Saturday, May 31, 2025

BrutalMoose - Tupperware Tapes



Brutalmoose watches VHS tapes about how to throw a Tupperware party.

My grandmother was the queen of Tupperware. One of things of hers that I inherited is the "How to Throw a Tupperware Party" book, which was probably the forerunner of the tape. But I never realized the multi-level marketing aspect to it before. We were constantly bombarded with new Tupperware but I don't remember ever hearing a pitch about becoming a salesperson once.

Thursday, May 29, 2025

In Time (Vaporwave)



Does the vaporwave version improve upon Robbie Robb's "In Time?" Well, I think it's a lateral move but it's pretty cool and you can decide for yourself.

Tuesday, May 27, 2025

New Puddings #2


Whereas we previously covered two chocolate bar based puddings, we're onto Sonic milkshake puddings. 

It should be noted that I know nothing about Sonic shakes. There's a Sonic near me and I've gotten food there maybe twice and I don't think I ever included a shake. So I won't be attempting to evaluate how well they simulate what they're trying to simulate and I'll just focus on whether they're enjoyable.

Sonic Birthday Cake Shake Pudding

You can probably imagine how this tastes by the name but I was trying to figure out how to describe "birthday cake" flavor anyway. Is it... vanilla + butter + more sugar? It's that in pudding.

What shines here is the Vanilla. I am a huge Vanilla pudding fan, so I'm down for this. Nothing spectacular but good.

Sonic Strawberry Shake Pudding


What are the top dessert flavors? Vanilla, Chocolate, Strawberry, right? So it would seem to follow logically that we've had Strawberry pudding a million times and yet... I think this is the first time in my life I have had it. That is a strange revelation.

And I don't think I like it. I mean, it's not bad, I'm not sure any pudding is bad, but I don't like it. It's obviously an artificial strawberry flavor but it's just not a good artificial strawberry. Mine also had a hint of garlic but that was picked up from sitting in my fridge. Even taking the garlic out of the equation, it's just not a hit.

Sonic Banana Shake Pudding


I love Banana pudding. That's my bias. I love this. This is my favorite. Is this better than the other brands of Banana pudding? I can't tell. That would take a side-by-side comparison. Does the "shake" simulation part throw it off somewhat, or is it an improvement? I don't know. But it's great.

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My favorite pudding is Vanilla so I would have liked to try that, but it appears to have been discontinued. I'd also like to try plain old Chocolate but that's hard to find also.

RLM - The Future of AI Cinema


Mike and Jay discuss the state of AI in cinema and what it means for the future.

Tuesday, May 20, 2025

New Puddings #1

 Pudding's been a stale game for a while - it's Jell-O, with the standard flavors, and it's the other guys. But I recently saw - I don't remember where - some people are changing up the game, ya dig?

Milky Way Pudding


Now between the two candy bars represented in this post, Milky Way is my favorite, so this pudding theoretically had the greatest chance of success.

The pudding, I suppose, is attempting to simulate the chocolate, the nougat and the caramel. The chocolate and nougat, it simulates well. The caramel is represented by a weird taste that seems to me to have nothing to do with caramel. I'd call it butterscotch... maybe.

I wouldn't say this tastes at all like a Milky Way bar but, at the same time, it has a deep earthy cocoa flavor that I really appreciate, so I would marginally recommend it (if that's your thing).

Snickers Pudding


I think Snickers are Milky Ways with peanuts. Am I wrong about that? I think so. So this has to simulate the same flavors plus peanuts. And this it does well - there is a definite peanut flavor with the chocolate. I would give this a thumb's up in the aspect of simulating the candy bar.

The thing is, though, do you really want this kind of smooth artificial peanut simulation? Make regular chocolate pudding and add real peanuts. Even better, make regular chocolate pudding and add peanut butter. Have you ever done that? It's the best (aside from the seed oil aspect).

Conclusion

In the end, these aren't terrible but are also skippable. Try them if you really want to. Available at Walmart and Amazon, and probably other places. Peanut butter and chocolate pudding is the real MVP.

Sunday, May 18, 2025

On the Authorship of Shakespeare's Plays

When the subject of "who wrote Shakespeare's plays" comes up, this video is a fair representation of what you're told about the controversy.


The controversy is waved off as merely down to intellectual snobbery - an uneducated man couldn't be the greatest writer of all-time. And just in case you don't find that retort satisfying, well remember that the people who are quick to dismiss any conspiracy theories will also tell you it also doesn't really matter. Well why'd you bring it up at all?

But it isn't intellectual snobbery to think that a man living in the late 1500's, with little or no education, and who owned no books, could have "a profound knowledge of English, Latin, Greek and Italian as well as a deep and wide knowledge of history, mythology and multiple subjects like jurisprudence, military matters, foreign geography, seamanship amongst much else."

In fact, the official story sounds pretty ridiculous, when you really look at it.

Friday, May 16, 2025

AVGN - Dragon's Lair Revisited



The Angry Video Game Nerd revisits one of the games from his early episodes: Dragon's Lair. He attempts to get further into the game, and possibly even beat it.

It seems so apparent to me that this game was specifically designed to ruin the lives of children, that I looked up a speedrun to see to what extent a best-case scenario is possible. Here it is:


Wednesday, May 14, 2025

Tuesday, May 13, 2025

The Charismatic Voice - Virtual Insanity

 


I don't have any real opinions on Jamiroquai one way or the other but it's a nice trip back to the late 90's.

Oh, I do have one opinion, actually. It's amazing to me how all the elements of this video came together perfectly. You don't just have the concept but the "slipperiness" of the floor is combined with a great dancer who can make it amazing. And they didn't just combine the concept and the dancing and say "we'll improvise" - this is meticulously planned and choreographed. And how are we going to hide the edits? It's just in time for early CGI. Everything just comes together perfectly to make a hit video.

Saturday, May 10, 2025

Burt Reynolds Made an Album

Sometimes when a celebrity's at the height of fame and fortune, the praise can be so momentous that they're convinced making an album is a good idea.

Such is the case with Burt Reynolds' in 1973 and the resulting album was "Ask Me What I Am." 


It's very much of-its-time, with the Folk-Country talk-singing style. With titles such as:
  • The First One That I Lay With
  • She's Taken A Gentle Lover
  • I Didn't Shake The World Today
  • There's A Slight Misunderstanding Between God And Man
  • I Like Having You Around
Is it like Neil Diamond? You bet your balls it's like Neil Diamond!

The thing is, though: I don't hate it. It's actually pretty charming. 

For a complete "analysis" of the album check out the podcast "Billion Dollar Record Club" and their episode about it here.

Sunday, May 4, 2025

New Glitch Discovered in Super Mario Bros.

 


A new glitch was recently discovered in Super Mario Bros. which allows speedrunners to shave 20 seconds off their time (though pulling it off is very difficult).

This is another video that gets into the nature of the glitch by digging into the programming.