Is BBoW Dead?

No, it’s just school/warcraft season. We know, we know, WoW is just a huge waste of time and money, you realized it after you were farming rep for that new gear with your second level 60. Well, we here at BBoW are casual players, and we’d love if you would join us sometimes when we’re on. We play mainly on the Boulderfist realm, Alliance side, even though we’ve started Horde. Wisper us sometime, we’d like to see if anyone still reads. Look for Kikkoman, Tarantist, Valafain, or Silenter.

Anyways, just because we’re busy with that kinda stuff doesn’t mean that we’re still not listening to new music or exploring the abbyss that is youtube, we just don’t feel a need to report it every minute now. So yeah.

Music. I guess I could make some new music suggestions, even though I have a huge queue waiting for Random Album Encounter. I suggest you listen to Starlight Mints and Asobi Seksu. Okay.

Videogames. I just spent a whole paragraph on videogames. I suggest some Clubhouse Games or WoW, of course.

Webcomics. Read Achewood. All the way through.

Youtube. I was going to post that clip of that Japanese dog who could balance 30-some biscuits on his head, but the broadcast corporation in Japan had it taken down, the stiffs. Instead, enjoy some of Razor Ramon’s “Harudo Gei” skits. In this one he reminds everyone how important it is to honor your fathers on Father’s Day. Screaming and running ganguros ensue.

You can view that here.

With that, I leave you for another very long undisclosed time.

Random Album Encounter Volume One: “28″

Posted by Brad.

Now that I’m an oh-so-hip college student, all of my local used record stores are less than a ten minute walk away! With this newfound ability I find myself stealing a lot less music, and finding a lot more new artists I never heard of, but like, or artists that I had heard of before, but had never given a listen, such as the glorious Archers of Loaf.

But this new segment, Random Album Encounter, isn’t about that. In fact, “random” doesn’t really belong in the name. The only way the name makes sense is if you’re familiar to Role Playing Games.Nerdiness aside, this segment goes like this. I’m in a record store. I’m doing the shuffle through the titles in stock. I come across something that looks pretty, or interesting, that I’ve never heard before. I admit I’ve spent much more money on worse things (Alien Hominid for Gamecube for example, good game, bad price). I then drop around nine or ten dollars on something which I have next to no idea what I’m going to get. And that in a nutshell is Random Album Encounter.

For our first installment I give you… The album “28″ by Aoki Takamasa + Tujiko Noriko. I was browsing through the various records, and here I find this tantalizing cover art sitting in the front of the row, looking rather lonely. If they think college students will buy this, it can’t be that bad, right? I thumb behind it. It’s the only copy of the only album there by this mystery-duo. So along with three other albums that I’ve been meaning to buy, I take this one up to the register.

I put the disc into my desktop computer. The tracklist starts with “Fly 2″. I’m greeted by an electric effect, followed by some Japanese mumblings that I think even brame could stand. Ambient, pretty, nice, soothing. A short song. Probably what could be considered an intro track. We move on to “Vinyl Words”. Reverse effects. Actual singing. Overall a kind of Sigur Ros kind of feel to it, except that it’s… more soothing. Makes some sense. I take a look at the insert. How nice, an actual English translation. Nice little lyrics. The Postal Service type effects. Buzzes, clicks, delicious synth stuff. I really like this sort of music. A search for the album art to put into iTunes gives me a yield, similar searches are and The Knife and Portishead. Wilson likes that second one. I seem to remember some talk of The Knife. Tujiko Noriko is the main artist, apparently. A visit to some related sites shows she’s released quite a few albums. Who knows if they’ve seen any sort of British or stateside release. Regardless, “When the Night Comes” is now playing, and I’m still getting that good vibe. Good stuff to listen to on a night with your sweetheart, or right before you’re about to go to bed. Kind of reminds me of the song “66db” by Yuki, perhaps a little bit less poppy. We move on through the tracks, and still more of the same awesome stuff, the next is a bit more upbeat, the next down. “26th Floor” is a most interesting take on a sort of talk track. That is, lots of beats for a talk track. Well thought out words. Very nice. We’re treated with two more awesome tracks after that.

If you didn’t notice, I really like this album. A lot. And I intend to seek out more from the artist, with high hopes that it will be as high quality as the music found in “28″. So, in conclusion, the album is awesome, and it is one of my favorite finds ever (that is, without the consultation of another, but even then it’s up there). If you like slower chill-out music, and don’t mind some Japanese (or in my case, enjoy it), then you wouldn’t go wrong to check out this album.

But don’t take my word for it! Visit your local library!

A video of gifs collected from 4 Channel. Amusing.

“I’ve had it with these mfing snakes on this mfing plane!”

Posted by Brad.

Brad here, reporting from college-land. This is our first year for all of us at BBoW, so it’s important we get the correct academic edge so that we don’t have to write for a lowly entertainment journal until we’re too old to work *shudder*.

But of course, this zeal will wear off sooner than we all expect, and we’ll be back with the Snakes on a Plane roundup as well as the Suprise Attack Record Reviews by yours truly. You’ll have to see what everyone else is up to for yourself.

Pirate Baby’s Cabana Battle Street Fight 2006. Always a good decision.

Gameboy Love, Part One

Posted by Brad.

Why gameboy love? Well, because with all the fuss over the new consoles and the DS/PSP, it should be realized that gameboy still has some lovin’ left to do. That and I love the gameboy advance so very much. I can say I’ve spent more time playing gameboy games than any other games… Several of my games have over 100 hours actual gametime on the clock.

So enough about my lack of a life up until a few years ago, let’s get to these new little pieces of love.

First we have the stateside release of Summon Night: Swordcraft Story. Brought over by Atlus, it’s a rock-solid dungeon crawler with heavy emphasis on weapon creation, as the name suggests. It’s pretty hefty, as I’m about six hours through it and I feel as though I’ve only finished about a quarter of the storyline. After that there’s apparently plenty of play value in collecting weapons, and finishing the 100 level basement. Overall the controls are tight, the gameplay good as gold, and on the whole of it has a feel of Tales of Phantasia. The casting system is easy to use, and the whole thing just flows. Seldom do I feel so compelled to play a game, just to get a character stronger. In that sense, it’s got a sort of MMORPG growth feel to it. Little storyline to accompany the action, but the game doesn’t need it, and in that it’s spot on.

This time I actually provided my own images!

Next we have the wonderful, wonderful bit generations series. I’ve picked up the titles Digidrive and Coloris from my friendly neighborhood importer, and they are very fun despite being described as basic.

Digidrive is my favorite game among the second installment in the bit generations line. It’s a game based on directing traffic. The controls are simple, the only buttons used are the D-pad and the occasional press of the A button. There exists a playfield resembling a four-way intersection, where pixelated traffic comes and goes. It’s your job to direct the traffic into the correct lanes with icons of the same type. When you get five of a kind stacked in a lane, the affinity of the lane is made to that icon type. Continue to get stacks of five of that type, and a gauge fills. Muck it up with a different icon, and your gauge is kaput, and drained into other gauges you may have running. If you have no other gauges, tough luck. The progress of the game is displayed on the right, where you have disc and a sort of rotor thing. All guages that get put into play propel the disc forward away from the rotor fiend. The rotor moves forward with time. Gauges are put into play either through a trance stage or an ambulance. A trance stage occurs when all four lanes hold an affinity. Traffic moves swiftly, making it your job to sort through them. All icons go directly to the gauge, rather than waiting for four of their comrades. This mode is excellent for building gauges, and it’s over when you mess up (and you will, it gets speedy quite quickly). The gauge you mess up is put to propelling your disc, and you’re rewarded with an ambulance piece. Ambulance pieces allow you to put any lane into play you choose. Simply press A to activate your piece, and put it into the lane you want to play. That’s the beautiful game in a nutshell.

I sacrificed my white lane for this screenshot, be thankful.

It plays like a champ, and it’s addicting as all get out. All that you’re going for is a high score of how far you’ve propelled your disc. There’s a good amount of unlockable color sets as well. If you’re a fan of arcade-type games where there is no final boss besides your own high score, you’ve come to the right place. The game holds potential for different strategies, and could be a cult favorite in a few years.

And then we’re left with Coloris. Coloris is a fairly simple puzzle game where your task is to put tiles in groups of threes on a large playfield. Think bejeweled. Play comes through color. Every turn you have a different color swatch, and it’s up to you where to decided to put this color. As can be understood, play your red swatch on a yellow tile, and it becomes organge. Blue and yellow to green, so on and so forth. But take a tile and a swatch that are across on the old color wheel, such as purple and yellow, and that tile goes out of play until you can free it up. There’s level clearing and score modes, and it’s quite fun.

Brame thinks I’ve typed an ungodly amount already, so I’ll stop while I’m ahead. Until next time, when I’ll take a look at bit generations: Dialhex, Rhythm Tengoku, and Yggdra Union, this is Brad, signing off.

Import Sites I use. I usually go for NCSX, as the shipping is cheaper as the warehouse is in the states. The others have a larger selection and stock, though.
NCSX / Play Asia / Lik-sang

And I say hey~ hey~ hey~ he~yay~ What’s going on?

“You have no idea how powerful I am.”

Posted by Brad.

Just as of late, I’ve realized how terrible I am at poker. I realized how I needed help, and boy, have I found it. Bill Fillmaff is the 1998 World Champion of poker, who has won over six million dollars playing poker over the internet. In nine simple lessons, his Secret System Plan, he can turn you from a poker zero into a poker hero. Of course, you’ll never be as good as Bill though, because he’s the poker god.

To get you started on the path of playing perfect poker, I’ve found the first four videos on Youtube. There are nine in total.

Lesson One.

Lesson Two.

Lesson Three.

Lesson Four.

You can find these videos, as well as the other five at Bill Fillmaff’s website, Billfillmaff.com. I highly advise you to watch these courses, they will change your game forever.

Feline-Female-Philia (or Why isn’t the girl of the cat or read?)

Posted by Brad.

I forget how I even stumbled upon Cat and Girl; I most likely followed a link from another comic site. All that I can really say about this is that I’m glad I did. Cat and Girl, as the name suggests, chronicles the adventures of a very free-thinking girl and the large anthropomorphic cat that lives with her. The comic seldom sees a page without social-political commentary, but for a strange reason this is one of the few comics I feel can get away with it. I generally tend to avoid comics with any sort of these addresses, coming from any viewpoint whatsoever, Cat and Girl is usually so charming that it can pull it off. From Cat’s exhuberance and straightforwardness, to Girl’s question-everything nature, as well as the continued adventures of Grrrl and the Hipster Scouts, to Boy and his shy-natured crush on Girl, the comic offers something for anyone who’s anybody.

Much of the comic can be thought provoking, albeit sometimes a bit text-heavy. The author’s opinion is reflected in most of the comics, and in whatever esteem I hold these said opinions (from outright agreement in some cases, to doubt about the opinion at hand on others), I never once felt weighed down by any of them. Although some of the topic material of the comic is heavy stuff, the comic remains light and breezy, which is fantastic.

Overall it is an excellent comic, both in style and substance, which I would suggest to most anyone. While there may be several-many in-jokes those out of the loop may not get, it still is very enjoyable. Go and read it here.

All above images are the work of the author of Cat and Girl, which I assume the name of is Dorothy Gambrell, and is under a Creative Commons License.

Fifteen Way “Rock Scissors Paper”.

Posted by Brad.

At a loss for what to do when multiple parties exist at an impasse?

A modern multi-player melee of many mains, that’s what! Although I had seen it long ago, this image cropped up once again on the wonderful/terrible 4channel.

All credit apparently goes to David C. Lovelace.

Yohoho! I’m worried about the future of my studies!

Posted by Brad.

Brad here, time to get some nerd on! Apparently Yohoho! Puzzle Pirates now has free servers. I’ve played the game during free trials twice before, and now I’m finally setting off on a world of puzzle piracy like never before.

Obviously, the game is not for everyone. If you don’t care for cutesy graphics and/or dislike puzzle games, you might want to make sure that you don’t waste your time registering a username. If you might like it, give it a try, by all means. I mean, I love puzzle games, and maybe I did spend hours playing this last night. A few friends and I are on the “Hunter” server, my pirate’s name is the infamous Sogeking. If you happen to see me, don’t hesitate to invite me to be your heartie. I could go on explaining the game, but I’d rather be lazy and provide you a link.

Yohoho! Puzzle Pirates

Speaking of pirates, I’ve started watching One Piece again. For those of you who don’t know me, One Piece is to me what most people would commonly refer to as “my favorite”. However, the format that Kaizoku-Fansubs started putting their files in put me off (along with a disinterest in the Skypiea storyline, due to spoilers) , and I was split from the series for a good half year. I’m back, and I’m enjoying it just as much (more?) than before. Luckily, I’ve yet to pick up some of my more detestable demons such as Bleach, or even worse, Yakitate! Ja-pan (brame and Jamie mocked me for watching this nonstop). For this reason, I’m excited about some One Piece movie that has already come out in Japan! It’s like the eleventh movie this year or something! It’s got robots, and a really old woman! Anyways, view that shameless promotion and fanservice in the video, HERE!

I like to put pretty pictures in nearly every single one of my posts, so you may want to get used to it (Of course, only if we have any readersl… *sob*).

I’ll leave you with some little video tidbits that I love, in relation to the last post. Well, just Ten. Six. One. You’ll laugh until you cry. And watch it over and over. A woman punches a teacher in the face at a PTA meeting. The video isn’t as good as the satisfying “thok” sound that occurs when the punch lands. View this senseless violence HERE!

Tisane the same tea you’ve had before (ZOMG PUN). 赤い茶.

Posted by Brad.

If you haven’t heard of me, or don’t hang around me often, then you haven’t heard of my recent ventures into the lush, savage, world of tea. While at first it was simple tasting of common bagged teas such as Earl Grey and basic greens, there came a more experimental side of this endeavor, starting with hybrid teas, moving onward and losing the bag with a popular Chinese brand, and staving off into new directions. One of these directions has recently lead me to the discovery of the magnificent Red Tea.

Not an actual tea but a tisane, red tea, or rooibos tea as it can also be known, is not from plant that is associated with all common teas, Camellia sinensis, but is instead made from a bushy plant named, you guessed it, Rooibos. The plant is South African in origin, and perhaps may be one of the nicest things to come from there.

I love it.

The end result is really nice, and while I enjoy mine with a mix of spices, just plain black is just as satisfying. It seems to have a little more kick than regular tea, though that may be just my imagination. I have yet to try it with any milk or sweeteners, but as they say… Once you go black you won’t go…. – Oh, forget it. Anyways, with most other things we post on this site, all I can do is heartily encourage you to go to your local grocer, pick up a nice box of free-trade red tea, boil some water, and sit down in front of a cozy computer to enjoy your new cup of tea.

It’s certainly my new cup of tea. (Insert uproarious end-gag laughter, a la Speed Racer).

EDIT: According to wikipedia, it has no caffine content. Oh my.

Let’s get bizay.

Posted by Brad.

So, I decided we’d be here for a while, so I guess we’ll go ahead with the posting of actual subject matter and whatnot.

I’ve started watching cartoons again in my spare time. Not those newfangled Fooly Cooly cartoons or whatever you kids call them, but actual red-blooded American (read: animated in Korea) cartoons, like I used to watch back in the day. Two have especially caught my attention, which boosts my probable TV show interest capacity to a whopping four programs. Let’s start, then.

If you’re a loyal reader of the popular blog 4cr, then you may have seen the article for the pilot of The Amazing Screw-On Head. Apparently this is by the guy who made Hellboy, a movie I never saw (Or comic I never read). But that’s beside the point. This awesome show is about a robot head who works for Abraham Lincoln as the neutralizer of all threats, such as his arch-nemesis, Emperor Zombie. I love the humor in it, and if it were to see a full series release, it would be among one of two shows that I will go out of my way to watch. You can view the trailer on Sci-Fi’s website, right here. Be sure to watch it, and tell them your opinion of it (Hint: you love it).

Secondly is the now-popular series Foster’s Home for Imaginary Friends. McCracken’s sophomore release is ten times more tantalizing than his first, assuredly with a larger target audience than his first success (because seriously, what male would want to admit to watching the Power Puff Girls?). By all means I find Foster’s entertaining, and others seem to agree, garnering both children and adult fans, as well as taking home three Emmy Awards. If you’re into cartoons at all, I’d suggest you at least give it two watches, as it may grow on you. It’s on Cartoon Network almost every day now, so give it a look-see as to when it’s on. You can find the showing times on the site, right here.

You can also find a neat little look into to the development with the developer’s blog (that’s where the image above was found). On a little side note, if you didn’t know, it marks the first cartoon to be done in Macromedia Flash, which is pretty nifty.

Hopefully you’ll take a look into these cartoons, because really, you’re never too old to enjoy cartoons.