Tag: zombies

My Favourite Things: September 2012

SEPTEMBER

Phew! September has been a wild one. I’ve been running around like a headless chicken for the majority of this month. But, I’ve been lucky enough to perform on stage in front of hundreds of geeks at Dragon*Con and will soon be in a play in Dublin so it’s all a good sort of stress.

Don’t worry, I know you didn’t come here to hear about my life, you want internet fun things! My list for this month starts…… NOW!

1) Feel Inside (And Stuff Like That)

For fans of Flight Of The Conchords the New Zealand Red Nose Day this year was an extra special event as it saw the semi-return of the band. They have been very quiet lately, with them both doing seperate projects, but they decided to help the charity event by contributing a song. The lyrics of which, were crowdsourced from some very cute kids.

You can see the song, plus the damn funny creation of it, by watching the video below.

I particularly love the awkward moment when the new Muppets movie comes up in conversation.

2) Whose Line Online

One of my favourite comedy things ever is the improv comedy show Whose Line Is It Anyway? The show was in the UK for a number of years before Drew Carey took up the show in the States and I lapped it up like milk. Colin Mochrie, Greg Proops, Ryan Stiles, and Tony Slattery were comedy uncles to me.

I was recently pointed towards the rather wonderful whoselineonline.org which has archived all the shows from both sides of the Atlantic. But, surprisingly for me, it also contains the pre-TV show radio shows. That’s right, like all good comedy shows, it started on BBC radio first. Starring such wonderful people as Stephen Fry, Hugh Laurie, Dawn French, Griff Rhys Jones, and tons more.

So check it out by CLICKING HERE.

3) Zombocalypse

This game is as addictive as the title is ridiculous. It’s a simple premise, shoot zombies in the head and keep shooting zombies in the head until you die. You start off with a machete and can pick up weapons as you go.

There are power ups and special weapons like helicopter attacks that you can utilise. I find the dual pistols particularly satisfying.

It’s a great time killer so if you want to kill some, along with zombies, CLICK THIS LINK.

4) Dragon*Con

Look, there is no way to fully express my feelings for Dragon*Con. This year was my 5th outing and as always it was an amazing time. The 4 days of the Con often feels like 4 weeks but as soon as it’s over I miss it.

One of the best thing about Dragon*Con, and one of the things I think it does better than any other Con, is all the awesome cosplayers. How could I give you even a glimpse into some of the 52 thousand maniacs who attend? Well, why not put them all into a Gangnam Style parody video.

That’s what Minh Nhat Bui did and what a great job they did of it too. So check out the video below. It’s the closest thing to being there I could find.

And because it deserves to be done:

5) Ben Folds Fraggles Five

In further evidence that Chris Hardwick is somehow living the life I was meant to be living, his Nerdist channel has taken the hands of fate to unite Ben Folds Five and Fraggle Rock in one music video.

If I’m honest, it’s not the best BFF song I’ve ever heard (I say this, yet two days later and I’m still singing the song to myself) but I’m glad to see the band back together and it’s just damn fun to see the Fraggles running around causing mayhem as is their wont.

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And that’s it! My favourite things of the last month.

– Aaron Poole is the creator of #FringeFriday. He is also more accurately an internet whore and rarely leaves the house. If you like what you read here check out his blog http://aaronfever.blogspot.com

September 28, 2012
My Favourite Things – July 2011

July

The monthly edition of things I’ve enjoyed on the internet in the last 30 days or so. Shared with you in a list because I like lists. Let’s do this!

1) Depresstival – Marble Zone

The following video defines what I think is so magical about the internet.

Depresstival is the name of a young lady and her musical transgressions on her youtube account. She may do stuff outside of this, I don’t know. As far as I’m concerned she lives purely in the magical box on my computer screen.

While writing and recording some of her own songs she has also started a 30 Day Musical Challenge. You know the one, it invaded pretty much every social media this year and bugged the hell out of everyone, including the people who were doing it. In this challenge she has taken to doing some rather bizarre covers. Not only the most depressing version of ODB’s “Baby, I Got Ya Money” I’ve ever heard (making it also hilarious) but the theme song to the Marble Zone level from Sonic The Hedgehog.

Yes.

The reasons why I think the video perfectly defines what I love about the internet are
– 30 seconds of awkward introduction.
– 2 minutes of fun accordian music to the tune of Sonic The Hedgehog’s Marble Zone.
– A final minute of pure unashamed insanity beyond description.

Watch and enjoy.

You’re welcome.

2) Captain America: Shield of Justice

You’ve probably seen the film already (you lucky dogs, I’ve had to wait an extra week due to different international release dates) but if you haven’t, or want to relive the fun, you could do a lot worse than playing Marvel.com’s retro looking game Captain America: Shield of Justice.

In the exact same vein of the super fun Thor game they did for the film’s release, this is a platform bruiser and you have to save somebody or something-or-other from evil something something. Who cares? Just look!

Go Cap., go!

You can bounce the shield off the bad guys’ heads and the background music is awesome. He even has the little movie version costume.

Go play, kick some ass.

3) Flashing… lights…

Unfortunately, the following amazing thing can’t be shown to you on this page in a way that would explain just how wonderful it is. But as an attempt here is a picture of it and then I’ll do my best to make you understand.

How it works is very simple, every time you light a square it makes a noise. This noise is determined by it’s position on the grid. The higher the square the higher the note and vice versa. What is quite a simple task becomes an incredibly addictive one as you make fantastic looping melodies by clicking in randomly placed combinations or meticulously designed ones.

Seriously, try it, you’ll be at it for hours. Click this to go see/hear.

4) Garth Ennis Smackdown

I love bullycomics.blogspot.com. If ever a man could give a shout out to a stuffed bull that he has never met, then today is that day. It’s a great blog full of funny and fascinating comic stuff and if you’re not reading it then I feel bad for you son, I got 99 problems but the bull ain’t one. Or you know, something more caucasian and relevant.

Anyway, one of the it’s more recent posts stuck out in my mind as being a doozy. It was a letter written to Garth Ennis and his Preacher book in 1998. Bully explains it all neatly and points out some good stuff so by all means check out the original post. But for the lazy of you, here is the letter itself and Ennis’ wonderful reply. WARNING: contains foul and stupid language.

5) The Walking Dead season 2 trailer
Nearly five whole minutes of zombie goodness. Hands up who else is excited for this? Ok, hands down and click the video.

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And that’s it! My favourite things of the last month.

– Aaron Poole is the creator of the hippy-hippy-shake. He is also more acurately an internet whore and rarely leaves the house. If you like what you read here check out his blog http://aaronfever.blogspot.com

July 26, 2011
My Favourite Things: June 2011

June

So how about that weather? Am I right?! June has been an insane month. I’m sure the majority of you out there will be happy to see the back of it. But once again I’m going to hopefully give you a list of things worth hunching over a laptop for. Even if it is done in a bomb shelter, which sometimes might be the best place. Here are my favourite things from June 2011.

1) Aaron De La Cruz graffiti

I’m a bit of a graffiti enthusiast. I’ve never done it myself (don’t have the talent) but I love to see some good pieces and have often bought a couple of coffee table books on the subject to flick through on a lazy afternoon. I was directed towards this video on Vimeo.com of artist Aaron De La Cruz creating a piece in West Oakland, California. It’s fantastic.

West Oakland, CA from Aaron De La Cruz on Vimeo.

Not only does the design seem to be improvised without a predetermined layout but he also does the whole thing free hand which is incredible considering how even and accurate all the lines are.

Here is another even bigger one he did in Los Angeles.

La Brea Mural Project (1of 2), Los Angeles, CA. from Aaron De La Cruz on Vimeo.

Colour me very impressed.

2) Zombie Defense Agency

If, like me, you have an office day job that requires a lot of killing time then I may have just what you need. Miniclip.com has oodles and oodles of flash games you can play for free and quite a lot of them are great for passing the time before clocking out.

Recently I discovered the tower defense style game Zombie Defense Agency. Anybody who has played Plants Vs. Zombies will get the idea. Stop the zombies from reaching the other side of the screen. I found this game a little more interesting though as the map layouts were more complicated and you really have to think strategically to get it right.

There are 15 levels and they do get more difficult as they go along but if you get your layout right they’re never too hard. I know I killed about 6 hours on this thing once so it’s well worth a go if you’re ever bored.

3) Jon Stewart Vs. Chris Wallace

I’m not American so it’s strange that I find a show about American politics so good but that’s a testament to the quality of The Daily Show with Jon Stewart. The guy is funny as hell but also is able to cut through some political rhetoric to get to the real issue… stupidity. And no matter what country you’re from, stupidity is usually the main problem with government.

He recently appeared on Fox News to do an interview with Chris Wallace. Despite your political leanings, it was fascinating to see two men who were mentally sparring with each other on television like that. The back-and-forth is filled with debating traps and a fantastic bit of tension.

If you haven’t seen it yet, you can catch the 15 or so minutes below.

4) NerdBoyfriend.com

I am a male. I am heterosexual. I am interested in fashion. I know it may blow your mind but it’s true. I actually take an interest in the clothes I wear.

My problem for years has been that very little in fashion reporting has been aimed at me. Magazines, websites and television shows are either aimed at women or are made for the type of guy who wears leopard print tights and drives a ferrari (… Rod Stewart?).

So I was extremely excited to find something for my taste which is nerdboyfriend.com. The lovely Veronica Belmont tweeted about it this month and it instantly got bookmarked.

It does exactly what I need it to do; Show me some clothes and show me where I can get them if I like them. I don’t need to read about what’s “so hot right now” or what designer is trending in Milan. Here are some clothes, like ’em? Go get ’em. And it’s stuff I’d actually wear most of the time too! Brilliant.

5) John Barrowman

It’s not new but I first saw it recently and in celebration of Beyonce becoming the first woman to headline the Glastonbury festival this month I thought it apt.

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And that’s it! My favourite things of the last month.

– Aaron Poole is the creator of feather-knuckle-dusters. He is also more acurately an editor for FRED and rarely leaves the house. If you like what you read here check out his blog http://aaronfever.blogspot.com

June 30, 2011