Plinxmas Vidvent Calendar - Christmas Eve!

Well, this is it. The end of the Vidvent Calendar. It's been fun and I've proven beyond a shadow of a doubt that my timekeeping skills are pretty terrible.

It seems appropriate that I should end on a high note. Lucky, then that I found this absolute corker.

I won't say much about it, just click on the appropriate part of the video to keep it rolling.

Enjoy!



Hope you all have an excellent Christmas. I'll be taking a few days off to spend with family and then I'll be back to give you something to look at to close out 2011. See you then.

Happy Holidays!

Plinxmas Vidvent Calendar - Day 23!

Crikey, it's Christmas Eve Eve! How exciting.

Remember the flying robots that built a shed from earlier in the month? I think they may have noticed me geting a bit histrionic about their eventual takeover of the planet so they've teamed up to show us their lighter side.

So here we have a scanner and a robotic arm playing the Christmas classic 'Little Drummer Boy' for our enjoyment. Enjoy it, but don't let your guard down, for god's sake.



See you tomorrow for the last vidvent treat!

Plinxmas Vidvent Calendar - Day 22!

Dang, it slipped past midnight again. I need a distraction.

Oh look, puppies!



*sneaks out door* ...suckers.

Plinxmas Vidvent Calendar - Day 21!

Afternoon,
Going to use today's post to give mad props, etc to notable animator and friend of plinx; Eddie Bowley. He is also doing a web-based advent videostravaganza this month, and as if it weren't obvious, you should check it out.

Here's the most recent upload, an alphabet themed short toon from his Edd Egg series:



Now go forth and watch all his other stuff. Tell him Paul sent you and you'll be well looked after.

Plinxmas Vidvent Calendar - Day 20!

Pretty sure that by the time I finish typing this, it won't be the 20th any more but who cares, eh?

I passed an exam today! So all you get is this:



See you tomorrow!

Plinxmas Vidvent Calendar - Day 19!

Youtube, eh. It's doing alright for itself. A hastily googled factoid for you here: Every minute, 35 hours of footage is uploaded to the site. That's ridiculous, right? One other thing that can be inferred from that; in 2011, an awful lot of that footage would have involved Autotune.

If you're not familiar with it, Autotune is a tool that takes any spoken word audio and makes it sound like a song. It was the tech behind the popular process of Songifying which really took off this year, bringing us such gems as Charlie Sheen's Infamous Interview, the lady who, try as she might, Can't Hug Every Cat and a lesson in Backin' Up.

Anyway, the most recent Songify hit takes inspiration from an already-pretty-hilarious infomercial for an American Taxidermist by the name of Chuck Testa.

Here's the ad, followed by the Songify version.

I dunno about you guys but I'll never be sure if anything is real ever again.

Plinxmas Vidvent Calendar - Day 18!

I'd imagine that by this time of the month, you'll have seen your fair share of decorated houses. Now don't get me wrong, strings of coloured lights are cool, but today's video really knocks all that malarkey into a cocked hat.

The more observant of you may have seen something similar in my post about a Clock Tower in Prague but today we're having a game of pinball in Lyon. Check it out:



Neat!

Plinxmas Vidvent Calendar - Day 17!

Sometimes, I work really hard on these blog posts. I spend ages scouring the internet for something that I think you'll all enjoy. Sometimes though, I don't have the time for all that and I need a quick fix.

Today is one of those days, ladies and gentlemen. So I just opened YouTube and typed in 'penguins falling over'.

Bam, done.



Easy.

Plinxmas Vidvent Calendar - Day 16!

Come with me now on a journey through time, back to the halcyon days of December 2008. Plinx wasn't yet 1 year old and was about to celebrate its first Christmas. D'awwwww. That's when I posted a treasure trove of comic strips featuring Calvin & Hobbes and their... unique snowmen. Anyway, fast-forward to the present day and static images just won't cut it anymore. This is the web circa 2011 and we need moving pictures, dangit!

So it's lucky that a couple of guys with time and talent to spare have created a video tribute to said strips using the twin disciplines of modelling and computer wizardry.

Check it out:



Marvellous. If you like this kind of thing, read a li'l bit about how it was done Here.

See you tomorrow, when it will be ONE WEEK until Christmas Eve. Holy heck.

Plinxmas Vidvent Calendar - Day 15!

Ask any kid these days what they want for Christmas and you're likely to get an answer that would involve being plugged into a telly. Fair enough, I say. Videogames are a noble pursuit but in years past, letters to Santa were dominated by things like bikes, skateboards and pogo sticks.

It's the last of these that concerns us today. The humble pogo stick has never enjoyed the same level of exposure as its wheely brethren. You get plenty of youtube clips of 'extreme' skate or bike tricks but no extreme pogo.

Until now...



Not bad, eh? SPROING!

Plinxmas Vidvent Calendar - Day 14(ish)!

Hey guys,
So I guess I'm a little late for the 14th update but hey, you wanna complain you can go jump in a lake.

I'll keep this brief as we're already behind schedule; Fireworks!

I love fireworks, and so do you. Everyone in their right mind loves fireworks. The only problem is that they are only effective at night. That's only a 50% success rate, which is pretty poor. I mean sure, you could let them off during the day but you wouldn't see anything, right? No good.

No, what you need is a daytime fireworks substitute. Did anyone suggest microchip-controlled explosions filled with coloured gunpowder? Well, that's astonishly prescient of you, award yourself a gold star. That's exactly what today's video features. Check it out, it has a weird, otherworldly quality.



Awesome. See you tomor... err, later today!

Plinxmas Vidvent Calendar - Day 13!

Evenin' all.
By now, some of you will have put up your decorations, yeah? Some tinsel, a tree, etc.
We put ours up at the weekend and nothing has collapsed yet, but then we don't live with any animals.

I imagine if you have pets, decorating the house would be problematic. In fact, I don't need to imagine, because I have video proof. It features a cat who has a modicum of internet fame; His name is Oskar and he is blind, which would be very sad if not for the fact that so many videos exist of him larking about and generally enjoying life.
Anyway, Oskar's owners are decorating their house for the festive period and Oskar is 'helping' put up the tree. The results are undeniably adorable:



D'aww. Still, what did they expect. Silly Humans.

Plinxmas Vidvent Calendar - Day 12!

How does that song go? I'm walking in the air?

Something like that, it's about flying, right? But, right, if you could fly, would you rather you had to do it while holding hands with a snowman, or would you rather do it like Iron Man, all rocket boots and repulsor jets for stability?

It's the latter, obviously. Too bad that Tony Stark's fancy red tuxedo is fictional, eh? OR IS IT?!

Yes, it is.

However! Here comes the closest thing to mimicking ol' shellhead that I've ever seen. A water powered jet-propulsion system that features rocket boots and repulsor jets for stability.



I want one, right now. Even if it does mean I have to splash about in the murky solent. Whooooosh!

Plinxmas Vidvent Calendar - Day 11!

Hello friends.
Here at Plinx HQ, we have a Swedish Christmas party every year. This year's event happens to be happening... right now!

I've eaten my bodyweight in herring and meatballs and had plenty of glogg to drink, but I thought I'd take a break to post this video featuring an ordinary Swedish hero.

This guy has been plinked before, when he showed us how to prepare Swedish Meatballs the traditional way, but this time he's doing breakfast:



Skål!

Plinxmas Vidvent Calendar - Day 10!

Only a few minutes left of day 10 but I don't intend to miss my deadline.

Having done this advent thing a few times over the years, I've noticed a few trends. It seems every year, someone decorates their house with lights that sync up to a piece of music.

So here is this year's effort. Bonus points for being a metal song:



YEAH.

Plinxmas Vidvent Calendar - Day 9!

We're approaching the end of the year 2011, that means 2012 is just around the corner and it could potentially be an interesting year.
As you'll probably know, 2012 is supposed to bring about the end of the world as predicted by the Mayan calendar. Many have posited theories about what might cause our mass extinction; One of the more enduring is death by technology. Simply put, we will develop machines complex enough to overthrow us and wipe us from the planet.

Sounds ridiculous, yeah? Well see if you still think so when you've seen these flying robots build a futuristic bendy shed:



Now imagine them building a foot thick wall around us all while we sleep. ooooOOOOOooooOOOOoOOoOOoOoo!

Merry Christmas, meatbags.

Plinxmas Vidvent Calendar - Day 8!

I don't know about where you are, but here the weather is just awful. Rain, wind, cold. Nasty. I wish it'd snow. I bloody love snow, especially throwing snowballs.

However, there are some people who love snowball fighting more than is perhaps appropriate. To the point where they've given it a name and called it a sport.

Yukigassen, from the Japanese words for 'snow' and 'battle'. It appears to be catching on. Originating in Japan and spreading to America, Canada and parts of Europe (the snowy parts, I'd wager), could it one day be an event in the Winter Olympics? We can only hope.

Until then, just have a squiz at this video:



A bit unnecessarily epic in presentation but there we go. See you tomorrow!

Plinxmas Vidvent Calendar - Day 7!

Ok, so I haven't gone to Costa Rica yet. I'll see how my finances are in the new year. Meanwhile, it's day 7 and you folk need a video to watch, so let's crack on.

Today's is a heart-warming video made by the crew of HMS Ocean. They were on their way home when they were suddenly required to go to Libya, turning a routine seven-week mission into a much more gruelling seven months. However, it's done now and they're very pleased to be coming home for Christmas.

So pleased in fact, that they did this:



Good work, guys.

Plinxmas Vidvent Calendar - Day 6!

Ok, this doesn't happen often but after finding today's video, I have decided to emigrate to Costa Rica.

Perhaps I should just show you the video first. It features a zip-lining bulldog.



D'aww, right?

Well that dog lives in a place called Finca Bellavista. It's in Costa Rica and is a community of treehouses, basically. I want to go there, right now. Check out The Website and you'll probably want to as well.

The dwellings are fully equipped with electricity and running water and they have phones and internet, and as you saw in the video above, there are zip-lines! Somebody get me a spanish language book and some lumber for Christmas. I'm going to live in the jungle!

Plinxmas Vidvent Calendar - Day 5!

Hey guys.
Despite being in the early stages of the vidvent calendar, I have been asked to include a link to something specific that isn't a video. I should just refuse, right? How dare they try and subvert the Plinxmas tradition?!

However, the thing is, it's for charity and after all, 'tis the season to be jolly. So I'll do it, for the greater good. I'm an old hand at this though so there'll still be a video and what's more, I'll make it relevant.

Bah humbug, though.

I kid, obviously. I'm more than happy to help out with this kind of thing. So I'm hereby calling on any of you with the ability to get to London on Sunday to take part in the Santa Fun Run! It's a leisurely 5km run/jog/walk in the beautiful surroundings of Kensington gardens with a bunch of lovely people who all happen to be dressed in Santa costumes. I've done a couple of these before and they're always a good laugh.

But don't take my word for it, check out the promo; It even has a game! Santa Fun Run!

So there we go, a bunch of freely running Santas... Wait a minute, free running Santa?



Told you I could do it. See you tomorrow!

Plinxmas Vidvent Calendar - Day 4!

Another quickie. Weekends are busy, y'know?

Anyway, I don't want to blow anyone's mind but it turns out there are videos on the internet that feature cats doing funny things. No, really. See for yourself if you don't believe me. In fact, let me just show you one.

There's an altercation between two moggies, and it turns out that the one being picked on was raised by snakes. Big mistake Cat #1.



POW.

See you tomorrow, guys. We'll be one step closer to Christmas!

Plinxmas Vidvent Calendar - Day 3!

In a hurry today so not much of a preamble. This video uses one of the oldest tricks in the internet book. Take footage of one thing and add the soundtrack of something else. In this case, a grainy old video of some dudes doing the Charleston dance set to the music of Daft Punk.

Simple, yet brilliant. Watch.

Plinxmas Vidvent Calendar - Day 2!

Hey so, having built up some goodwill with an insanely cute video yesterday, I thought it best to alienate 90% of you by nerding all over the place. Yay!

Minecraft. You either know what it is or you won't care what it is. Despite only just being officially released, this game has become a full blown creative revolution and like all other media, someone has used it to recreate, in painstaking detail, a Super Mario level. In most cases, that would be a gruelling endeavour, but in Minecraft (where everything is made of individual cubes) it's masochism on a breathtaking scale. Check it the heck out:



Allegedly madeup of 500 man hours, divided between 3 dorks and an astonishing eighteen million blocks, if you're interested in the 'how' of it, watch the Making Of video.

See you tomorrow!

Fun fact, every time I needed to type 'Minecraft' in this post, I accidentally typed 'Minceraft'. What is this mysterious mince raft, and could it really be the answer to all our transportation problems?! Tune in next time.

Plinxmas Vidvent Calendar - Day 1!

Evening friends. It's the first of December and round here, that can only mean one thing... iiiiiiiittt's PLIIIIIIINXMAAAAAAAAS!

This year it's going to take the form of a plinked video each and every day. Hopefully one that will inject a little holly-jollity into your day. It won't necessarily be Christmas-related, it won't even necessarily be new but hey, this is my blog, you don't like it, there's plenty of other blo... oh god no, please come back!

Anyway, I'm going to kick things off with possibly my favourite video of the year. To describe it would be to rob it of its majesty. Just... just watch. Oh, and turn your speakers on.



Yeeeeeeah.

See you tomorrow, guys!

Nitrome Wasn't Built In A Day.

Nitrome. If you've been reading this blog for a while, you should be familiar with the name. They make flash games of a superior standard, many of which have featured here. In fact, my second post on this blog featured a Nitrome game, all the way back in March 2008!

So anyway, they have just released their 100th game(!) and to mark the occasion, they've called it Nitrome Must Die!

The game involves one or two players taking up arms and blowing characters from loads of different Nitrome games into smithereens. It's good fun and it seems like it would be wrong not to feature it here.

NITROME MUST DIE!

Scantastic.

I'm just going to say it; today's plink is about barcodes. Yeah... barcodes. Don't leave though, I am going somewhere with this. Also, you know I'm good for it. I've turned something dull into an interesting post before. Remember the post about Forklift Truck Safety? Exactly.

Anyway, I wouldn't be the first to try and jazz up the humble barcode. Remember Barcode Battlers?

But I digress. So barcodes are everywhere, yes? And they're pretty dull, yes? Just a dull arrangement of vertical black bars, some wider than others. Totally tedious, but then they're only there to fulfill a function. Nothing we can do to make them more interesting, right?

Wrong! They could look like this:

MUCH better. This seems to be mainly a Japanese phenomenon, mostly the work of a company called D-Barcode. Hooray for them!

More info and plenty more examples HERE, check 'em out.

Blowing A Load.

I bloody love fireworks. We went to an excellent display this year which was a nice mix of impressive and dangerous. The sense that at any moment we could all be incinerated really added to the experience.

Lots of cities have official displays which cost thousands of pounds and tend to go on for half an hour or so. All this really ensures is that your whole audience will have a crick in their neck when they're done 'ooh'ing and 'aah'ing.

Perhaps we can learn something from a mishap in the Scottish town of Oban, then. After cueing up all the pretty explosives, a technical hitch caused them all to go off within 50 seconds. It makes for spectacular viewing. See?



Ooh and indeed, aah.

Out On A Limb.

GAMES.
Yeah, I haven't posted in a while. Sorry. Here's something to play with to keep you distracted. 2 things, even.

First of all, a game where success will cost you an arm and a leg, literally. It's called Pursuit Of Hat and your protagonist is a cheerful looking blobby fella with detachable limbs. He desperately wants his fetching purple bowler hat back and you'll need to rip off and reattach bits of yourself in order to do it. For such a stomach-churning sounding concept, it's all very sweet. Give it a shot:

Pursuit Of Hat.

Secondly, an old internet stalwart; Ninjas. They're everywhere on the world wide web, the stealthy blighters. Where are they all coming from? Where do they learn their skills? Well, I'll tell you! Sticky Ninja Academy, that's where. This is a physics-y game involving flinging a ninja about, making him stick to walls, knock out other, presumably evil ninjas and nab some precious gold before making it to the exit. This is good, solid fun and the way your li'l assassin goes into a flying kick pose whenever thrown is just adorable.

Sticky Ninja Academy.

There you go, fill your virtual boots. See you next time.

Float On.

Hello, and indeed goodbye.
This will, presumably, be the last edition of plinx as we are due to be Raptured today. Looking out the window, it doesn't seem like the sky is boiling and I can't see any cracks appearing in the earth but hey, plenty of time yet.

I thought I'd use my last post to show you something that could have really changed the world if it weren't doomed; Quantum Levitation.

Listen, yeah. Don't go to sleep just because it sounds nerdy. Wait until you see the video.



Pretty nifty, huh? I'm getting on the waiting list for a Marty Mcfly-style hoverboard right now. Y'know, just in case the planet doesn't implode this afternoon. Fingers crossed, eh?

Gnarly Gnoses.

Cowabunga, dudes.
Hey remember Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles? Of course you do, TMN(or H)T is one of the most enduring pop culture phenomena of the 90s.

Not had much going on lately though, I suppose. But that changes right now! I'm about to show you something that like the Dog-mask Ducks will alter the way you look at the world forever. Did you know that everyone has an approximation of one of the Ninja Turtles on their face ALL THE TIME?

Don't believe me? Well, that's fair enough. It's a bold claim. However, try arguing with this:

POW. Proof positive. No-one is immune. Obama, Ghandi, The Governator, umm... Sting?

Anyway, it's amazing and has made me laugh consistently over the last few days. Why not try making your own?

Teenage Mutant Ninja Noses.

Mind, Reader.

Hiya.
Bit of a blast from the internet past today. This was recently brought back to my attention by Housemate J and I have been enthralled with it ever since.
Essentially, it'll task you with thinking of a 'character', real or fictional, human or otherwise and then ask 20 questions before reading your mind. Yeah, it's one of those things.

Back in the day, these things were pretty hit & miss. However, this one has had several years of use and seen an astonishing 107011686 individual 'games'. Effectively this means it has evolved, for want of a better word, into a much more impressive mindreader.

Seriously, I have thrown so many curveballs at this thing and only rarely has it failed to come up with the goods. Sometimes it'll take more than one guess but hey, I'm willing to let that go based on the fact that some people have given it wrong answers.

Anything that can tell, in 20 questions or less, that I was thinking of the three-headed monkey from Monkey Island, or a secondary character from a cancelled TV series, or the COUSIN of the main character from GTA 4, or... bloody Barry Scott from the Cillit Bang advert! or... or... ARGH, HOW ARE YOU DOING THIS?!

Ahem, sorry.

Anyway, if you fancy being outwitted again and again by an animated genie, pit your wits against:

AKINATOR.

Charidee.

Evening all.
I'm afraid it's that time of year again when I put on a sleeveless t-shirt and jog about in Southsea for a while in the cold, and I'm sure you all know what that means!

Yup, I'm after sponsors again. However, it's not just me this time. Housemate J is also coming for a run and we're trying to raise the princely sum of £500.

So please, go here:
http://www.justgiving.com/runpaulandjamesrun
and give generously. It's an excellent cause and I promise to render myself immobile with the effort come race day.

To sweeten the deal, here's a game!
A charming little knockabout where you scoot your avatar across the bottom of the screen to catch falling banknotes and sunflowers, presumably hurled by a philanthropist in a blimp. You can play as one of three people who would stand to benefit from Hospice care or erm... you can be a pelican (allegedly his beak can hold more than his belly can)

Game!

Oh! Also, last time I checked I had the high score, so try and beat me. Then throw a few quid at my donation page to really show me who is boss.

Ta very much.

iScraper.

Hello.
Several months ago, I started playing an iOS game called 'Tiny Tower'. It's a simple concept; construct a skyscraper, one floor at a time. You chose from either residential or business floors so you have people living in the tower and working to earn money to build more floors! It may not sound like much but the charming pixelly animations make it really compelling and it is full of little incidental touches that enhance the game as a whole. Plus, it is horribly addictive. Each level you build costs more than the previous one but obviously, if you're playing well, you'll be earning more money as you build new floors. It only takes a week or so to get something that looks like this:

However, there is an achievement for building 100 floors and I was determined to get it. Now, I have realised that dream. Click HERE to see my magnificent tower in all its glory.

Oh yes, and although it was my intention to stop at 100, I now have a burning desire to see every type of floor there is, so I'll likely remain in the iron grip of this blocky timesink.

I thoroughly recommend the game to all of you with the ability to play it. It has a surprising amount of depth and is completely free as long as you don't mind being patient. You can read a review Here and if any of this has convinced you to give it a spin, it can be found on your friendly neighbourhood app store.

Have fun!

Stick It To The Man.

Afternoon,

I won't say too much about this because it'd spoil it. Just click below and draw a stickman. Easy as that.

GO!

Plinx Quickie.

This is a Public Service Announcement.

Portal, one of the best games ever, is now free to download on PC or Mac. I'm sure nearly everyone has played it now but if there is anyone out there who is still yet to experience its splendour, for god's sake get it now. It's free until September 20th so shake a leg.
Grab It Here.

I'm Appealing.

Hello, this post may trigger a feeling of deja vu for you long-time plinx visitors.
Remember when I asked you to help Thomas Truax get his album released? Well guess what? He's at it again!



If none of this is ringing any bells, all you need to know is that Truax tours the country with a boot full of instruments he invented himself playing truly compelling songs. I've met him a couple of times and he's a thoroughly nice chap. In fact last time I saw him live he played the birthday song for me on that instrument you see in the picture above (it's called the Hornicator. Oh yes.) But yeah, he has a new album and needs all of our help.

This one is a concept album of sorts, a 12 track opus that is being written and recorded one track a month with each track referencing the month it was recorded in! Still with me? Good.

So this album is due for release in January but ONLY IF enough people pledge to buy it. Otherwise it won't be released and the world will be a worse place as a result. That may sound hyperbolic but I honestly think that what ol' TT is doing is important. He makes music unlike anything else that exists. Like last time, the album is part of a PledgeMusic drive which means you have several pledging options. If you just want an electronic copy of the album, it'll only set you back a measly £6 but you can opt to pay a little bit more to get some funky extras. Check out the page HERE.

I've put together a short Spotify playlist to give you a few reasons to get behind this musical endeavour. So Check It Out. (If you don't have spotify; firstly, what's wrong with you, go download it now and secondly, you can find a lot of his tracks on youtube.)

Anyway, stop reading this and go and change the course of music history if you wouldn't mind! Don't dilly-dally too much, there's only 12 days to go before it's too late.

Thanks, you won't regret this.

Monochromantics.

Hi, 2 games today that fit into that wildly popular genre - 'ludicrous physics games starring black & white animals'.

First off, a zebra. Doing what zebras do best, making his way across the savannah... in a car. The game is Safari Drive and you need to get the motorized mammal from the left side of the screen to the right by clicking on objects littered about the stage to remove them. It's a fairly fun and straightforward jaunt with some enjoyably odd facial expressions from the zebra. So give it a spin.

Next, it's perhaps the most beloved of all the two-tone creatures, the penguin. This particular penguin wins extra points for wearing a trenchcoat and packing heat. Why? Well to kill zombies, of course! Lots of ricocheting rounds and smashable furniture in this one: Zombies vs Penguins. Whee!

Aaaaand that's your lot. Until next time, pals.

Plinx Quickie.

How do.
Just a quick post to keep the blog ticking over. A clever play on words turned into an excellent collection of pop culture robots both famous and obscure. Click the sample below for the full-size version of...

Where's Wall-E?





Did you find him?

Incurable Stealie-o-holicism.

Cripes, it's been a weird couple of days, hasn't it? If you live in one of the areas where there has been rioting, I hope you've remained relatively unaffected.

It's been really disheartening, watching all the terrible behaviour on the news. Seeing how it'll affect blameless business/homeowners who will have a really tough time getting back on their feet.

However, in the aftermath, it was great to see good-hearted individuals coming together to help fix things. I love a bit of indomitable human spirit, me.

In a similar vein, I'm glad that some people are doing their bit to bring a smile back to our faces by looking at a tragic situation and seeing the funny side. So today I bring you PhotoshopLooter

It's a collection of cleverly doctored images of the twats doing all the stealing and smashing. See below for examples:





Teehee!

Soul Provider.

Game time.
On paper, today's plink may sound a bit unsavoury. You float around as a ghost possessing hapless people and forcing them to commit murders until you have harvested enough souls to pay the reaper. But it's not as bad as that sounds, honest! The whole thing uses the ever-charming 'pixel art' visual style and the bouts of slaughter are broken up by some decent sections of black comic dialogue.

As you progress through the game, you'll take control of several different types of people, each possessing different skills (see what I did there?) from the lowly office worker who is only able to swing his briefcase around menacingly, to the likes of the gun-toting security guard and the lock-picking cat burglar. You'll need to figure out who to use in order to dispatch your co-workers, whether that be by pummelling them, shooting them or kicking them out a window.

The difficulty ramps up as you progress and each level has a pretty strict time limit, so there's no time to hang around contemplating the morality of your actions, just hurry up and punt that guy off the roof!

More fun that its subject matter would suggest, then. Play Soul Tax.

Plinx Quickie.

You're all familiar with services such as SnipURL, TinyURL, etc right?
They take long, unwieldy web addresses and condense them down. Very useful, but a bit bland.

Wouldn't it be better if you could make any innocent URL look suspicious? Inject a bit of danger into your web-browsing? For example, would you click a link that looked like this:

http://5z8.info/hack-outlook_s1o7am_dogfights

Didn't think so, but you'd be perfectly safe to do so. It would just lead you to this very blog, replete with my grinning, boxy face.

This is the service offered by ShadyURL. I think they're doing important work, spicing up the prosaic world of surfing the net.

So, are you willing to take my word for it that this link is safe?
http://5z8.info/racist-raps_f5j2du_blackmarket
Go on, give it a click. I dare you.

Plinx The Blog & Paul The Human.

Hello,

I used to watch a lot of cartoons. I don't just mean when I was a child, but up until a few years ago. Then I kind of stopped (with the exception of the combined output of Matt Groening & Seth MacFarlane) because things just didn't seem as good. I imagine some of it can be attributed to me growing up but it feels more like the toons are just getting less innovative and unique. Cartoon Network seems to be getting buried in stuff like Ben 10, Generator Rex & Johnny Test.

In short, it feels like we've taken a step back from the anarchic lunacy of things like Cow & Chicken, Ed, Edd & Eddy & Courage the Cowardly Dog.

So is there no hope? Au contraire.

Enter...



It's the best cartoon I've seen in ages and really feels like a breath of fresh air in a genre increasingly over-crowded with generic action toons.
It veers very close to being too 'wacky' but the end result is something that has you shaking your head with disbelief on a minute by minute basis. It's very colourful and there are characters made of rainbows and sweets but there's also a jet-black streak of comedy running through it.

It'd be best if you just watched for yourself, so here are the first two episodes. Drink it in, then go watch as much of it as you can.



YEAH!

Carface.

Do you like Pixar movies? Stupid question really. Everyone likes them, and with good reason. As a body of work, it's approaching flawless. Perhaps the closest thing to a low-point would be 2006's Cars and even that was still a lot better than most of their competitors' fare.

Anyway, there's a sequel coming soon so what better time to apply the Pixar anthropomorphising technique to some famous and iconic cars from film and tv.

Observe:



Pretty cool, huh? See the rest Here.

Badum Tish.

Just a quick one today,
How does a cymbal react to being struck?

Turns out, it's more extreme than you'd think. Check it out:

Press M For Murder.

Hey, so we haven't had a game for a while. To be honest it's because nothing has really grabbed me. No matter how nicely polished or deep, every flash game I play recently seems to be a variation on a familiar theme.

Then finally something held my shrivelled attention. Ironically it was a game made as part of an indie game design contest called Ludlum Dare 48H, which tasks entrants with making a full game in just 48 hours. The game I'm about to show you was created by a guy called Adam Saltsman who created the previously-plinked Canabalt and it really shows that he has mastered the 'simple concept makes compelling game' trick.

Taking place on a single, unmoving screen and lacking in such luxury features as a play button or any instructions, this game is minimalist to say the least. However, it gets very hectic very quickly.



It's called Grave Robbers but you do not play the eponymous thieves. Rather, you play the unseen omnipotent force that is trying to thwart them using a number of carefully laid traps, each mapped to a key on the keyboard.

As the little animation-free swines swarm through your dungeon, you'll be hitting S to drown them, K to squish them and U to burn them (amongst others). Don't be squeamish though, the spartan graphics ensure there is no gore.

They will try every different direction and the 'cool-down' time on each trap means you will quickly start flailing about trying to rain death on your puny yellow foes before they can abscond with your loot.

It's frantic and fun. Give it a shot:

Grave Robbers.

The Fake Sound(s) Of Progress.

Evening.

We humans are a pretty sophisticated bunch. Some people dedicate their lives to working out how we tick. They study behaviour and stick electrodes into squishy pink brains. They probably do other stuff too but that's technical enough, right?

Anyway, we like to strut about this planet like we own the place. As if we are masters of all we survey. We have built incredible machines to perform menial tasks for us (by we, obviously I don't mean you & I. I mean clever people) and we perhaps not unreasonably regard ourselves as in control of the machines.

Turns out that the artificial bastards might be pulling one over on us.

Collected HERE is a list of 5 ways in which machines lie to us to make us feel better. The most unexpected one for me was the cash machine. I'll never look at one the same way again, and I suspect you won't either.

POST ENDS.
*whirr. clunk. beeeeeeeep*

Let Slip The Sprogs Of War.

Hey, get comfy and watch this video.
It's just your average clip of a bunch of kiddywinks larking about with plastic guns. Absolutely nothing out of the ordinary happens.

Y'know, this charade would be a lot easier to keep up if it weren't for the preview frame of the video giving the game away below.

Ah well, just watch it. Cutesy carnage ensues.



GET SOME.

Exhibit I.

Hey so Facebook is pretty neat, huh? It's handy for keeping in touch with friends and for sharing pictures, videos and links.

Once you've created your profile, anyone can come poke about in what is, essentially, a shrine to you. Everything you say, everywhere you go, every picture of you. It's all there. A treasure trove of information about you that would make the most committed stalker look sheepish. It's almost like a museum

That's exactly what you'll find here at the Intel-sponsored Museum Of Me. To tell you any more would spoil it. Just click through and grant it access to your facebook profile. You won't regret it, promise.

Hairy Man Shows Internet Findings.

Hey there.
A decent movie needs a snappy title, right? Or at least a memorable one. Zack Snyder is much more likely to be remembered for Watchmen, 300 & Sucker Punch than for Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'Hoole, I'd wager. So the title is pretty important.

Now almost all movies get released all over the world and it turns out some of the people in foreign lands don't even speak English? Madness. So the flick gets translated, including the title. Sometimes this works, sometimes it doesn't.

An example:



An excellent film with a no-nonsense title. Not so in China. No. There it's called 'This Hitman Is Not As Cold As He Thought'.

Yeah. Turns out this is pretty common. In Germany; Airplane became The Unbelievable Trip In A Wacky Aeroplane and, incredibly, China never got to experience The Shawshank Redemption, but instead got the stupefying title 'Excitement 1995'!

Want more? Well check out this list of 50 Funny Movie Translations to see how films can be completely undermined by having their title translated. The one for Sixth Sense is incredible.

One of my personal favourites though: 'Leaving Las Vegas' becoming 'I'm Drunk And You're A Prostitute' in Japan. Hyuk hyuk.

Plinx Quickie.

Hiya.
Just wanted to call your attention to a webcomic series that's just been started by my pal Alex. It's a simple 3-panel type affair and the concept is explained in the title:

Setup, Beat, Puke.



Yup, each comic ends with Alex himself dropping a barf. It may not seem like much on its own, but when you see them all together... well it makes me laugh. And hey! it's not like there isn't a success story out there which uses repeated panels each comic, right?

Oh, also; Alex kindly put up a guest comic created by yours truly. Check that one out Here and click Here for the whole shebang.

Yay! *pukes*

April: A Retrospective.

Hello there.
I didn't get much plinking done in April, perversely this seems to be because I had too much free time. I had a fair bit of time off work and I never really felt like it was the right time to sit down at my computer for a spell. Now things have returned to relative normalcy, I'm going to sum up the last few weeks in bullet point format.

> Running
> Portal 2
> Barbecues
> Thor
> PlayStation-induced Fury

Starting at the top, I did a run! Yes, another one. In Prague this time. It's a beautiful city and I had a great time. The run went OK, better than the last half-marathon anyway. Y'know, the one where I lost consciousness? Here's a victory snap:



Whee! Medals!

Then, a while later; Portal 2 descended from on high to bring me joy unrelenting. Well, not quite unrelenting but I'll get to that later. If you're unfamiliar with Portal 2, here's the trailer:



Having waited for it for so long, I was concerned it wouldn't live up to expectations but I needn't have worried. It's brilliant. If you play games, you've probably played it already or plan to do so soon and if you don't play games... Portal 2 has you covered there too.

It's clever, it's funny and... erm, I'm sure the co-operative mode is really good too... grumble mumble bloody PSN.

What's next? Ah yes, GRILLFESTS. Yeah, it's barbecue season and we kicked things off in sensational style by having one every bank holiday. I couldn't possibly consume any more charred flesh until, well the next barbecue on Monday. I hope you're chowing down similarly.

Another, less videogamey, event I had been anticipating for some time was the release of the movie adaptation of Thor. I love the character and had been watching trailers and looking at screenshots with increasing alarm. I really didn't want the movie to suck, and guess what? It doesn't! It's not any sort of breathtaking step forward for the genre but it was a nice slice of super-powered fun. They still missed a trick in not casting This Guy as the main man though.

AND in case you were wondering if I had totally jettisoned the plinx format for this post, never fear. Here's a surprisingly awesome promo game released on the Marvel website to coincide with the film release: Thor - Bring The Thunder. It's got charming, retro style and is surprisingly deep. Give it a go.

Things can't be uniformly great though. Something had to rock the applecart and tip over the boat. April's sunny skies were darkened not by a thunder god, but by... Sony.

Yeah, you've seen it on the news, the PlayStation Network or PSN is down. STILL. After an absence of over a week, I'm still waiting to play the supposedly excellent co-op mode in Portal 2. It's been infuriating as there aren't many occasions where I actually want to play online, then one comes along and I'm denied that right. I know it's very much a first-world problem but shut up, I want my fancy space toys!

So, to sum up. If April had to be represented by one image, it'd me of me taking a run up before hurling a mythical hammer fashioned from burnt meat through a set of portals right into the face of Sony president Howard Stringer.

It'd be nice if I had the talent to draw that, but I don't. Sorry!

See you next time.

Carrion My Wayward Son.

Hello, sorry I haven't updated lately. These are busy times.

Today's plink is a game about some animals seeking vengeance on cars and other vehicles for their squished brethren. Essentially, you have a jet-propelled mechanical raccoon which you can launch into traffic with the aim of doing as much damage as possible.

And why not.

It's got a neat line in optional 'bonus challenges' that will keep you clicking the replay button and is generally some harmless, explodey fun.

Roadkill Revenge!

Slow On The Uptake.

Evening.
I'm back from Prague. The half marathon went well and it's a delightful city. There may well be a blog post in it when I get some photos, but for now I'd like to share a video with you.

I'm pretty much a sucker for anything cool filmed in slow motion, there's some great footage out there taken on high speed cameras that blows my mind. I could show you the water balloon exploding in slo-mo, or the bullet going through things schtick, but you've seen that already.

Here's something a lot more restrained. It's footage of jugglers, unicyclists and other assorted ball manipulators *ahem*. Circus skills, essentially but sloooooooooow.

Check it:



Nice.

Plinx Quickie.

Hiya,
I'm off to foreign lands tomorrow to participate in another half marathon because apparently I didn't learn my lesson last time.

So to tide you over, let's have a quickie.

How To Explain The Internet To A 19th Century Street Urchin: A Flowchart.

See you soon!

Park In It, Man.

There's a chance that you're reading this at night. A smaller chance that it is night-time and you can see the sky from where you are and a smaller-still chance that it is night-time, you can see the sky and it is clear enough for there to be stars.

But if you DO meet all those criteria, have a gawp at the twinkly devils now. Nice isn't it? Wish we could see more of what's going on up there. My limited knowledge of the cosmic ballet is such that I know that celestial bodies are forever spinning around each other. Wouldn't it be lovely if we could watch. Or, at the very least, see a simplified representation in our browsers.

Well friends, your prayers are partially answered! Peep this:

The Solar System.

Hooray for space! While you're there click down in the bottom right to convert to a Tychonian representation. Now you can have it trace the orbit of any planet you choose. Essentially creating a galactic spirograph.

Twirly.

Sugar Daddy.

Hiya.
You're a sensible person, right? So that means you drink tea. Or, at a push, coffee. How many sugars do you take? Oh really? That's interesting. Those of you who gave an answer greater than zero, how many grains do you think that number of spoonfuls would consist of?

Essentially, what I want to know is, would you put 100 grains of sugar into a cup?

Sugar, Sugar is a game that will task you to do just that; put 100 grains of sugar into a cup. Simple. I mean, you'll face the same challenges you would if you were making a cuppa at home: transport the sugar from where it is kept to wherever the cup may be, make sure you're putting the right type of sugar in the right cup, etc. Obviously, just like at home, you'll also need to drop the sugar through a hole in the floor so that it will fall from the ceiling and sometimes you'll need to flip gravity on its head.

Basically, you've been training for this your whole life.

So go. Go and draw those lines necessary to ferry the sugar from the comma it lives in to the waiting cups. Go play Sugar, Sugar.

Plinx Quickie.

*pops head in*
I'll just leave this here:

Alphabeards!

OK Mr. Sunshine!

Hello, this post presents a bit of a quandary for me. On the one hand, I don't want to over-explain the concept because it would strip away some of the joy of discovery. On the other hand, as you'll see in a moment, the more words I can put on the page, the better. I suppose one solution would be to talk at length about this dilemma so as to solve it in such a way that retains the mystery while creating enough raw material for you to enjoy.

Also, I suppose I could squeeze a few sentences out of the fact that this miraculous thing you're about to see may not work depending on the browser you're using. I can vouch for it's effectiveness using Google Chrome and I'm assured that the newer versions of Firefox run it fine, but I haven't tested IE. Maybe if you feel like you're missing out, you could convert?

Ok, that's enough blurb. Just click below to Katamarify this very page!

NAAAAA NA NA NA NA NA NAAA NA.

Visit the Site for more info.

Sty Stallone.

Evening all.
It's game time. I hope you're ready, because it's the bottom of the ninth, the bases are loaded and I've run out of baseball clichés. Should probably have picked a sport I know more about. Or just not persevered quite as far with this tawdry introduction.

Either way, you're about to play a game where a pig in a bandana uses an arsenal of weaponry to take out other, presumably evil, pigs.

It's a 2D physics puzzle game, like so many that have gone before but the quality is elevated by the variety of weapons and intelligent level design. Also, if you run out of levels to play, there is a whole gallery of user-generated ones.

It's good, wholesome, cartoony, pig-murderin' fun for all the family.

It's Hambo!

Steeeeerike.

Hey guys.
Today I'm going to lift the veil a bit. Give you an insight on how to milk the very best stuff out of the internet.
This is primo information, so don't go spreading it around. I had to put in 10 years hard graft in the HTML mines for this.

Ok, here goes... There are videos of cats on the internet. That's right. Cats. Just drink that in.

Oh you knew? You've seen the videos of Maru in the box? The cat failing to jump a gate in slow motion? The one that plays the bongos on a baby's head?*

Well check THIS out:



Yeah, that's why I'm an internet maven and you aren't.

*These are all real videos by the way. Oh yes.

Seed Of Doubt.

Morning all.

Not really sure how to classify today's plink. It's a game in as much as it is technically interactive, but all you really do is click and watch events unfold.

In online gaming circles, things like this are called webtoys. Cute, right?

This one, named Mitoza, is a particularly polished example. It starts with a seed (well, technically it starts with an adorable loading screen) and offers you two choices. A flowerpot or a bird. Clicking one will cause something to happen to the seed, it will grow into a plant or get eaten by a robin respectively. Anyway, you keep making choice after choice and eventually you'll end up with a company of flies performing Hamlet or an ice cream stand inside an egg run by a devilish aubergine. Inevitably, you always revert to a single seed and the process begins anew.

There are so many permutations that I'm still discovering new ones. Give it a try and report back with your discoveries.

Mitoza.

Lurve.

This blog post goes out to all the ladies out there.



Aw yeah.

The Ascent Of Van.

I don't know quite how to explain today's offering. I've just found it and I am somewhat taken aback.

Put simply, it's a program someone has written which shows the realtime evolution of a car.

Now, I don't mean it shows the stages of a car being built, or how a certain model of car has changed over the years.

No. This is a genetic algorithm enabling the selective breeding of randomly generated vehicles. Each one is spawned and then its progress is recorded. The ones that get the furthest in the fastest times live on to 'reproduce' and pass on their strengths to a new generation.

This is one of the weirdest posts I've ever had to write. Thinking about it is making my head hurt. I think it is best if you just see for yourself. If you can handle it.

BoxCar 2D.

Let it run for a while. See how some are more successful than others? Through subsequent generations, you'll see tweaked versions of those cars as they literally evolve. It's strangely heart-warming. I found myself really rooting for certain scrappy little racers and being emotionally crushed (well, a bit) when one of them spawned upside down. Removing itself from the gene pool by dint of pure dumb luck.

I still don't fully understand the finer points of this program, but I am finding The FAQ pretty useful.

The theory of Evolution applied to cars. THAT is why I love the internet.

Doing Your Swede In.

You've probably already had your dinner by now. If you haven't though, and you're at a loss for what to eat, why not consider some delicious Swedish meatballs?

Cooked the traditional Swedish way, of course. For reference, please watch the following video.

Note, this is like that time I linked to the German Forklift Driving Instructional Video, the video is much better than it sounds. Enjoy!



Give this man a prime-time cooking show.

Goodnight!

What's Your Angle?

Hello friends.
I think it's about time we took a fishing trip.

Just, y'know... float out into the middle of nowhere, sling the hook over the side, grab a fish, flick it out of the water and into the air then blow it to bits with a gun.

What do you mean that's not how fishing works? That's how I learnt. Your way sounds boring! I prefer to go RADICAL FISHIN'!

YEEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAHHH!

It's A Hoot Hoot.

Hello all. Hope your weekends were fruitful.
I spent a lot of mine playing LBP2, predictably. It's so great. I'll write more about it sometime in the week.

Today however, I have something that just doesn't feature enough in everyday life:

Hungover Owls.



Yeah. Somebody has dedicated a blog to finding pictures of owls that look like they're suffering after a big night. Once again, it's stuff like this that makes me love the internet.

The blog has an astonishing 14 pages of worse-for-wear owls already, each with a smirk-worthy caption. You should check it out, and you can do so Here!

Carnage.

Hello friends.
I love videogames, I also love the videogames community. Their creativity and the breadth of their commitment to titting about with the games they love is awe-inspiring. It's largely for this reason that I'm so excited about the release of LittleBigPlanet 2 this Friday. This post isn't about that, though. Expect a giddy outporing of fanboyism on that topic soon.

This post is about Grand Theft Auto 4, more specifically a video created by a guy who tinkered with one very important setting inside the game. Specifically the friction of the vehicles. If this sounds dull, well take a look at the video:



Heehee!

Space: The Final Frontier.

Evening all. I trust you're well.

I'm going to really test your mettle tonight, put your skills through their paces. This game is not for you 'casual' gamers, so go back to your Farmville, pansies.

It's called Super PSTW Action RPG, the PSTW stands for 'press space to win' and err... that's all you do. Don't get me wrong, you have to press it a few times.

It's a fun little pastiche of RPG flash games, but the REAL reason I'm drawing your attention to it is because of a review it got from an irate player. As with many places on the internet, Newgrounds.com affords visitors the ability to comment on the content of the site. Obviously, when you give the general public an anonymous mouthpiece, you get, well... you get utter twats. The above game attracted a real doozy. He spewed out such a malformed chunk of prose that someone else felt compelled to do a dramatic reading of it and then a THIRD person made an animated video for it. It's stuff like this that makes me love the internet.

Without further ado, I present to you 'Dot Dot Dot'.

Pleased To Meteor.

So, it's mid-afternoon. You're probably at work or something. Has the desire to destroy all life on the planet crossed your mind?

Thought so. Well, as always, plinx has got your back.

Way back in the mists of time (april '09, to be precise) I plinked a game called Effing Hail where you used gusts of wind to manipulate hailstorms until they became powerful forces of destruction.

Well, now the same guys bring you Effing Meteors! This time, you use your cursor as a magnetic field to group together rocks whizzing through space in order to send them smashing down onto the surface of the planet, wiping out anything currently living thereupon. YAY! It's a well-implemented gaming mechanic and hey, it's fun to cause enormous explosions.

Have fun destroying life as we know it.

Happy New Year?

Humm, so I suppose I'm a few days late. But hey, after the posting marathon that was the advent calendar, I reckon I deserved a bit of a break!

Anyway, as you may have noticed, it is now space year 2011 and a new year means one thing here on Plinx. Hell it's as close to a 'tradition' that exists on this particular slice of the interpie.

Yup, just like Last Year and The Year Before That, I am bringing you the Boston.com new year photo showcase.


Much like the 'Christmas Around The World' set that I posted recently, this set focuses on how various chunks of the planet ring in the new year. The photo above was taken in Manila and this next one shows how they do things in New York, New York.


Not bad, not bad, but we didn't do so bad here in Blighty either.


Anyway, there's plenty more where that came from, including vikings, crazy people venturing into the sea, makeouts and some truly spectacular fireworks displays.

So check it out:

HAPPY NEW YEAR!