Things Are That Easy. Just Not For You.

Times are rough, and people are having to cut corners to make ends meet. A lot of you may have been finding yourselves shopping at more thrift stores lately; sometimes even non-ironically. Don't feel bad though. Some of the lowliest of us in our Writers Pen have had to pull in extra shifts actually working at the local Family Thrift Hole to make malt liquor money.


The Dorkstuff Writers Pen, which I guess is technically more like a cage. Full of strippers.

However, where some people see hard times, others see opportunity. With a bit of trial and error, a good eye, and some time invested checking out trends in the "Completed Listings", one could easily supplement their income reselling odd thriftstore finds in the bottomless pit of grandmas and homebound reclusives that is eBay.


Waiting in line to buy that jigsaw puzzle and ceramic angel you just listed.

You're probably thinking "I don't want to do all that research! What do you expect me to do, spend all day on the internet?"

And you're right, it's quite a pain in the ass.

Why can't we find a painting worth $40000? We'd even take $8000.

Or like this or this guy, finding near priceless unreleased promo games in a junk bin at a flea market. We wouldn't even mind finding that shoebox full of photos from the Swordquest tournament.

That is, if we can't just find a big wad of cash just lying around and be done with it. Seriously, that happens, too.

Anxiety Culture - The Website That Becomes More Relevant Every Day.

Anxiety Culture is a subversive magazine/website devoted to defusing the little nagging voice in the back of your head that seems to be getting louder and louder these days.

In their own words, they maintain a VAST, intoxicating mixture of outsider psychology, anti-work philosophy, satire, anti-establishment rants, spoof ads, DIY propaganda, subversive graphics and underground news. Plus "self improvement" articles for the distracted, bored, and cynical.

Whew.

Posted a similar article on Politics Of Apathy.

Classic Arcade Ambience.

Over at coinopvideogames.com, they now have several pages of recordings that the host and his friend made in arcades with a portable cassette recorder. Not only do you get the arcade sounds themselves, but that impossible to replicate ambience of an early 80s arcade. One (read, me) might foll around and isolate the background noise and use it for a "live" track... would be classier than some boring old public domain crowd noise sample.

Thanx to Monica McCoy for recommending the site!

Retro Mac OS Layout Blog Template.

Travis from i like applejuice! just pointed out this fab retro Mac OS layout Blog Template. Shweet!

First Of All, A Devo Themed Bike.

The Infamous Chad has been busting his ass putting together this awesome showcase who's proceeds will go to the Livestrong Foundation. Besides the bands, there will also be art on display from local artists for sale, and the above DEVO themed bike (donated by the band!) will be auctioned off.

It's all going down Saturday, March 21st @ SXSV Headquarters.

In the meantime, this Saturday they will be hosting a Wine And Cheese Tasting Party.

TWERPS Manuals In Hungarian.

This is kind of a sequel to my previous article about TWERPS, The World's Easiest Role Playing System. I sent scans of the original manual and the ROBOPUNKS expansion manual to the young parson who commented in that article, and now I have two PDFs of the raw text translated into Hungarian.

Not sure what to do with them, so for now, here they are:

Original Manual (Hungarian)

ROBOPUNKS Manual (Hungarian)

(Keep in mind, none of the charming original illustrations are included in these PDFs, just the raw text translated into Hungarian. I'm under the impression that since it's just a translation and nobody's trying to make any money off this, that it's fair use; but I may be wrong. Not trying to do anything illegal.)

200 Posts!

First, Bacon Robots.



Then, Nintendope's hilarious retelling of the plot of The Wizard that makes me want to watch it again.



And a short film about Brian Burke and his encounter with the greatest video game ever made:



Lastly, a short announcement. I'm gonna be adding some new writers to this blog. Make the appeal a little broader. I can only rely on Bacon Hypnosis so much.

Street Fighter 2010 No Death Run.

The same guy that conquered Dragon Spirit in my last article took to task Street Fighter 2010: The Final Fight, a game I'm still convinced was a cruel prank on the part of Capcom. This game was was that smelly mix of brutally hard and brutally stupid and crap that it never bothered me not getting past the first stage. I only provide the above run to sustain those of you that have not played it and may have been curious, before you wasted better-spent eBay money.

Dragon Spirit (TG-16) No-Hit Run.

Probably one of the hardest Turbografx shooters in existence, and this guy makes it through not only without dying, but without being hit. I mean seriously, you have to pilot along that fist-sized dragon through the game without getting hit. Crazy.

Advanced Set The Rope On Fire Walkthrough.

Ane advanced remake of the game You Have To Burn The Rope. Weirdness.

Composer Of Dr. Who Theme Beatmatching Reel-To-Reel Tape.

Yeah, really. Up there is Delia Derbyshire, composer of the original Dr.Who Theme, beat matching several reel-to-reel tape machines. Awesome.

Super Mario Themes On Piano.

Collection Of Failing Hard Drive Sounds.

Here at the Data Cent data recovery company website, they maintain an archive of the sounds of failing hard drives. I could imagine those of you that make IDM music might find some of these samples pretty handy.

Slashed To Death - A Megadeth Fan Fiction Site.

Yes you read that right. This is a website devoted to fan fiction involving members of the thrash metal band Megadeth. You know, with all their super powers and such, I'd assume.

Global Consciousness Project - Registering Coherance And Resonance In The World

I tried really hard to explain this to someone at a party recently, and failed hopelessly. It sounds really cool, but I don't really understand how it's supposed to work.

Cake Wrecks - Where Cakes Go Wrong.

If you haven't had a chance to check it out, Cakewrecks is a blog about tragically misshapen "professionally" made cakes found by the author. Valentines Day has proven to be a boon to the author this year, and there's some really funny ones today.

Nothing If Not Thorough.

By now it's not even remotely news that James Frey's book "A Million Little Pieces" is completely crap. Just for good measure, however, I just wanted to point you in the direction of The Smoking Gun's dauntingly thorough dissection of nearly every claim made in the book.

Brutal.

Bacon Explosion (and Sequel!)

If you haven't yet seen the monstrosity above, it is known as a Bacon Explosion. The recipe involves weaving a little mat out of bacon, into which is piled a whole mess of ground sausage and more, crumbled bacon. Then the whole thing is rolled into a log and smoked.

Well, the lovelies at Baconjew.com have taken the whole thing a step further with the Bacon Wellington. This holy-crap heart-attack prelude starts with an already prepared Bacon explosion, and wrapps it up, with eggs and cheese, into a sleeve of dough.



Dayum.

Seedy Past Of Austin's Warehouse District.

This article relates the history of the downtown area of Austin now known as the warehouse district. Really interesting stuff.

Nintendo Rube Goldberg Device.

Man, this is adorable.

Beastie Boys New Interactive Site For 20th Anniversary Of "Paul's Boutique".

You can easily waste an entire afternoon on THIS, the Beastie Boys new interactive site created for the 20th anniversary of Pauls Boutique. Awesome.

Caution! Zombies Ahead!

Wish I could have seen this in person.

Progress Quest, A No-Player RPG.

How have I never heard of this? Progress Quest is a parody of EverQuest and other early MMORPGs, but technically is the exact opposite. After charachter creation, your charachter ceases to be interactive at all, and simply goes out, kills monsters and advances as you sit back and watch.

A Noble Attempt To Recreate The Most Infamous Arcade Game Of All Time.

This site is putting together a simulation of the legendary arcade game Polybius. I don't know about you, but I'm a little scared to download it.

French Production Company Named After Obscure Philip K Dick Reference.

Persus Neuf (Persus 9).