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Author: matt

Care of the Eucharist

Care of the Eucharist

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In my post-Christmas days off of work, I went to morning daily mass as I often do.

While most people are excited for the run-up to Christmas, I think the days right after Christmas are a quieter time for spiritual reflection and enjoying the miracle of Christmas. Many places in the world don’t give gifts on Christmas day, but on Epiphany (Jan 6th, when the magi are said to have arrived). It’s a good reminder that Christmas is celebrated from Christmas day until the Baptism of the Lord, which usually falls on the Sunday after Epiphany (so, usually the second Sunday of January).

The day after Christmas while I was praying before mass, I wondered what it was like for Joseph and Mary with their 1 day old newborn. Surely Jesus was like every other 1 day old newborn. Equal amounts of being very tiny, vulnerable, precious, and probably the most beautiful thing their parents had ever seen.

While kneeling during the eucharistic prayer during mass, it occurred that this same Jesus, this same tiny child, was present there on the alter as the Eucharist.

It reminded me of the wonder and care we should have when we receive the Eucharist. It should be no less than that of how we would love, adore, and have care with that of a newborn child placed in our arms. The actual presence of Christ our Lord who is carried in us when we receive the Eucharist and go out into the world each day. A Lord who was not only the creator of the universe, but inexplicably, was also willing to become as vulnerable as a newborn infant.

This is an astounding demonstration of love – and one that utterly defeats the pride and arrogance of evil. God gives up an infinite heavenly paradise to join us in our daily lives of joys, toils, and struggles. This is who is present in the Eucharist and wants me to carry Him into the world.

How much of my own comfort am I willing to give up to help those who have it much worse than myself? Would I give up living in a palace to come live with and help the homeless, the spiritually and emotionally lost, the ill?

Perhaps that’s why we have so many saints who did exactly that – such as Elizabeth of Hungary who eschewed her royalty as princess and queen to put a leper in her own bed to care for him. She later used her extensive wealth to open hospitals and then cared for the sick in them. Another is the work of Mother Teresa, who picked up the dying poorest of the poor from the gutters if only to give them a little dignity before death. What am I called to do?

Beware

Beware

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Beware is an in-development demo by Ondrej_Svadlena. At a glance, it’s an open-world driving game that first appeared in May 2018. In it, you are a driver in what appears to be a rainy, foggy eastern block country in the 70’s. What makes this thing stand out is the atmosphere of tension, disorientation, and paranoia it creates. It’s really fantastic. The player is dropped into anonymous, listless locations, hampered by dense fog and rain-slick backroads. The player encounters various solitary landmarks—as well as mysterious and menacing events.

It’s definitely worth checking out. His Patreon page has the latest information about development and supporters get access to extensive additional content. It seems he is up to version 13 and it appears to maybe even support VR now.

Download here: https://www.indiedb.com/games/beware/downloads

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Long, Long Man

Long, Long Man

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Japan has some amazing commercials that have even inspired a Simpsons episode (back when Simpsons was still good).

One of the best is a series of commercials I have seen is for Sakeru Gummy candy. The episodes is often just known as Long Long Man about a young couple and their running into a mysterious man who likes a longer version of the candy.

It is honestly some of the best commercial making around – and I hate to say – has better acting and story than probably 75% of the constant re-hashed old franchises, superhero stories, and movies/TV we see today. For a series that last a total of only 6 minutes over 11 thirty second clips – it delivers an amazingly engaging story.

Here’s the whole series:

What’s awesome is the actor Yukiyoshi Ozawa even does a short interview. He put some emotion and thought into his role.

Tektronix’s Vector Graphics

Tektronix’s Vector Graphics

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Ronny Svedman gives a demonstration of a Tektronix 4006-1 a late 1970’s era tube vector graphics terminal. It’s now almost 50 years old, and should remind people that all the fancy graphics of today had their start a long, long time ago. This particular model has a Swedish EPROM (iso-10646-se) is rendered with slightly different characters.

This thing has some fantastic vector graphics that I wish we could still have today. Vector graphics is pretty limited, but it creates some really iconic images. Fun really starts at 3:54

A Boring Job *IS* your Dream Job

A Boring Job *IS* your Dream Job

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“Instead of planning for a vacation, create a lifestyle you don’t need to take a vacation from”. Helped me decide to pick low stress jobs most of my life, and I’ve noticed for me things have been phenomenally better than for most of my friends

AI Hank Williams sings new songs – Like Straight Out of Compton

AI Hank Williams sings new songs – Like Straight Out of Compton

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If you don’t think AI is changing things at a fundamental level, witness what is possible with voice models trained by ordinary people like ThereIRuinedIt:

Or Johnny Cash singing Barbie Girl

How? There’s a number of different ways you can try this yourself – but the list grows daily at this point, so do some googling and see what’s available.

Ghost stories for Christmas

Ghost stories for Christmas

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A Ghost Story for Christmas was a series of annual British short television films originally broadcast on BBC One between 1971 and 1978, and revived sporadically by the BBC since 2005. The majority of the stories were from the collections of classic English ghost stories. Authors like M.R. James and others.

They’re definitely worth checking out, and it turns out a lot of them are online. You can also see them on Britbox. A Warning to the Curious is particular well done favorite of mine.

Broadcast orderTitleAir dateVideo linkChristopher Lee’s Ghost Stories for ChristmasAudiobook version
1The Stalls of BarchesterDec 24, 1971HereHereHere
2A Warning to the CuriousDec 24, 1972HereHereHere
3Lost HeartsDec 25, 1973HereHere
4The Treasure of Abbot ThomasDec 23, 1974HereHere
5The Ash TreeDec 23, 1975HereHereHere
6The SignalmanDec 22, 1976HereHere
7StigmaDec 28, 1977Here
8The Ice HouseDec 25, 1978Here

Revived series from 2005-present

The series ended in 1978. Maybe because of the two less than stellar final two entries: Stigma and The Ice House. Sadly, most of these are not online, but you might be able to find them via BBC and BritBox.

Broadcast orderTitleAir dateVideoChristopher Lee’s Ghost Stories for ChristmasAudiobook
9A View from a Hill23 December 2005HereHereHere
10Number 1322 December 2006HereHereHere
11Whistle and I’ll Come to You24 December 20101968 versionHere
12The Tractate Middoth25 December 2013Here
13The Dead Room24 December 2018
14Martin’s Close24 December 2019Here
15The Mezzotint24 December 2021TrailerHere
16Count Magnus23 December 2022BBC iPlayerHere
17Lot No. 249TBDHere

Other good short ghost stories

TitleVideoAudiobook
Mr Humphreys and His InheritanceHereHere
The Wailing WellHereHere

If you’re looking for a really reasonable playlist, try this YouTube playlist by bonpourvous.

Other resources:

Otaku no Video – anime culture of the 80’s

Otaku no Video – anime culture of the 80’s

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Otaku no Video is a cult classic that every classic anime fan should see. It was partially based in the personal life of the original creators of Gainax, who started their careers as otaku during the late seventies and the beginning of the eighties. Anime was in its infancy. Anime was a very niche and tiny subculture – largely unknown to most people and considered a very nerdy past time.

The 80’s and 90’s were definitely the wild west days. Just about anything went and there was everything from animation, manga, garage kit models, costumes, military enthusiasts, martial art fans, and just about any other activity and product you can think of. Anime houses developed tons of these kinds of materials and products to see what would become a hit, and which would fall flat. It was an exciting era of great highs and tragic lows.

This is where Otaku no Video shines. It captures the rag-tag glory of those days. It does this brilliantly through the main character – a regular guy named Ken Kubo who is socially active, plays tennis, practices martial arts, has a girlfriend, has good career prospects, and is an all around ‘normal’ guy. He runs into his former friend Tanaka who is into animation along with some other odd characters. Ken gets sucked in and becomes less and less ‘normal’ and more infatuated with becoming the ‘King of Otaku’. In his quest to become the king of otaku, we watch him develop his garage company into something bigger by producing all kinds of new characters and products – all of which were things anyone of that era would recognize. Through the narrative format of following his journey, you get to see the insiders view of the business environment and working with those passionate coworkers.

Otaku no Video references TONS of culture of the time. The people, themes, and references were almost directedly related to anime culture and developments of the time. For those who found anime in the 80’s and 90’s, it gave an industry insider view into these events. Everyone at the time would have known just about every event that happens.

Recently I learned a few new things. One of the themes I picked up on related to the character Ken Kubo creates with his company: Misty May. It turns out, that too was related to a trend of the time: the incredible spinoff madness of magical girl shows started by Minky Momo. These deals created huge franchises that resulted in albums, merchandising deals, spinoff series, manga, garage and model kits, video games, fan creations, and just about anything else you can image. They were cash cows, and every studio wanted to try their hand at them.

So, it’s no wonder Ken’s company tries to do the same with their character Misty May. In fact, Misty May (above) bears a striking resemblance to Magical Emi – one of the many actual Minky Momo spinoffs:

This video by Kenny Lauderdale (who has some amazing coverage of early anime in his videos) gives some great insight on the madness and money behind the magical girl franchises at the time, which can help you understand what it is comically plausible that they launch a theme park in Otaku no Video.

Definitely give Otaku no Video a try if you want to see what anime culture was like in the 80’s and early 90’s before it became mainstream. Also check out some other videos by Kenny Lauderdale to learn more about the era as well.