TANcast

I dunno what to do with myself!

Earlier this week, I posted a video about the closing of Star Trek: The Experience on YouTube, and my idea to keep it alive:

I’ve actually gotten many positive comments about it! Not just on YouTube…but random other forums are spreading it around.

From a Star Trek Forum:
“I weep from the pure brilliance of it.”
“I thought that video was very well put together. This Tim Babb guy has his act together.”

From a Disneyland Forum:
“The Whoopie Goldberg idea is priceless!!!”
“I love this idea! I think it fits in and would really bring a new fresh face to Tomorrowland. I think you’ve got such a great idea Tim!!”

From another Star Trek Forum:
“Brought a tear to my eye…….then I laughed my ass off at ‘HIIIIIILLLTONN!!!!'”

I guess the internet isn’t just filled with hate after all 🙂

When I was younger, I played a lot of the “SimSomething” series: SimCity, SimEarth, SimAnt, SimCity 2000, SimTower, SimIsle, and yes, even SimCopter.  I also played, as a young adult, Civilization II, Sid Meier’s Alpha Centauri (and the Alien Crossfire expansion), Civilization: Call to Power (which wasn’t made by Firaxis and wasn’t as good), and Civilization III.  Now, as an “older” adult I love Civilization IV (when I can make time for it, that is).

Somewhere in the middle of all that, perhaps around the time that SimEarth and SimLife were out, Young Andy dreamed that some clever soul would take all the “SimSomething” games and make a “SimEverything” game.

It took 16 years or more, but I think Will Wright may have done just that.  Now Old Andy is on pins and needles.

I have spent a few hours playing with the Spore Creature Creator and I am, in a word, impressed.  No matter how many weird appendages I added or how insanely I proportioned the body, the end results all looked like they belonged in the same universe.  The art direction clearly took care to be sure the hands and eyes and miscellaneous widgets were consistent with each other, and the animation and rendering obviously used the same engine, but there is still something impressive about this unified look and feel.

I can hardly wait until I can take my ravening horde out of a real spin around a planet I can terraform from orbit.  T minus 17 days, and counting…

Oops… I think I may have just wet myself a little.

Of course, that 16+ years later happens to coincide almost exactly when my first child is due, so I think I’ll probably be playing SimPoopyDiaper for a long time before I get to play any Spore.

I am sure a lot of you have seen those Kinoki Foot Pad commercial. If not then watch the video below. I was pretty sure it was BS but I wanted someone to do a study. Penn and Teller were dragging their feet on this one, so NPR took up the reigns. I can now rest easy.

I got two calls today from 877-565-8456 almost exactly 15 minutes apart.  I missed the first and the caller did not leave a message, but when a second call came through so soon I thought it might be important and answered.

It turned out this was a goddamn automated dialer system calling me to tell me about a great special at my local Domino’s Pizza franchise.

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I loved Fatboy Slim back in his Rockafeller Skank days but then he started to lose me around Halfway Between the Gutter and the Stars. Well now he has teamed up with David Byrne of Talking Heads fame to form The Brighton Port Authority and one of their babies is the song and video below. I am loving this song and the video is very creative. I hope the album is more of the same when it comes out.

The video is technically work safe but I wouldn’t want my boss to catch me watching it at work.

I got my Something, weeks ago but I was too lazy to post pics and write about it. I got a Crack-a-Head. Not too bad but not something I am totally excited about. I would give the Somethingstore another shot. The last two photos are about a month after I got it.

I found the video below via Boing Boing via SLOG.

So who wants to see hot naked girls just licking random household objects? I do, I do!

This time the TANboys diss on some Bed and Breakfasts, the Monterey Bay Aquarium, and people who make negative comments on the internet. They return to their favorite debate: supernatural sexual assault. They come up with a new gang initiation, show their ignorance of the gay culture, give Morgan Freeman some great advice, and rip off some more podcasts.

All this plus the TANcast Meltdown! Enjoy!

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[CONTENT WARNING] TANcast features mature language and immature hosts. Listener discretion is advised.

Hey kids…I’m editing the current episode right now…it’s just taking longer than usual. In the meantime, enjoy this brief preview…

Today we switched from (a slightly modified version of) Michael Fienen’s Grayplicity theme to the Ginseng Coffee theme created by JTk from Doc5.  It is rounder and browner and closer to where we are going to try to get this site.

What do you all think?  Better?  Worse?  How so?

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