If it's not Raven, it's crap...

Socrates Jones: Pro Philosopher   is not a game that took the office by storm, but rather a game I stumbled upon, while searching for another game on the Kongregate portal. I ended up playing it throughout the workday yesterday. It's basically a knock-off of Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney . Or maybe it's more of an homage, instead of a knock-off. You play as Socrates Jones, an accountant from NYC. In his family of philosophy buffs, he's the black sheep -- utterly clueless about any and all philosophical notions -- that is, until he and his daughter are transported to the "Intelligent Realm" via a car crash. The "Intelligent Realm" is like the afterlife to which great thinkers are transported after they die. Or maybe it's more like a purgatory? Socrates' daughter, Ariadne, isn't quite dead, just in a coma. She's free to go back to the realm of the living; Socrates isn't so lucky.

  (Left-to-right: Danger Dan, Koljah, Panik Panzer /Photo: Benjamin Cory) Several months ago, I had the "brilliant" idea of trying to interview the members of the Antilopen Gang for a piece for my radio show. Those sarcastiquotes have nothing to do with my personal opinion of the Antilopen Gang, but rather my ill-preparedness throughout the entire process. I am not a brilliant person, so I rarely do things the easy or smart or subtle way. But it does get done... so there's that. There are three reasons why I chose the Antilopen to be my first attempt at organizing an interview: 1.) They're an interesting group releasing interesting music in an unconventional way. In my opinion, they're teetering on the cusp of something big. I don't know what that "big thing" is as yet and, in part, it might be emerging through the tragic loss of a group member . But if I start adding more interview elements to the show, then they fit the description...

One of the blurses (that's a blessing + curse) of working in the games industry is that, in the course of a normal workday, you're often sent links to various games...and you're encouraged to give them a try. It's really part of the job and it is awesome actually. I'm not complaining about it by any means. Occasionally, however, a game sweeps through the office with such abandon that everyone gets hooked on it until they have basically played it into the ground (e.g. reach the end, get all available achievements, rage quit, etc. - it varies from person-to-person). Last week, we all discovered Cookie Clicker and, for the most part, lost our collective shit over this game. Right off the bat, it reminded me of Candy Box! They both have an experimental sort of feel to them. Both have wonderfully bizarre backstories that emerge during gameplay, complete with twists and turns that draw the player into a world where sweets are currency and just about anything can hap...

BBU - Outlaw Culture (from the bell hooks album ) It's a two for one this month. Remember when I mentioned that I thought that I had left my USB stick at the radio station? Well, it turns out that it was at my apartment the whole damn time. Go figure. I'll be posting both shows after the jump...yippee! Because I had to attend a funeral last Friday, the show was pre-produced. And...because I spent the two weeks before the show dicking around with the playlist until the last minute, I ended up recording the show in my apartment. It was a bit of a blast from the past, since Zilv and I started out recording our radio station in our kitchen (kind of the only quiet room in the apartment) & sometimes in the bathroom (better acoustics). In my current apartment, every room is pretty quiet. However, I probably should have recorded it in the bathroom anyway. The sound quality is decent enough. I recorded it with a mic and Philips DVT 1000 digital recorder . For its price ran...

 Read the full blog post (German only, but here's a Google-translate link ) As much as I enjoy living in Germany, eff this ess. It's often just as fucked up as back at home. Source: Ein Fremdwörterbuch Blog via  FICKO Magazin Tweets about "#schauhin"

Hamburg Craigslist is a woefully empty place. The traffic is much lower than, say, Berlin/Frankurt/Munich Craigslist, even though it's somewhat understandable since those cities have larger US expat communities. (FYI, you're much, much better off using eBay Kleinanzeigen if you're looking for something - regardless of the city - but I guess this tip won't help, if you don't understand German). Still, on occasion, I check CL precisely because of the lower traffic -- less competition for people giving away free stuff for my apartment that I might want. And, of course, if you're wasting time on Craigslist, you might as well take a gander at the personal ads sections. Missed connections, "lookin' for hookups" ads, etc. It's all comedy gold...until it's a comedy nightmare. I managed to stumble across an ad from July 30th with the header "GERMAN MAN FOR GERMAN WOMAN" (just like that in all caps). The first thing that struck me w...

(re-blogged from rabenteuerlich.tumblr.com ) Neverwhere //Neil Gaiman// Just finished reading Neil Gaiman’s Neverwhere (Author’s preferred text) and, afterwards, I decided to re-watch the 1996 BBC series A few notes:

Hey, here's an idea: Why don't you start watching Orange is the New Black ? A bunch of shows are ending or have ended ( Futurama , Breaking Bad and Burn Notice come immediately to mind) and maybe you're looking for something completely new to binge watch. It's based on the book/memoir of the same name written by Smith alumna , Piper Kerman and turned into a series by Weeds creator, Jenji Kohan. If you can get past the magical white privilege inmate stuff , there's some engaging commentary on the US prison industrial complex, women in prison (particularly women of color), and even some transgender politics. All of that and it still manages to strike a balance between the comical and the dramatic. I enjoyed the first season and am looking forward to the second. Whenever it comes out and I can get my hands on it...somehow.

A poster that I snagged in Berlin and framed...because awesome. I finally threw a party in my apartment. As of this month, I've been living here for a year. A mixture of "I don't want all sorts of people all up in my place" + "I don't want to clean up after all sorts of party shenanigans" had been blocking my desire to host a gathering. My boss turned 30 and it was also (more or less) her 1st anniversary of living in Hamburg. She'd wanted to have a BBQ, but... fuck it... we live in Hamburg and the weather does not cooperate with what you want to do. At the beginning of the week, there was 10% chance of precipitation. Then 40%, then 50%, and it topped off at 60% by Wednesday. In her words, "That means like 120% chance of rain." So, I told her, "I have an idea, but I'm not sure if I'm gonna like it."