Hi!" as we grind....and grind....and grind some more in preparation for sallying forth on yet ANOTHER rematch with the final boss!
Again and again....until we vanquish this genocidal monster with mommy-issues and save the world, our friends and hope itself.
Stare in bewilderment at the late '90s Japanese take on fantasy Christianity. Marvel at the boomer trying to make sense of a PS2, Laugh at the inscrutable early 2000's Woolseyisms, Come for the scuff, stay for the cringe!
See you all there in 3 hours.
UPDATE:
It took almost 10 hours....but La Pucelle: Tactics has been vanquished. Thursday, we begin Disgaea!
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May 25, 2023
Mom's in the Hospital
She's 82.
I just took off work.
I'm heading out in a few minutes.
There probably won't be a stream tonight.
UPDATE: 300 miles there and back again. She's doing OK. Stream may be a few minutes late, but to my utter surprise, we will have thunder-thighs!
Official La Pucelle:Tactics Art By Ryoji Nomura. Support Him on FANBOX!
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May 22, 2023
Whiskey Tango Foxtrot
Russian forces have moved into Belgorod.
There is a complicating factor.
Belgorod is in Russia.
I have NO idea.
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May 20, 2023
The Schedule
In the comments, Pete said that stream every night.
Well, sadly, I'm not that competent.
My internet alter-ego is streaming from an abandoned curry mine deep within an active volcano in the dinosaur infested jungles of Vermont*.
He does this on Sundays, Mondays, Thursdays, and Fridays, with occasional surprise streams on Saturdays. All streams start at 18:00 EST / 22:00 UTC except the very occasional Saturday streams generally start at about 21:00 EST / 01:00 UTC. Join him tomorrow at twitch.tv/brickmuppet and point and laugh as a weeb muddles through Eorzea with delusions of adequacy.
*Note that zoology, geology, geography, and how spices are acquired all work differently in the internet.
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Addressing the Irrelevancies In a Knowledgable, Erudite Manner
Peter Zeihan is a smart guy. He has a profound understanding of global trade, the shipping industry and various factors that are generally overlooked by not only laymen, but policy makers. He is someone whom one should listen to as he has great insight into second and third order effects of various disruptions on global shipping that many would just call "Black Swans". Do follow him.
However, he also frequently wears a man-bun.
And that is a warning sign, as can be seen in this video where he exudes a pitch perfect, high-pitched blue-county-sneer as he relates in fantastic, and knowledgeable detail the process of accession into NATO.
He does this to explain that Russia cannot possibly feel threatened by NATO expansion because the process is democratic.
While the process is a good one, I think that in this context the actual process is irrelevant.
The Russians, especially the current Government (who are totalitarian assholes) do not care one whit about "process". Totalitarians care about results and the result of the process is that Nato has moved closer to Russia's border. Russians are, as a people, clinically paranoid. This stems from the fact that the history of Eastern Europe over the last thousand and a half years has been written in Slavic blood.
The thugs who run Russia are especially paranoid because they live in constant fear of court intrigues. He takes the argument of the stupidest , 2-digit-IQ, Russia-simps ("Ukraine is a conspiracy run by gay-Jewish-NAZIs"1) to dismiss the concerns of a very large number of Americans.
The idea that this situation couldn't have been handled better in any way is simply not defensible, and his dripping, Aristocratic contempt for those who do not support neo-lib foreign policy is poor form coming from a guy as well read and used to looking at all sides of an issue as Zeihan is.
I say this as somebody who generally supports the idea of arming the Ukranians if they are willing to fight and who sees this as the closest we've come to an actual "Munich moment" since, well, 1938.
I'm GLAD Europe is standing up to aggression in this case, but the people who are justifiably concerned about Russias 5,889 nuclear weapons are also the people who WILL NOT be talked down to anymore by the man-bun wearing laptoppers who, as a class, have made the world a far worse place for working and middle class Americans.
Zeihan is a smart guy, but his dripping contempt and strawmanning people's concerns risks the exact sort of backlash that led to the disengagement of the U.S.A. from the world in the 1930s and facilitated one of the worst wars in human history.
There is GENUINE AND WELL FOUNDED CONCERN that the war and the immense human suffering it is causing is being extended by Western leaders who want to just take out Russia, rather than allow the Ukranians to negotiate. Even Finland, which famously ground Stalin to a halt in the Winter War had to give up Corellia.
Zeihan has made the case elsewhere that Russia sees this as a response to an existential threat and I find his reasoning on this to be sound. Given that postulate, as well as the obvious paranoia of Russia's executive branch ( I don't know what the situation in the Duma is) it is not unreasonable to suggest that we don't allow the sort of mission creep that causes us to go from propping up the Ukraine to "Bear Baiting" when the bear has almost 6,000 nukes.
Few things are more dangerous than a wounded bear that feels it is cornered.
There's a lot of blame to go around regarding how we got here because we started on this course back in the late '90s. However, lacking a Tardis or Time Tunnel, we must deal with the world as it is and not let the pencil pushers in Foggy Bottom and Brussels start World War Three.
It's probably an equally bad idea to piss off and scare Middle America so bad that the U.S. Government is forced to abandon Ukraine and bring Russia to the Polish and Romanian frontiers.
A sneer is not an argument.
1: Yes...that is an actual argument that some people are making because the world is stupid.
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Guardians of the Galaxy 3
Well...
How did I find myself in this situation.
About a month ago, a friend of many years whom I had not seen in forever invited me to go see a Robert Plant concert in Charlottesville on the 18th.
Well, this past Thursday, when I made the commute to Charlottesville, to my utter astonishment, I had no trouble at the Richmond beltway and arrived in 4 hours....way less than expected. Given that we suddenly had time to kill...hours, in fact.... she asked to go see the new Guardians movie.
Now, I have not been impressed with any of the Marvel Movies I've seen after Endgame and the buzz amongst fandom is that the MCU has become a steaming pile of poo. Furthermore, giving money to Disney is on my "to do" list about even with "licking doorknobs in Wuhan". So, I was....unenthusiastic. However she really wanted to see the film, and honestly, how bad can a Guardians movie be? So I went without any outward protest.
Well...
That was a happy accident.
Guardians of the Galaxy 3 is an absolutely superb film. Whether you've seen the other two movies or not (and I missed 2 due to my stroke) this film is an amazingly fun romp. I laughed, I cried...no really, there are moments in this film that are heart wrenching, and others that are heart warming.
Marvel has largely run out of A-List characters to bring to the silver screen, but the B-List comic characters they dug up for this film are handled fantastically well and with absolute respect for the source material, In some ways, allowing what had been also-rans in the comics to realize their full potential.
This film was quite clearly a labor of love.
This dippy comic book movie has more to say about, friendship, sacrifice, tragedy, utopianism, responsibility, mercy, and the nature of heroism than just about anything else I've seen in the last 10 years.
it is a surprisingly deep and even insightful movie by the standards of todays entertainment , all the more surprising given that it is a comic book movie with over twice the USDA recommended daily allowance of poop jokes.
But there are enough pathos, ironic and unironic philosophizing, superb characterizations and slam-bang-oh-my-God-action-sequences to make this a healthy, balanced, and white-pilling film-going experience.
The action choreography in this film is brilliant while retaining a human...er...sophont element that makes it all the more impactful.
I highly recommend that you go see this film.
However, while I almost never include trigger warnings, I must warn that some of the characters are put through the ringer , physically and psychologically in ways so absolutely gut-wrenching as to leave me amazed that the film didn't get an "R" rating. Also...utopians will not be pleased.
Heroism action, redemption, action, and fun and even more action can all be had if you go see this film.
Go now, or you are wrong.
5 out of 5 Bricks.
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May 01, 2023
This is FINE!
Everything is OK.
There is nothing to see here.
This is normal.
Note that Tim Pool is literally advising people to invest in crypto, so remember that those who report problems don't necessarily have any insight into solving them.
Still...
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April 25, 2023
BLACK PILLED
I've been in and out of the hospital. Since going back to work I've been pulling as many hours as possible to make up for the hospital bills and lack of having worked which has been exhausting.
I've sat for several hours in front of the computer trying to opine on matters of import but the matters have left me dead inside and unable to type.
These include, but are not limited to:
Ray Epps
Beer Spokes...people
Fox firing the one guy who said on air that the Dominion accusations were bullshit.
The looming food situation in much of the world.
CGM
That the following is a topic of conversation:
The self inflicted erosion of trust in so many of our institutions.
Paimon is .... not for lewding.
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April 19, 2023
A Note on Henrys
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April 15, 2023
Anniversary!
Note: It's a Blogging Best Practice to let your post sit for a bit before hitting "publish" so you can check spelling and grammar with a fresh eye.
It is an even better practice to actually hit "post" and not assume one has made a programming announcement like one did on Discord.
Tonight is the one year anniversary of my first stream. So, despite it being a Saturday we will have an extended channel stream this evening beginning at 9PM EST 1AM UTC.
We are on the Final Fantasy 14 North American server (in Sargatanas) if any members of chat who are FF14 players would like to do a dungeon or something.
However:
After a bit of gaming while people filter in, we will change gears. At around midnight EST (depending on combat and cut-scenes) we will show two films from the 1920s that promise to be quite a treat.
1 Week is a Buster Keaton short from 1923. Watch and be amazed at the master of physical comedy.
Our feature for the evening is CHANG! A semi-documentary from 1927. These days the academic nature of this film is criticized, its educational bonafides being somewhat hampered by the lack of any anthropologists on the 3 person shooting crew, but Adventurers Meriam C. Cooper, Ernest B. Schoedsack and Adventuress (and former spy) Marguerite Harrison more than make up for the lack of scholarly references by filming an absolutely great story. This film has been really hard to find and only recently have I managed to track down a copy not in French.
In addition to narrating the title cards, I'll be providing some trivia about the making of the films.
After the movies, we'll most likely do a little bit of grinding, in one of the channels current games.
Stop by, grab a drink and a snack and join us at https://www.twitch.tv/brickmuppet for all the fun.
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