Extra Evil - The Dayle Peace Prize
Today's Fortune: Get good at burning effigies.
Newsreel
The US reaffirmed its alliance with meth.
38% of Americans believe the comet's coming this time.
Unfortunately for NATO, Republicans get climate change.
Chuck edited a Powerpoint about buckets.
CCP "Kill Line" propaganda nailed it.
The metaverse died undefined.
You Need This
Taking a break while I stitch another audio project together. You'll like it. Details in the War Journal.
A Photo
War Journal
If you are a living, breathing human that's never hosted The Apprentice, you win The Dayle Peace Prize. Yes, including war criminals, sex criminals, and vanilla criminals. As long as you've never hosted The Apprentice. Better luck next time, Arnold.
"But Dennard, only mock ad reads keep me from a chain of unsolvable murders."
Be all you can be. Just space out the bodies, and remember scope creep.
In the nerd trenches, scope creep's the tendency of game project features to spiral beyond the time, money, and manpower available. One of the more treacherous creative problems, since it can spring from both boardroom tyranny and personal passion. Once you escape working to death in EA's mines, you start working to death in your own Mom & Pop mine. A mine where everyone knows your name.
Do I have a point? Never. But I am taking a more focused approach. I need to summon a new book by June. Or at least want to, in that way sanity often hinges on. That means pausing Hinge, serious cutting (my brain turns to spaghetti, and then the typos here double), and at least two out of ten side projects. So You Need This is taking one of those fancy season breaks. If Kill Six Billion Demons does something, it must have wisdom.
I'll be back, I still love the idea. But I've learned about side projects: watch doubling down on the same strain of effort. In terms of generating fully-developed weekly jokes, "You Need This" taps the same pool as my beautiful column and extra-beautiful newsletter. I hear you like the newsletter. Me too! A long Expensive Evil hits this weekend, for the first time in a year.
Full disclosure: I also have an audio prank in the works. One I'm convinced you'll love to pieces. And a visual prank I'll love to pieces. So I need a second away from Noah's upward spiral to push my own along. If only I had a voice with a bit more charm...
A thousand temporary modifiers make you a little dumber. Stress, low sleep, Netflix, Svedka, cutting, etc. Do they stack? Imagine them adding up. Small gaps in intelligence separate big categories. You could have an entire hidden moron personality. You could be a spring independent and summer Trumpist.
I'm tempted to chase this. Think Limitless, backwards.
My betrayal of 5 AM for 5 AM is almost complete. E.g., waking up at the haunted hour instead of passing out at the haunted hour. Don't blame any kind of growth. I just hate circling the T-Bar like some kind of insecure buzzard. And between us, watching my 1900HOTDOG column go out's a delight. It's a little weekly rush of attention. I look forward to each round more than my birthday.
Overheard at Deluxe-Priced Coffee.
Muffin: Did you hear?
Crepe: I don't wanna talk about it.
Muffin: Okay.
Silence abounds.
Muffin: Alright, but did you hear-
Crepe: No. No. No. No.
The exchange looped for a bit.
A Screenshot
The Present
- My new brings stress down to human levels. [How to Dodge a Cannonball]
- The Newgrounds motto in action. [Exclusive Evil]
- Our problems go way back. [1900HOTDOG]
- Have a vacation. [You Need This]
- There's a great story about tabletop games in here. [Everything Abridged]
The Past
Shen Yun's almost back in town.
The Future
I have the text for an Expensive Evil together. Thursday or Friday, gods willing. Next round should be a bit faster than a year.
Dead Sun Theory
Got the idea down, just need to dredge up some imagery.
Not Brought to You By
Ah, a reprint. Why not? What's a little pogrom advocacy between friends? Dementor prose was limp, but that one director knocked it out of the park.
Wait! It's a new audio run. So you're not buying the same, product. You're buying an overproduced remix. It's time to hear stray powder tumble out of Dumbledore's left nostril.
A gripping question emerges: can one enshittify a finished story, without changing a word? Audible aims to find out. But I should focus on this as an ad.
The strongest element: the basic tactic of tapping how a childhood story lingers. "Remember those emotions from before you had to labor to survive? You can have them back! With Hollywood cameos or whatever, enjoy that too."
The honorable mention: going light on the celebrity element. It is impossible to give a shit, but I'm sue the temptation to go all-in was strong.
The iffy: they're pretty surface-level pulls. Everyone that will tune in has read this at least 1.5 times. No beans? Duels? Multiple magic sex changes? Dig deeper.
The worst element: this really frontloads how little this project adds. "Relive this scene, with a stock effect. Are you in, or are you in? We might add a WIlhelm Scream when Dumbledore bites it."
Creativity: B | Persuasion: D | Sanity: F
One Sentence Reviews
Thunderbolt Fantasy Season 4, Finale: Tough times for demons. (Hell Yes/5)
Thunderbolt Fantasy, Finale Movie: Three perfect conclusions, and one baffling one. (Huh?/5)
I.C.E. (Comic Book): Stupid in its time. (Why/5)
Plastic: Better. (2.5/5)
Zercher Squats: What strange sorcery is this? (4/5)
Unbeatable Banzuke, 1-20: The human struggle. (5/5)
A Question
Signing off
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