A Note on Streaming:
My leg has largely healed and I've been out of the hospital for 10 days. I should be at my IRL job by Wednesday, so the 2 weeks of intermittant and Guerilla-scheduled streaming will be at an end by the middle of the week
Tonight at 7pm EST/11pm UTC we'll be streaming Genshin Impact again, mostly because we're in the middle of a particularly interesting quest chain.
The tentative schedule going forward after today is:
Sunday: TBA
Monday: Final Fantasy 14 Online
Wednesday: TBA
Thursday: DOUBLE FEATURE
Disgaea Hour of Darkness
Project Zomboid (Collab) (10pm EST/ 2am UTC)
Friday: Genshin Impact
Saturdays Won't generally see any programming, but occasionally will be special / experimental streams and occasionally movie nights.
Start times will be 7pm most nights (aside from Zomboid as noted above)
Technically, I've been dorking around with V-Roid all year but I need to get a good enough webcam to make use of my rig. Being an actual V-Tuber rather than a bouncing .png will be a step up.
I have a Kick channel already but have broadcast there intermittently. I may be doing something there consistently on Wednesday nights starting in a week or so.
I also am looking at simulcasting on different channels Like Kick and Bitchute, but managing two or three chats is going to be a challenge. I'll definitely need to get at least one, possibly two more monitors to do that. I have difficulty with chat engagement now because I'm juggling multiple windows on a small screen at the moment.
I actually am making some revenue from the stream (about enough for dinner out every few months) which is hilarious since I started doing it mainly for post-stroke therapy. That has largely done its job, as I can speak with relative fluency again and have seen improvements in eye-hand-coordination since I started streaming in earnest back in May of 2022.
Now that I'm mostly recovered, we'll see if I can make something more out of this strange hobby.
On the Deconstruction of Fallen Stars
Issac Young over at Trantor Publishing has been publishing essays on the erosion and corruption of our culture as well as the formidable (and often overlooked or mocked) issues that young people are facing.
In this thoughtful essay he gets down to brass tacks on WHY so many of the "wokefied" changes to beloved I.P.s are so egregiously, bewilderingly bad...to the point of being jarring and hurtful to the bottom line. This seems particularly confusing in cases where adding representation would not normally be controversial in the least (such as Star Trek, where one of the THEMES of T.O.S is Infinite Diversity Through Infinite Combinations) and in franchises like Warhammer 40,000 where there WAS representation but the new examples shatter canon.
Put simply, diversity and inclusion are humiliation rituals. If they happen to fit in the established canon, then so much better. It’s plausible deniability to gaslight those who don’t know any better. But as the internet autists rush to say whether the representation does or does not fit in the lore, the rest of us know the real reason behind these changes.
It’s to flex.
It’s to say this thing that you love is no longer yours. It’s ours, and there is nothing you can do about it. And it isn’t a mistake or a well-meaning push for a broader audience. It’s to cause outrage. It’s to scorn the people the Left despise. It’s civilizational trolling, and it’s done because not only won’t they face consequences, they know they’ll be rewarded for it.
I confess I've come to much the same conclusion. I suspect that a good deal of this dynamic is related to Yuri Bezmenov's thesis on demoralization.
The way forward is often proposed to be to get new, more traditionally themed franchises off the ground, but this runs into a few issues. First, "message fiction" is tendentious and generally unenjoyable, whether it is woke gay space commie propaganda, or a preachy After School Special. Attempts to do counter-programming are frequently just as big a turn off to audiences as Mary Sue Triumphalism, but, without the huge advantage in infrastructure/marketing/financing that the big media companies enjoy, more individualistic entertainment endeavors just flop. Another issue is Conquest's Law "Any organization not explicitly right wing soon becomes leftist" This is likely due to the inherent tendency towards social parasitism that is manifest in those with a mindset that thrives in a bureaucracy.
Video Games are actually the medium of all literature and culture nowadays. Forget getting the younger generations to read, their minds can't process a film let alone a multi-episode series. This is due to the neurology that these people have developed s a result of social media, smart phones, and the risk averse, mental-illness-inducing education these people have had inflicted on them.
The myriad problems that young people face are different from the very real issues that many of us and our parent's generation had to overcome. but because of the structural nature of some of these challenges and the important cultural and family based tools that the younger generations are missing, these issues are not fully appreciated. These issues feed into the larger cultural problem exacerbating those dynamics, reinforcing them.
We were outmaneuvered in a two pronged assault. The first is that reality has steadily become less meaningful, while the second is that simulacra has become more addicting. In my lifetime, I know I will see the rise of sexdolls not unlike what is in Blade Runner 2049. And that will probably be the genetic bottleneck which will crush anyone who isn’t some sort of fanatic. I guess the silver lining in all of this is that only true believers will inherit the Earth. They get to live in the ruins because everyone else sterilized themselves.
Later in his essay, he delves into the importance of basket weaving....
I urge you to read the whole thing because I would not have thought that digression could actually make sense...and yet it does.
Not only because we'll still need baskets after a civilizational collapse, (he doesn't mention that, but we will) but because we have to do something to create an IRL space to socialize people.
These issues are going to be very tough nuts to crack. There will be some debate about why we should...
After all, old farts like me have been ranting and raving about "THESE HERE KIDS TODAY" since Aristotle.
However, a failure of cultural continuity IS a thing that sometimes happens historically, and it can lead to societies collapsing, either through decadence or a lack of cultural competency. This is the GOAL for the left, who are quite confident that they will sculpt a Utopia from the rough clay of man....but if one looks at the past societies where these self assured technocrats have succeeded, one will shudder in terror at the suffering, both physical and psychic that always seems to result.
Thus we should take this threat seriously and that means to take the challenges that young people today face with thoughtful consideration, for they did not create the absolutely insane world in which they find themselves, and they did not chose to be trained by their educators to make only the wrong decisions.
President Reagan noted that freedom is a fragile thing that is never more than one generation away from extinction He further noted that it is not inherited, but must be fought for and defended constantly by each generation. That ability to fight and defend something depends on knowing what it is, on one having values that were passed down from one's forbearers.....We have denied our youth the tools and the skillset to do what they must.
Some have, like Cassandra warned us:
"In a sort of ghastly simplicity we remove the organ and demand the function. We make men without chests and expect of them virtue and enterprise. We laugh at honour and are shocked to find traitors in our midst. We castrate and bid the geldings be fruitful.” -C.S. Lewis
HAH! SILL NOT DEAD!
Come join the channel at 8:30pm EST / 12:30am UTC as I celebrate unlocking the achievement 8 days out of the hospital. We'll be continuing to pursue eldritch horrors and annoying puzzles far beneath the Earth's crust......or whoever's crust Teyvat has...as we explore the enigma that is THE CHASM. Come for the scuff, stay for the cringe at https://www.twitch.tv/brickmuppet .
"TAP...TAP" Is This Thing Even On?
I'm Out of the Hospital! I'm Sitting in Front of a Computer.
OH NO! I JUST UPDATED OBS!
Let's See if I Broke Everything!
Let's See If I Can Still Stream!
Let's See If I Still Know How To Game!
Stop by , say "Hi!" and LEARN VALUBLE LESSONS as I Go Over Why I Was Gone Last Week.
Then Point And Laugh as I Attempt to do EVERYTHING I was Told NOT to Do in This Huge Crater Wasteland I was Sent to West of Liuye. (What is Happening With This Game!?)
See you in 10 minutes over at https://www.twitch.tv/brickmuppet
He was a huge influence on U.S. cinema and because he was indie in the machine dominated Hollywood of the day he was able to (and did) find, elevate, and give room to fly many iconoclastic talents that would have been ignored or buried by an industry that could not abide their out of the box thinking and styles. Martin Scorsese, Jack Nicolson, James Cameron , and many others got their starts because of him. He had another, albeit indirect effect on American Pop-Culture. As the head filmmaker for the indie studio American International Pictures he was instrumental to introducing the American audience to several Kurosawa films, popularizing & legitimizing Japanese cinema in the eyes of the U.S. general public (as opposed to the hoity-toity art house set). Because of his Corman was (very) tangentially involved in bringing over another movie that had similarities to his own radioactive monster films.
Godzilla opened the door to Japanese sci-fi, and a decade later the first Americanized anime.
This, in turn, set the great historical pachinko machine in motion in that particular set of "clicks" that resulted in...
So my Mom was traumatized at a young age by a relative dying of sepsis. Every time I'd get a cut..."It'll become sepsis!"
Every time I go to the ER...""It's sepsis isn't it!?"
Of course it's never sepsis.
Tuesday however, I had to call Mom, rub my foot on the ground and say Mom....you were right again....
I told myself I would get up, make some anti-doxxing adjustments and photo the nurses info panel, but by the time I was both un-hooked from the IV and had the energy to walk across the room, "explain sepsis" had been removed the nurses to-do list.
Hobby Space News of the commercial space industry A Babe In The Universe Rather Eclectic Cosmology Encyclopedia Astronautica Superb spacecraft resource The Unwanted Blog Scott Lowther blogs about forgotten aerospace projects and sells amazingly informative articles on the same. Also, there are cats. Transterrestrial Musings Commentary on Infinity...and beyond! Colony WorldsSpace colonization news! The Alternate Energy Blog It's a blog about alternate energy (DUH!) Next Big Future Brian Wang: Tracking our progress to the FUTURE. Nuclear Green Charles Barton, who seems to be either a cool curmudgeon, or a rational hippy, talks about energy policy and the terrible environmental consequences of not going nuclear Energy From Thorium Focuses on the merits of thorium cycle nuclear reactors WizBang Current events commentary...with a wiz and a bang The Gates of Vienna Tenaciously studying a very old war The Anchoress insightful blogging, presumably from the catacombs Murdoc Online"Howling Mad Murdoc" has a millblog...golly! EaglespeakMaritime security matters Commander Salamander Fullbore blackshoe blogging! Belmont Club Richard Fernandez blogs on current events BaldilocksUnderstated and interesting blog on current events The Dissident Frogman French bi-lingual current events blog The "Moderate" VoiceI don't think that word means what they think it does....but this lefty blog is a worthy read nonetheless. Meryl Yourish News, Jews and Meryls' Views Classical Values Eric Scheie blogs about the culture war and its incompatibility with our republic. Jerry Pournell: Chaos ManorOne of Science fictions greats blogs on futurism, current events, technology and wisdom A Distant Soil The website of Colleen Dorans' superb fantasy comic, includes a blog focused on the comic industry, creator issues and human rights. John C. Wright The Sci-Fi/ Fantasy writer muses on a wide range of topics. Now Read This! The founder of the UK Comics Creators Guild blogs on comics past and present. The Rambling Rebuilder Charity, relief work, roleplaying games Rats NestThe Art and rantings of Vince Riley Gorilla Daze Allan Harvey, UK based cartoonist and comics historian has a comicophillic blog! Pulpjunkie Tim Driscoll reviews old movies, silents and talkies, classics and clunkers. Suburban Banshee Just like a suburban Leprechaun....but taller, more dangerous and a certified genius. Satharn's Musings Through TimeThe Crazy Catlady of The Barony of Tir Ysgithr アニ・ノート(Ani-Nouto) Thoughtful, curmudgeonly, otakuism that pulls no punches and suffers no fools. Chizumatic Stephen Den Beste analyzes anime...with a microscope, a slide rule and a tricorder. Wonderduck Anime, Formula One Racing, Sad Girls in Snow...Duck Triumphalism Beta Waffle What will likely be the most thoroughly tested waffle evah! Zoopraxiscope Too In this thrilling sequel to Zoopraxiscope, Don, Middle American Man of Mystery, keeps tabs on anime, orchids, and absurdities. Mahou Meido MeganekkoUbu blogs on Anime, computer games and other non-vital interests Twentysided More geekery than you can shake a stick at Shoplifting in the Marketplace of Ideas Sounds like Plaigarism...but isn't Ambient IronyAll Meenuvians Praise the lathe of the maker! Hail Pixy!!