viddyviddy

[Play this little tune while you read the intro.  Much obliged, pardner.]



Relevant Links:
Control Point Main Site!
Get the podcast here!
Twitter!
Community!
Streaming Site?
YouTube Channel!
TF2 Servers!

Long, long ago, back when the Internet was still awash in the primordial soup of MySpace and Napster downloads, a Team Fortress 2 podcast began, and it was good.  A group of young, intrepid men came together with a song in their heart, a microphone set up in someone's computer room, and the dream to share their wishes and dreams with an audience that longed to hear them.

There were one hundred episodes that flowed like milk and honey across the land.  For years there were fan contributions, heated discussions about "honey pot" servers, and lots and lots and lots of inside-jokes.

And then they went away.  Some say they ascended into the aether, never to be seen again.

Five hundred and forty-one days later, they came back!  And it was around this point I realized I should probably write a review about them.

Average Episode Length:  Mercy, there's a lot of episodes to looks at.  I say...approximately an hour and fifteen minutes, as the crow flies. 

Brent "Chaos" Copeland, Wes "WesWilson" Wilson, and Eric "Nailhead" Fullerton. Spencer "Devilturnip" Williams (source: TF2 Wiki) are your proud-and-loud hosts for your Control Point experience.  Fans and players of  "America's #1 war-themed hat simulator" these guys know their way around TF2 like a Mola mola knows where to get its meals.  Episodes feature discussion about game play techniques, updates, recent changes to the game, community information, nitpicking over play-styles and damn near every facet of the game that can be talked about.   

Y'all, these guys run a tight ship of a podcast.  There are topics!  There is a number you can call and leave messages for the hosts!  They have bumpers to put in between topics!  There are returning guests!  Each episode is polished and professionally delivered straight to you with clear quality and good editing.  They host a chat room as they live-stream the podcast!  I think there are even a few dramatic episodes, people.  These guys mean business. 

Music:  A banging little intro that I enjoy, as well as a good outro.  Sometimes they play 1950s-esque music, and that makes me happy. 

Content Rating:  Mildly Explicit.  I believe that these gents keep the swears to a minimum, but I am not listening through the whole backlog (again) to make sure, so I'll hedge my bets.

Release Schedule:  According to their site, you can listen live every Sunday at 5.  New episodes posted each Wednesday.  I believe that when their schedule is awry, they throw out supplementary podcasts, so keep in touch with their site to see what's up. 

Unintentionally Good Part:  The fan-contributed content.  Most of it is mediocre, but every once in a while there is a true gem of awesome.

Unintentionally Bad Part:  God bless this community, because they really seem to support this podcast, but sometimes what they send in?  It hurts the ears.  I have had to mute this podcast on more than one occasion.  Fortunately these bits are super-easy to skip over and then you get back to the goodness! 

Team Fortress 2, podcasts, and hats.  Hats, hats, hats. 

Skim over this list of words/terms:


If you cannot recognize a single item in this list, then you are excused from this review.  Go on and play at one of the nicer parts of the Internet. 

As for the rest of you social delinquents, it is time to read up on Haste:  The Official Obsidian Portal Podcast.

Before I get into this, I'll admit that I am a big fan of Obsidian Portal and would love if you became a big fan too, dear reader.  This website is a massively useful tool for anyone who plays tabletop RPGs.  With an easy to use interface, players and GMs can create/list/display/organize/edit/use any places/NPCs/PCs/Items/Documents that are used in their game.  A fantastic replacement for a stuffed, disorganized binder that can be lost/burninated/eaten, Obisdian Portal can hold an entire campaign ready to go on any computer or mobile Interweb device.

Beyond that, you can view other campaigns on Obsidian Portal to take inspiration from other people's games and see who's doing what in the RPG world.  It is free to sign-up, and while there is a paid membership that grants extra perks/functions, the basic account is still a great tool.  I've used it before in a previous campaign and it works for a document heavy game, or even a short, month-long exploration into a gaming system. 

Okay, that's my sale's pitch!  Who'd have guessed that when I find something I enjoy, I want to tell other people about it?  Let's move on!

Relevant Links:
Haste Main Page
Obsidian Portal Main Page
Twitter Page
Facebook


Average Episode Length: Twenty-one minutes.  EXACTLY.

Music:  Intro and outro, both credited to LukHash.  I am not entirely sure what a LukHash is, but there you go.

Content Rating:  Clean for everyone except Jack Chick. 

Haste:  The Official Obsidian Portal Podcast is you brief but beneficial dip into the world and whims of tabletop RPGs.  Hosts Jerry and Micah are ready and willing to relay all the most recent and relevant news that relates to this hobby.

Each podcast brings mention of any relevant news, such as anticipated rule book releases and corporate doings that affect current systems.  The hosts are knowledgeable and experienced on the whole, and it is clear that tabletop RPGs are their thing.  If any interesting items that relate to gaming have crossed their paths, they will be sure to let you know about them.  This is a good way to hear about rule systems or gaming aids that you might not run across on your own.

There are topics... which... are pretty self-explanatory.  The hosts will bring up a topic related to tabletop RPGs, and then discuss them.  ...ta-da!  The topics are varied and the hosts' thoughts are fun to hear.  At the very least, they'll give you something to disagree with at some forum somewhere. 

Haste:  The Official Obsidian Portal Podcast (I like typing the whole name out, ok?) also asks listeners to send in questions via their Twitter account. 

Finally, Haste:  The Official Obsidian Portal Podcast recommends a tip to better use your Obsidian Portal account.  What part of "The Official Obsidian Portal Podcast" are you not getting?

Drinking Game: Drinking Quest.  This is A Thing.


Unintentionally Good Part:  If you are a user of Obsidian Portal, which you should be, it is just the cherry on the cake to see that not only does this site support a huge community of nerds and their games, but works to add more useful content beyond the base purpose of their site.  Yay, effort!

Unintentionally Bad Part:  The short format and the fact that there are only two hosts leaves little in the way of lively debate.  Considering longer podcasts like Fear the Boot and The Podgecast, you may find this one a bit short for your style.

Dear, sweet, [DEITY OF CHOICE] I love eating things that are horrible for me.  If it were up to the conspiracy that is the part of my brain that deals with pleasure and my tongue, I would eat nothing but junk food for the rest of my life.  I would become so innudated with BHT that I would have to be buried in a lead-lined coffin to prevent the Twinkies and Slim Jims that would sprout from the earth around my grave.

Snacks are so good!  What's your favorite snack?  I think mine might be Starbursts.  Happiness in a wax-coated wrapper.  Mmm.

Let's talk Mike and Tom Eat Snacks (MATES).

"On the Mike and Tom Eat Snacks podcast, if it's not already apparent, what you and I do is:  we pick a snack, each podcast, we eat it, we talk about it, we rate it.  End of podcast."

Relevant Links:
Main Site!
Get the podcast!
MATES Twitter!


This podcast combines Michael Ian Black, Tom Cavanagh and a sheer passion for snacks.  Each episode there is a snack, there is intense discussion, there is commentary and insight.  The hosts stay almost disturbingly on topic of discussing the episode's snack, but rest assured that they managed to sneak in plenty of tangents and conversational shenanigans. 

Music:  There is a jamming intro song.  They also have a soundboard, and are not afraid to use it.

"Oh, how you do me Mallomar, how you do me."

Content Rating:  Mildly Explicit.  I'm listening to the podcast now and to be honest, I can't find any specific uses of bad language.  However, the topics can wander into playing with ideas and stereotypes that you might not want to float out of your speakers at work.  Headphones are suggested in public places.

Average Episode Length:  A sample size of 8 episodes (randomly selected) gives us an average time of  thirty-nine minutes. 

I... man, I don't know what to say.  This podcast displays a stunningly earnest and singular attempt to bring snack foods into the mainstream discussion of the world. Packaging is mentioned, the quality of the snack food upon being removed from the packaging, appearance and aroma, the taste of the snack throughout the eating process, and any lingering, chemical aftertastes that might crop up.  And I honestly think you'll enjoy listening to all of this!

The pattern of the hosts' conversation takes an episode to get used to, so give it a few episodes to see if it is a good fit for you or not.  There are some fascinating theories and ratholes surrounding their ideas about snacks.  MATES is ready and willing to fill at least a half-hour of your day with its delightful ramblings.   

Drinking Game:  Drink whenever -

• You can hear a host chewing
• You find yourself nodding in agreement with one of their points about a snack
• EXPRESS MODE - Drink each time they rattle/crush/crinkle the packaging

Unintentionally Good Part:  I really, really just like listening to people talk about food.  It is almost like I'm eating it, but without the caloric intake.  Possible new diet fad?

Unintentionally Bad Part:  You will be unexpectedly upset the first time they are totally wrong in their opinion of the focal snack.  It will ruin your day until you go eat the snack they have spoken against, and restore its good graces in your mind.

Go forth to your listening devices and vending machines!

For Christmas, I recieved the following:

A chocolate bar with a picture of a kitten on it (no actual kitten used in the chocolate bar)
Comfy pajamas (an annual favorite)
Ukulele

A soprano ukulele, to be accurate.  And it's great!  The ancestral Viddy manse has been filled with the gentle plink-a-plonk-a of my attempts at trying to learn songs.  Did you know there are tabs for all the songs you can think of?  There are!

Now when most people think of a ukulele, they think of something like this:


Yeah, yeah the ukulele can do that.  But it can also do this:


And even this:



The river of the ukulele runs wide, and it runs deep.  You're going to want a guide to get to the best ukulele-related content on the web.  You're going to need Ukulele Hunt.

Relevant Links:
Main Site!
Get the podcast through iTunes!
Archives!
Twitter!
A Tumblr!  All the cool kids have Tumblrs these days, right?

The Ukulele Hunt website is just chock-full of information from reviews to tutorials and a really swank logo. 

Music:  Funny I should have this category!  Turns out that the Ukulele Hunt podcast's main feature is a veritable buffet of ukulele-utilizing performers.  Classical, silly, pop, sad, saucy, there's a tune for every genre and a few minutes to spare on this podcast for all of them  Host Bossarocker (ain't lyin') leads her listeners through a guided tour of ukulele-related music, pausing along the way to let people stretch their legs and take pictures at scenic parks.  And by "scenic parks" I mean "interviews with people who play the ukulele."

Content Rating:  Explicit.  See "Unintentionally Good Part." 

Drinking Game:  There ought to be a good one for this podcast, shouldn't there?  Okay:

• Drink for each ukulele solo
• Drink each time a song changes, and you didn't realize it until a minute and a half into the new song
• Drink when you're drunk enough to be surprised and charmed by the host's accent.

That should keep you going.  

Average Episode Length:  Approximately 48 minutes (over two thousand seconds!). 

Unintentionally Good Part:  From their FAQ (children look away):

Did you know ‘Uke Hunt’ sounds rude if you say it out loud?
No, and anyone who thinks that has a filthy mind. I’m far too innocent to have any idea about that sort of thing.

Unintentionally Bad Part:  Unlike the kazoo, the ukulele is not a magical device that makes any song better.  Given the wide variety of songs, you are bound to hit on some that don't match your taste.  Luckily for us, you can fast-forward through podcasts.  Yay!

More YouTube!:

Ukulele Hunt.  Give it a try!  I promise you'll experience it.

The world's first, best, only, and last talkback-enabled interactive audio podblast.  

The Internet is inescapable these days, as you are already aware.  You use it for entertainment, study, pretending to study, ordering pizzas, posting bizarre Craigslist ads and so much more!  If the Internet isn't already a part of every facet of your life, it soon will be.

So why not embrace it?  If you're ordering your pizza online, why not demand that you be entertained during the process?  If you're going to listen to a podcast then darn it, that podcast should be able to interact with its listeners!

Wherein we turn to Tweet Me Harder.  Per the quote at the top of this review, you can (or could), not only listen to people talking, but talk back.  Not going to lie, it's pretty rad.

Relevant Links:
Tweet Me Harder Main Site!
... and uh, usually I put a ton of links up right here, but these guys did a great job with their site.  All their social media, where/how you can download to the podcast, store, and updates are easy to find.  Who would have thought that two guys who make a living on the Internet would understand how to put a site together, right?

Tweet Me Harder is a podcast that allows the listeners to guide the conversations of the host, Kris Straub and David Malki(!).  Kris and David are already well-practiced in the art of the klatch and have little need beyond themselves, a talking point, and a mic to record it all.  More or less your basic Two Guys Talking style podcast.

But wait, there's more!

This podcast was originally streamed live to an audience that was encourage to participate.  People could respond to questions and calls for fresh subjects by the hosts, as well as record stories that would be later played on the show.  Whatever the audience threw at them, the hosts would take in stride and try to incorporate it into the show.  Usually, this brought about some very interesting topics that get spun into funny conversations.  It also lead to some very interesting topics:  

MALKI!:The human body is only tethered to earth and subject to gravity by virtue of the life force coursing through it and when it dies, it becomes buoyant so you gotta rush that away!  You've got to take that to a funeral home, you gotta pump all that blood out-you can point that nozzle up-what do you think they do with that blood?  Do you think there's a barrel like an oil change place?  No they just put that nozzle out the window and it goes up and seeds the clouds and later on it rains your father.

They're all over the place. 

Music:  A goofy little accordion tune when they change topics, and Kris Straub raps the intro.  I would like to state that this may be one of only a handful of raps-made-for-the-Internet that don't make me cringe.  It's quite good!

Content Rating: Moderately explicit.  To be honest, I can recall any particular swear words, but the topics can be odd enough that you might want to use headphones if your listening at work.

Drinking game:   Oh, let's see... take a drink every time one of the hosts groans at a bad listener contributed pun.

Release Schedule:  Tweet Me Harder is officially complete!  So...there really isn't a release schedule to speak of anymore, is there?

Average Episode Length:  'Bout an hour. 

Unintentionally Good Part:  The sub-genre of grading bulk rate mail:  Junk Me Harder.  Here, they assign arbitrary values from a made up point system to articles of junk mail sent into them.  There is only one existing entry, but it is a fantastic study in the stupid, stupid minutiae of junk mail. 

Unintentonally Bad Part:  Tweet Me Harder is reliant on listener contributions to steer their conversations.  That's pretty much all the structure that goes into this podcast.  It is a very loose, random talky-talk podcast to behold.  If a current conversation thread in the podcast doesn't catch your attention it can be easy to lose interest slogging through an episode until things pick up. 

As it stands now, Tweet Me Harder is a complete podcast.  No more episodes, all done!  If you haven't heard of it before, this may be somewhat of a bummer as the "interactive" portion of the interactive podcast is now removed.  That being the case, I still really enjoy this episode, despite never hearing a live episode.  The artifacts of this podcast are worth listening to and I highly recommend it.  If you like esoteric humor and social media, then make sure to check out Tweet Me Harder.  Give it a chance, maybe even give it a second chance, and see if you like it.

Beautiful, right?  Podcasts inspire the true artist in us all.

Now that your eyes are bleeding, let's get to it and learn all about the YoGPod!

Relevant Links:
Main Site!
Podcasts!
Libsyn link for podcasts!
YouTube Channel!
Twitter!
Store!
They even have their own Wiki!

Everything gets exclamation points because I'm drinking a soda while I'm typing this!!!

Lewis:  How is cheese made, Simon?

Simon:  Well, if you browse Cheesipedia, I'm sure it will tell you-

Lewis:  No, but tell me, just tell me.

Simon:  Since the dawn of time, Mankind has struggled with the greater questions of life.  Why am I here? Why do the stars spin in the sky?  And most important of all, the great question: what is cheese?  This is a question which has puzzled scientists, theologians, and the every day man in the street for centuries.  The very nature of cheese is hard to pin down, Lewis.  What is cheese made of?  Can it be used as a wall insulator?  Is it sentient?

Lewis:  Where are you reading this from?

Simon:  Cheesipedia. Throurough research into the field has answered at least two of these three questions.  We now know that cheese is made from a substance known as milk, the source of which remains yet a further mystery to the nose, ears and eyes of science. With which yields the delicious substance known as cheese when it is churned, fermented, and generally treated badly by a bunch of farmers in a shed.  We now also know that cheese can be used as a wall insulation, albeit a fairly poor insulation and terribly pungent. 

                                               - Episode 23, "Simon's Cheesecake Surprise"

Release Schedule:  It was every week-ish (loose release schedule) up until July 2011 where the podcasts seem to halt.  According to their ever-useful Wiki, there is no set schedule.


So, in another episode of "ViddyViddy is the last person on the Internet to find something" I have discovered the Yogscast.  It features (mainly) the vocal talents of Simon Lane and Lewis Brindley as they wander through their life experiences, fan mail, and favored memes.  Both hosts hail from somewhere in Europe, I think?  Whatever, they have charming accents that improves everything they say by at least twenty percent. 

Taken from their Wiki page under the subsection "Controversy":

It is generally believed and suggested multiple times in the YoGPoD by Lewis and Simon that listening to the podcast over long periods of time will lead you to becoming generally insane. The fact that you tuned into the YoGPoD shows your insanity and the more you listen to it the further you will lose yourself. Despite this theory, many continue to live amongst the common people.

The theory was born when a brave Yognau(gh)t, during a long car trip, listened to every episode that had been released at the time and the results were shocking. He started seeing vans carrying huge quantities of Jaffa Cakes across Europe and almost died multiple times from swerving from laughter. Although nobody has actually died yet, as the number of YoGPoD listeners grows new listeners should be made aware of what YoGPoD overdose can lead to. It is believed that listeners to the YoGPoD can cause a sharp decline in mental and cognitive faculty. This can result in a sharp decline in motor functional skills, swiftly reduce the ability to drive in a linear fashion and cause hallucinations. It is also mentioned that he enters a cloud of thick fog at around the same time the Halloween podcast begins. This may suggest that the YoGPoD may even rip the space-time continuum, causing people to switch over to a 'Silent Hill' type realm.

The YoGPoD is what, in the industry term I just made up, is referred to as a "companion podcast."  This podcast is not their bread and butter, hell, it wouldn't even be their day old pizza left on the counter in terms of their main releases that have garnered them a huge audience.  The Yogscast folks make the YouTubes, and I've lost many an hour to their pixel-based hi-jinks. They are a group of mostly funny, occasionally offensive (not for the wee ones!), creative players of games and muckers-about in geek culture.  Jump into their YouTube channel to see if you like them, get a chance to soak up some of their inside jokes, and if any of that catches your interest then I'm sure you'll like the podcast.

Music:  The opening theme is a jamming little fan-made tune, which I quite like!  Some episodes of the YoGPoD are live-streamed, and music is played through them, but most of it is removed due to licensing by the time it hits the podcast feed.


Average Episode Length:  Forty-ish minutes?  Some run over an hour, some run one or two minutes.  Widely varies.

Unintentionally Good Part:  I feel I say this a lot, but if you enjoy getting little glimpses into the lives of Simon and Lewis, then all their anecdotes will keep you laughing.  These two friends fall into the kind of friendship where they know each other almost too well, and as such are able to bicker and joke with each other on some transcendent level. 


Unintentionally Bad Part:  Per my preference of listening to podcasts at work, I don't like all the little animated shorts that are lined up in their archives.  Can't watch them at work, yo!  That knocks about 20 of their episodes off my available list, although I'm sure my poor iPod appreciates the fact that it has to carry a few less podcasts.

Load it down, turn it up, try it out! 

tl;dr I Should Be Writing is a fantastic resource and font of entertainment for amateur and professional writers alike.


 Are you aware that November 1st is the start of NaNoWriMo?  Are you aware that NaNoWriMo is a event that challenges you to write 50,000 (that's five zeroes, people) words to a story in thirty days, thus proving that anyone can write that story they've always wanted to write?  Are you aware that you can jump into the fun, sign up for free and get writing?

As they say, "No plot?  No problem!"  Check out their site and join in!  And while your thinking up the first sentence of your soon-to-be-written story, I highly suggest you accompany your throughts with I Should Be Writing.

Relevant Links:
Main Site!
Subscribe here.
Twitter!
Sponsor the podcast and site here!  Lots of cool stuff for those who donate.

The Murverse, home of host Mur Lafferty's creative works!

I Should Be Writing is a window into the process, thoughts, frustrations, hopes, fears and jubilation of a writer doing their damnedest to make it on their words and wits alone.  Your host is Mur Lafferty, which to be honest is one of the coolest names I've ever heard. 

Mur Lafferty is brutally honest as she grants you access to the trials and tribulations she faces as a "wanna-be" author.  She will admit to you how she is slacking on deadlines, when personal life takes over and shoves creativity aside and will allow you to share in the little victories that come her way in her journey to becoming a professional author.  The episodes are informative and interesting, often featuring interviews with professional authors, more wanna-be's, and all those who attach themselves to the art and craft of writing. 


Release Schedule:  Weekly-ish, with a week or two wait in between some episodes. 

Music:  Some of the best theme musics that I have heard on a podcast.  I have listened to the archives and most recent episodes, so I believe that the theme song occasionally changes.  They're all good, and some are even catchy!

Average episode length:  Typical episode is gonna run you an hour, give or take some spare change.  Feedback episodes are about fifteen minutes long.

Mur offers her fellow authors the best kind of advice one can give:  empirical.  She is in the trenches of authorship, trying her best to make it and making sure that the lessons she learns along the way are heard by others.  I enjoy this podcast for Mur's advice as well as her sense of humor and open manner of talking.  Some of the episodes may ramble as she gathers her thoughts on any given topic, but she will make her point as she sees it and offers it to her listeners to take it as they may.  It is always inspiring to see someone else doing what they can to achieve their dreams, and I Should Be Writing is the second best way that all you wanna-be's can spend your time.

What's first best?  Writing, of course!

Unintentionally Good Part:  Oh goodness, let's see...I really like the "Good Cop/Bad Cop" episodes.  They are silly and vulgar, which is often the best kind of silly.

Unintentionally Bad Part:  Mur runs advertisements throughout I Should Be Writing.  This is not inherently bad, but some of the advertisements are a bit on the cheesier side.  There may be cringing, but hey, that's what fast-forward buttons are for, right?

Do you NaNo?  Let me know in the comments!  Get to listening!