Geekumentary: An Adventurer is You!

The modern-day fairytale is people making a living doing what they love. This applies to all industries from video games (MineCraft) to board games (Dominion) and on. Kingdom of Loathing is such a story, and you can hear the tale in An Adventurer is You!, a documentary about KoL.

Kingdom of Loathing is a free high-sarcasm low-graphics RPG you play online. It's riddled with pop culture references such as the Monster Squad's famed wolfman gnards, and a parade of painful puns. It's silly and pointless, and I for one love it. I hadn't played it in a year or two, though, and I really didn't know the origins story until I heard about the documentary (which you can buy on the KoL store).

An Adventurer is You! from Adam Brown on Vimeo.

This is one of those "bunch of guys in their basement coding" type stories, and I mean that in a positive sense. As in, they get to make a living coding a game in their basement. Part of why they get to is through the generosity of the masses. Some players donate to keep the servers running, some buy merchandise from the KoL store. It's that desire to support a venture that gives you something of value but does not require paybacks. Akin to the honor system that made "The Humble Bundle" work. It's similar to the concept behind Kickstarter, which is all the rage all of a sudden.

Anyway, it's a fun little documentary, but this kind of stuff really appeals to me, so I might be a little biased. I recommend you give Kingdom of Loathing a try, and that will basically tell you whether or not you want to check out the documentary. And honestly, even if you don't play Kingdom of Loathing, you need this shirt:

Abney Park: I've Been Steampunked!

I've been meaning to make a post about Abney Park for quite some time. They are a steampunk band I was introduced to about a year ago by a colleague at work. I didn't really know what steampunk WAS before that day, but I did dig pirates, and the album, Aether Shanties, was really just wonderful. I became a true fan at that point, and they are the first band to threaten the place of my all-time favorite, Stereo MCs.




Recently they released another album, The End of Days, and people were saying it was even better than the last one. I found that hard to believe as I waited for my autographed copy to arrive in the mail, but as it turns out, the argument can definitely be made.

So they are this really awesome talented and friendly band making music I love, and last night they sent out an email about a series of computer issues. Bottom line, they need to replace their computer, and they could use some help. So now was the time to write this blog post.



If you like pirates, or steampunk, or just great music with an exotic feel and captivating story elements, you should try these guys out. You can buy their albums through their store here (and don't worry, on the final screen you can choose PayPal or standard credit card payments). Now's the time to do this, too:

"For every purchase made this week (1/10 – 1/16) I will send you a coupon for one free album download! Every CD sold this week, Kristina and I will autograph at no additional charge! (typically autographed CD's sell for $30 or more from our site) Here is a great opportunity to get a full set of autographed CDs!"
- Captain Robert

So help out if you can. Great creative forces shouldn't be hobbled by technical difficulties!

Black Widow Part 5: Wigging Out

The amazon stuff has all arrived now, and I have to say, the bullet belt is an incredible Halloween asset. It's 100% modular! I do have the real bullet casings, but I'm not even going to mess with them now, I just detached enough bullets from the belt to make 2 bracelets, snapped them on, and boom.

The two wigs arrived also, and both look decent on, but I'm drumming my fingers thoughtfully on this part... I'm still waiting on the make-or-break, the leather catsuit, to arrive, but the rest of the costume looks flipping awesome so far. The questionable part is the wig. Because at the end of the day, a wig is so obviously a wig. The rest of the costume looks so much more "real."

What I might do is something that is very like me TO do; I might go to a hair salon on Sunday, October 31, and get my hair actually (temporarily) dyed red and curled. It's not really long enough for full accuracy, but I think it'd just look better than a wig... but is it worth dealing with that color, and growing it out, afterward? Possibly not. On the fence for now.

Black Widow, Part 4

Last night the thigh holster arrived from Amazon. The holster is for the wrong thigh (the right one vs. the left one) but it looks SO badass! I didn't want to take it off. I might wear it around the office, maybe I could keep a pen and a pad of post-it notes in there as an excuse.

Today I popped over to the Army Surplus store in Milford to pick up the shoulder patches, which had arrived:



Here's the one from the movie:



Now I have to decide if the ones I just got or the ones I have at home already are closer to that. They're both pretty close.

I also picked up a couple little $3 belt pouches from there, which are needed, and did not come with the holster. On the way home I was admiring them, and I noticed the brand tag:



HA! Well of course... Fury Tactical.

Black Widow, Part 3

Time is flying, and Halloween is just around the corner. I just kicked off an amazon.com order including:

- Two likely wigs
- a thigh holster set
- a bullet belt (for the bracelets, if the real bullet shells I got don't work. I'm a fan of contingency plans)
- a sort of seatbelt material military belt with a silver buckle that can be edited into the Black Widow belt

I was about to include a nice pair of fingerless leather gloves in that order when I noticed the ship date was between October 28 and December 16. So after submitting it sans gloves, I spent some time Googling and found a close approximation of the right gloves at a site called Bikers' Den.

Now all I need are some buckles for my boots, and I think I can get those at PetCo. Maybe tomorrow.

The making of F**k You

Documentary is everywhere (explicit language).

Black Widow Quest, Part 2

Having acquired the jumpsuit for my Black Widow costume, next came the bullet bracelets. I considered copper piping, doweling, or something along those lines, but in my heart I wanted real bullet casings. A friend suggested I try an Army surplus store. A quick Google search revealed one a few towns over, and I emailed them about it.

They said they had some stuff lying around, and to come by if I were local. I headed over there at lunch today. This is where I remember how life is full of adventures if you are enthusiastic about embracing them. One minute I was at my normal day job, doing normal day job things. Twenty minutes later, I was having an engaging conversation with two war veterans and the store proprietor about tactical evacuation planning. Life kicks ass if given half a chance. :)

But anyway, I walked in there, and said, "Hey, I'm here about the bullet casings!" Not surprising, they knew right away. They were a bit baffled about my purpose, but nonetheless, produced a box of spent casings that were a little shorter than the ones I was copying, but partly because the bullet tips were gone of course. However, they were real brass bullet casings, and I knew right away I had to have them.

"How much for the box?" I asked.

"Oh, say, $5?" the proprietor replied.

Done. We had some fun and lively discussion (where I distinctly wished I had my camcorder), and I was about to leave when another thought occurred to me. I asked them if they might be able to help me find shoulder patches with sort of an eagle on them. And that's when I was able to pull out my phone and show them this:



They had something pretty close right there in the store, but also a catalog of patches. It didn't take me long to find almost exactly what I needed in this catalog. I put in an order, and I'm looking forward to coming back there in a week or so again to pick those up. Two birds with one stone, as it were.