viddyviddy

Your body is a chunk of marble.

What do you want to chisel it into?

Relevant Links:
Twitter!
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Become a Beast Site!

A Beast is an individual who achieves their physical apex through a balanced diet, focused exercise, and the desire to fulfill the opportunity they were given with their physical body.

Host David Damron wants you to reach the apex of your own physical form.  The kind of physical form where you think about walking in front of your open living room windows in your swim shorts, just to give your neighbors the opportunity to gaze at your perfect body.  Damron wants you to succeed in all your "I wish I could look like that dreams" without going to unhealthy extremes, or developing a negative view of your "current" body.  I'll be the first to admit that I resemble more of a Krispy Kreme doughnut than one of those dudes who perform terrifying pommel horse routines, but if I were to ever attempt to emerge, like a butterfly, from my deep-fried cocoon, I'd be okay with this guy as the motivational voice in my head.

The podcast's tone is encouraging, calm, and casual.  Become a Beast is there for beginners and those who are already on their journey to swole.  This podcast manages to find the right way to offer advice without becoming overwhelming or obnoxious.  Become a Beast isn't here to make fun of how few pushups you can do, it is there to clap you on the back for trying and offer a few tips on how to improve for the next attempt. 

Content Rating:  Clean, mean and 97% lean. 

Average Episode Length: 

Drinking Game:  Hm, should I really suggest a drinking game for a healthy lifestyles podcast?  Okay, um, let's see.  Oh!  Here we go, I have an idea:

1. Decide to have a smoothie.  Smoothies are delicious.
2. Pick one fruit you really like and one fruit you really dislike.
3. Make a list of the exercises you need to complete.  For every minute/rep/whatever of exercise you complete, you get x% of your favorite fruit in the smoothie.  For every minute/rep/whatever you skip, you have to put in an equal amount of the nasty tasting, but healthy, fruit you dislike.
4. Make and consume smoothie, literally tasting either your own victory or defeat.

Release Schedule: Looks like you get at least one new episode every week.


Unintentionally Good Part: When Damron is sweetly demure in an attempt to describe Body Glide, which a balm he suggests for marathon runners.  Cause, y'know, bits chafe.
 
Unintentionally Bad Part:  Much of the advice given is wholly anecdotal.  This is not a true negative per se, as none of the guests or the host pretend that they are doctors or act like their word is truth but I feel like I had to mention that in this podcast so nobody throws themselves into some exercise routine that hurts them. 

And I mean, he does an episode on how lifting free weights will help you in a zombie apocalypse. 

On the whole, Become a Beast has guests, stories, and lots of advice to be offered.  The episodes are relevant to what I'd say most people's interests are, including things like how to get back into a healthy routine after you've been sick.  Give it a listen and see if you get inspired to dust off that old gym membership that you've been paying for all these months and never using. 

Unrelated rating:  Two of those YouTube clips of people breaking their limbs lifting weights out of four. 

Portmanteaus, a combination of at least two words, are fun!  Here are some examples:
 

• Breakfast + Lunch = Brunch
• Smoke + Fog = Smog
• Short + Pants = Skort
• Pregnant + Angry = The dumbest word, it made me mad to read it
• Obnoxious + Replacement for a Sense of Humor = Snark
• Gamers + Comedians = The Gamedians Podcast

 I like that last one!  It's got a ring to it.  Let's look into these Gamedians, shall we?

Relevant Links:
Gamedians Main Site!
iTunes Download!
Libsyn Download Site (for Android and Non-iTunes users)!
Gamedians YouTube Channel!

The long and short of the Gamedians podcast is that you download it and subsequently listen to comedians talk about video games for a while.  Hosts Andrew Dewitt, Dan Bialek and Asterios Kokkinos are here to delight and entertain you with their crippling video game addiction that they've turned into fodder for a podcast.  You like the Xbox?  Some Skyrim?  Maybe you want to throwback to Grim Fandago?  These are your guys.

I remember the first time it hit home that the things I thought were awesome were actually the lamest, loser-y things.

Unsurprisingly, many of their attempts to talk about video games end up in wild tangents.  The conversations on the whole are hilarious and often include the hosts getting riled up about whatever topic they land on. 

Content Rating:  Tagged as Explicit.  There is swearing and content that is not work safe, so headphones on!  They aren't so much offensive as they are just vulgar, if that makes sense.  For example, they'll use swear words but there's no inherent vitriol towards whatever party their swearing about. 

Average Episode Length:  You'll get about an hour of fresh-squeezed entertainment per episode.  The shortest episode runs at 34 minutes, while the longest episode tops out at an hour and forty!

When I go to my Ewok market I look for free-range, no antibiotic Stormtroopers that have been treated humanely. 

Drinking Game:  I am going to point you good people over to the Drunken Moogle, where they offer only the finest game themed adult beverages and accessories. 

Release Schedule:  Oh!  We have a bi-weekly release on Gamedians!  Doesn't look like they hold to any specific days to release, so subscribe or check back often to see when a new episode drops. 

Music: Eight bit music!  It's adorable and makes me smile when I recognize the song being covered.

I have eaten mayonnaise because I didn't want to go get food.

Unintentionally Good Part:  These guys have nerd history and their reminiscing is really fun to listen to on the podcast.  There are a lot of sweet memories of their nerdy parents tucked into the episodes that I enjoyed.

Bonus Unintentionally Good Part:  Asterios Kokkinos' name.  It's just rad.

Unintentionally Bad Part:  Makes me want to spend money on video games, when I need to save it for important things. 

Simply put: cool physics and other sweet science.

Science!  Say it aloud, and with some gusto:  SCIENCE!  Science is real, and it's spectacular.  

It is also confusing when you try and learn about how scientific processes process.  Sure, I've made a Punnett square or two, put some Mentos in some Diet Coke to learn about nucleation, and when I'm bored I spend my time in Wikipedia looking up civilian radiation accidents because they're fascinating in a horrific way.  

So what do you do when you want to understand a scientific theory that is pretty deep?  The kind of thing that takes a Masters degree and a graphic calculator to get a grip on?  You could give up and go bake cookies, or you could watch the Minute Physics podcast.

Relevant Links:
iTunes download link!
Minute Physics YouTube Channel
Store!
Wikipedia Page
Twitter
Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics, which sponsors Minute Physics

Full disclosure:  this is a video podcast!  Quelle suprise, I know!  In fact, this is the first video podcast that I've ever reviewed!  I really like audio podcasts for the sheer fact that they don't need to be watched to get the full content.  That being said, I really enjoy watching episodes of Minute Physics and wanted to share it with you.

So I am.

So there.  Geez, mom.  

"Host" Henry Reich has a lot of markers, an understanding of quantum physics, and a desire to share his knowledge with the world.


Content Rating:  Clean for everyone who exists in the third dimension (that's you).

Average Episode Length:  The show is called Minute Physics, isn't it?  One or two minutes tops for most episodes.

Drinking Game:  And excerpt from Supermasterpiece.com:

Quantum Physics Drinking Game

Whenever the mere fact that you are observing a phenomenon causes a series of potentialities to resolve into one actuality, chug a beer.

That'll work just fine.


Release Schedule:  Looks like there is a new episode each week, although no new episodes in the iTunes list since December of 2012. 

Music:  Not in particular.

Unintentionally Good Part:  The little cat that shows up in the illustrations.

Unintentionally Bad Part:  This podcast is just a port of the YouTube episodes, so there's no real advantage to subscribing to it via a podcast subscription over a YouTube subscription.

Oh, also I have to watch the episodes a lot of times because of my tiny brain. 

Unrelated rating:  Five Higgs bosons out of five.

Go forth, watch and listen!  Let me know what you think of it in the comments!

You damn kids these days with your XBox360s and your smart phones and your technological cocoons from which you pretend to have a social life despite any actual interaction beyond a "Like!" or an amusing meme.  Back in my day, if you wanted to play a game, it had to exist in a physical manifestation!  Oh, those were dark days, back when we were forced to walk uphill, BOTH WAYS, just to have the chance to play a tattered game of Monopoly.  We lived for the days that the Game Wagon would roll into town just for the chance to find a Uno deck with most of the cards still in it.

And we liked it!  We loved it!

But now brighter days have returned for table top gaming.  Nerd Messiah, Wil Wheaton, has a YouTube show all about them called TableTop.  BoardGameGeek can point you in about a thousand directions that all lead to great games.  Thanks to this newfangled Internet, people with cool ideas can get their games funded through Kickstarter and send them straight to the people who want them.

All you have to do is know how to play.  That's where, go figure, the How To Play podcast steps in.

Relevant Links:
How To Play Main Site
Support the Show!
Episode Archives

How To Play podcast doesn't throw up any smoke and mirrors when it comes to its premise:  each podcast covers a game's rules and gives a thorough explanation on how to play.  Host Ryan Sturm takes it upon himself to explain a veritable plethora of games to his audience.  A teacher by trade, Sturm's language and method of introducing and explaining each piece of a game are clear, understandable and obviously thought out.  There is a good deal of effort put into How To Play and I think it pays off really well.

Content Rating:  Clean, and tagged so in iTunes.  It's a bit funny to imagine this show with explicit language though.  "JUST MOVE THE #&$*@ PIECE, IT'S NOT THAT HARD!"

Average Episode Length:  I don't want to give you the normal median time for How To Play.  It really depends on what kind of game Sturm is describing.  Simple games require less time, while more complicated games take more time.  You can probably judge the intricacy of a game just by checking the episode's time. 

Drinking Game:  Pick one of the following words, and drink each time it is used:

• Dice
• Card
• Hand
• Banker
• Board

  That should get you there pretty quickly.

How To Play is a podcast of great use to anybody who has ever tried to learn, or teach others how to play a game.  This is a great way to break down what can be daunting instructions (I'm looking at you, Fantasy Flight) and lists of errata into a functioning rule set.  If you have trouble explaining rules, How to Play can help you by either teaching you how to teach others, or you can just play the episodes for your friends while you set the game up.

On top of that, you also get to learn about strategies for how to win each game.  Uh, you don't have to let your friends listen to that part of the episode if you don't want to. 

Music:  A little guitar music that I believe is performed by the host.  Very nice!

Release Schedule:  Monthly, with more episodes if there are expansions to a game that are covered.


Unintentionally Good Part:  Honestly, I really like the guitar music.  It's calming.

Unintentionally Bad Part:  If you don't have, or are not interested in a particular game that is covered by an episode, you're not going to listen to it.  Shortens the library of possible episodes considerably for me, but this really isn't a fault of the podcast in the slightest.  I just need to buy more games!

Unrelated rating:  Three top hats out of three scottie dogs.

Dear Readers,

Let's take a bold step away from podcasts for a moment.  I know,  I'm as scared as you are.

Hold me, reader!

Wash your hands first, though, hygiene is critical in inter-Internet-personal relationships.

Sometimes even I don't listen to podcasts!  Sometimes I do other things!  Especially when I'm a dumb ass and forget both sets of headphones at work.  That's when I'm forced to turn to other forms of entertainment.  Like all them moving pictures on the YouTubes!  There sure are a lot of them.  Allow me to show you one that I like in particular, won't you?

For your consideration, I offer the board game stylings of TableTop.


My major goal behind this site and all of my podcast reviews is to show other people things that I enjoy, in the hopes that they will enjoy them as well.  If I were a dry cleaner or a car lot, that would be the thing engraved on the elegant "Mission Statement" plaque hung up in the front lobby.  I want to promote the works of creative people who do cool things that are also awesome and fun.  Every once and a while I might step outside of podcasts to help give a signal boost to a thing I like.

And of course, I also make sure to promote things that everybody and their mother already know about.  Like TableTop.

Wil Wheaton, beloved nerd who is in pretty much every damn thing relating to geek pop culture, is your Tabletop host.  He provides a setting in which he can gather friends to play board games, card games, and anything that can be played on a tabletop (get it!?) together.  While Wheaton is a well practiced gamer, most of the guests on the show are what the youngins' refer to as "newbies".  The play session is recorded, and hilarity ensues.


Content Rating:  Clean!  Bad words are bleeped.  Might be some innuendo if that knots your delicate panties. 


This show provides a great way for those interested in board games beyond the worn copy of Monopoly in their closet to see how a board game is played, and whether or not they'd be interested in purchasing it for their own collection.  The rules of each game are explained so that viewers can pick up the basics and their are some nice post-production effects to help you see where and why players do what they do.

TableTop has a great feel to it as you watch.  Wheaton is delighted to introduce people to new games and his guests are raring for some friendly competition.  Most of the guests are celebrities of varying recognition and are prepared to be aesthetically pleasing to your senses.  

Unintentionally Good Part:  How the set pieces change in the background to thematically match whatever game is being played.

Unintentionally Bad Part:  I am not there playing games with Wil Wheaton.  Boo.

If you play table top games, if you enjoy delightful people playing board games while you watch, or if you never realized that there were board games beyond Snakes and Ladders and that Ouija board you hid under your bed from your parents, this show is for you.  I highly recommend it and think you should go check it out!

So get to it!