Grundy’s Web Pick of the Week: Project : Rooftop

As nerds, we don’t like artists messing with our beloved characters. Whether it be a DC-wide refresh or a one-off redesign, some of us will always hit the message boards to point out the obvious. We don’t like change.

Or do we? Initial rage aside, we usually come around when the change is for the better. Variety is the spice of life, they say, and I’m always happy to see Wonder Woman dawn the battle armor or Green Lantern supplement his suit with a well placed construct. Too bad there isn’t a place I could go to see a line-up of elseworlds outfits for my favorite heroes…

Turns out there is, Project : Rooftop. It does for fan fic what Project Runway does for models–it plays dress-up. A picture is worth a 1000 words so…

by George Kambadais (www.gkambadais.com)

Grundy’s Web Pick of the Week: Zen Pencils

I don’t know what’s wrong with me, but I typically shun inspirational propaganda and all around positivity. Maybe I follow too many commercial life coaches on Twitter, or maybe I just have a black heart, but I’ve found my respect for great illustration and solid typography override this person defect–which brings me this week’s pick: Zen Pencils.

Zen Pencils is a site by Gavin Aung Than who quit his office job to draw on the web. His illustrations, updated thrice weekly, feature uplifting quotes from very smart people. His quote pool includes Al Einstein, Steve Jobs and Mark Twain to name a few. I’ve noticed many of his quotes speak directly to the cubical crowd and may inspire other office workers to quit their day-to-day grind to start their own projects. Gavin is living the dream, I’m just not sure if he’s monetizing the dream yet.

Speaking of which, if you sign-up for his mailing list, you get free high-res pdfs of three, count ‘em three, posters! This guy is quality, and I imagine he is only giving stuff away free for promotions sake, so get on board while it still has that new-site smell.

Grundy’s Web Pick of the Week: The Totally Rad Show

The Totally Rad Show is a video podcast featuring three Internet personalities playing games and hosting reviews. Alex Albrecht kick started the show’s popularity leveraging his fan base from his co-hosting duties on show Diggnation–a “best of the web” program linked to the website Digg.com. TRS’s other two hosts, Jeff Cannata and Dan Trachtenberg, have both moved forward their careers enough since the early days of The Totally Rad Show that it is safe to say that they all share the spotlight equally today.

Grundy’s Web Pick of the Week: @badbanana

“Sometimes I just want to give it all up and become a handsome billionaire.” This is the super-short bio for @badbanana, the handle of the funniest man on Twitter and my Pick of the Week.

An optimist sees a zombie as half alive. A pessimist sees a zombie and says “yep, I knew this would happen.”

If you don’t get outside of Facebook much, you might not know about Twitter. Firstly, you should really get outside of Facebook more often. Secondly, Twitter is a service of posts no more than 140 characters. This limitation is perfect for boring status updates about last night’s pot roast or comedy gold about eye wear.

I wear glasses because I like to dramatically remove them to display anger. It was awkward doing that with contact lenses.

I had a really hard time deciding which @badbanana tweets to post as examples. Many comedians on Twitter experiment, posting “hit or miss” material–later using the “hits,” based on retweets and favorites, in their act. Big names like @JimGaffigan & @RobCorddry don’t test material, rather they find humourus ways to promote their appearances and comment on their personal life. @badbanana has no misses and promotes little. I could take any post at random and be confident that it is a representative slice of hilarity.

I sure buy a lot of alcohol. Hope I’m not a shopaholic.

The man behind the banana is Tim Siedell. Google him and you’ll find that Twitter is his claim to fame, but he is also one of my favorite writers for The Huffington Post. The nice thing about recommending a Twitter feed over the traditional websites I’ve picked thus far, is that you can consume that content as you wish. Follow him on Twitter, like him on Facebook, or subscribe to him and his wit will come to you.

If you like what you see, follow me on Twitter as well. I pride myself on being a pale imitation.

Disclaimer: Any opinions presented in this Pick of the Week are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of the ESO Crew. Comedy is subjective so if you or any members of your family do not find @badbanana funny, that does not mean that you lack any sense of humor. You just lack a good sense of humor.

Grundy’s Web Pick of the Week: Goodreads

Before Al Gore created the Internet, a guy named Gutenberg started printing websites on dead trees. He called them “books” and the tradition of the printed word lives on today. You can find “books” in their original format at your local Borders Barnes & Noble, but it is increasingly more likely that you’ll be reading “books” on a screen…just like everything else.

Before I invented the web pick, there were places you could go for recommendations of the print media of yesteryear. They were called book clubs and the largest was run by the mythical figure Oprah. Like “books,” and Oprah, the book club has moved online–which brings us to this week’s pick, the “social cataloging” website Goodreads.

The Fantasy Smartphone War

I’ll just leave this here.

Grundy’s Web Pick of the Week: SlashFilm’s Page 2

If you are a movie buff like me, you are probably already familiar with the entertainment news blog Slashfilm.com. One of my favorite series on the site is down played with the name “Page 2”–implying content not worthy of individual posts on “Page 1.” Really, it isn’t a question of worth, just placement. Page 2 is a roundup of random items not film newsy enough to quality as, well, film news.

The miscellany nature of Page 2 is a blessing for readers who might not care about reading the latest casting rumors. Actually, it’s a blessing to those who don’t read much period. Page 2 is mostly pictures. You’ll find pop culture mash-up t-shirts designs, official and unofficial movie posters, cosplay photo shoots, new collectible releases, and any number of other video clips and links.

I like Page 2 because it is a lot of geeky stuff in a single, easily digestible post a day, but if you want more, by all means subscribe to Slashfilm. It’s worth noting that they also post daily roundups of superhero related news and images as well a sequel news–called Superhero Bits and Sequel Bits respectively.

Earth Station One Episode 96: Our Escape Pod Survival Guide

After all the troubles we have had up here on the station we thought it would be fun to prepare in case of an emergency and talk about what we would need in case of being stuck on a escape pod, kind of a new take on the ol’ stuck on a desert island game. But also we fit in some time to do some comic talk and chat about the new changes to the DC 52

Join us for yet another episode of The Earth Station One Podcast we like to call: Our Escape Pod Survival Guide

Grundy’s Weekly Web Pick: Zero Punctuation

If you are a funny Brit with a knack for video games and want to start a review site, you better find a new gimmick because Ben “Yahtzee” Croshaw of The Escapist Magazine has that particular market cornered. His series, Zero Punctuation, is one of the funniest things on he Internet. Period.

Yahtzee’s critiques aren’t so much a giant run-on sentence as the Zero Punctuation name suggests, instead it comes across as verbal comedic assault with nary a pause for breath. Accompanying the speedy tones of Yahtzee is a Flash-style animation acting out the review. The site takes on most of the major releases including the recently popular Batman: Arkham City, The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, Call of Duty 3, and Portal 2. Yahtzee employs that English sarcasm that cuts to the heart of each game’s problems. In fact, for a guy who likes video games, it certainly seems like he doesn’t like video games.

That said, the focus of Zero Punctuation is bringing the funny. If you are looking for a balanced review of your new purchase, look somewhere else. If you are easily offended by a bit of blue humor, look somewhere else. If you want to laugh at games and at ourselves, whether or not you actually plan on playing any of these titles, you won’t go wrong with Zero Punctuation.

Grundy’s Weekly Web Pick: Let’s Be Friends Again!

I’ve recently been on the search for the perfect webcomic and what I’ve found is…there isn’t one. At this point you are probably thinking, “wow, way to sell that web pick, Grundy.”  The truth is, I couldn’t sell my love for any particular web comic to a universal audience. Some appeal to a family dynamic, while others work quite blue. Some appeal to science nerds, while others are for gamers. There is literally something for everyone out there. Lucky for me, ESO readers are a self-selected, niche audience and I think I found a site that is perfect for you.