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unnyhunny · 3 years

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dino squad website (circa early 2008)

Hello, everyone! The Dino Squad website from early 2008 is accessible in the Wayback Machine, but as far as I’ve been looking, there isn’t a good post or guide to what’s actually in it.

Like everything in ‘08, this site uses Flash for pretty much everything it does (and PHP for everything else), which can make some things difficult, obviously. I can’t direct you in how to run Flash in 2021, but I wish you the best. The site I’m using is linked below, but there are several in the Wayback Machine that seem to work, although I haven’t noticed any differences yet. I have a few theories about this site, that I’ll get into when they’re relevant.

http://web.archive.org/web/20130210222200/http://www.dinosquad.com/

Feel free to explore! I’ll be leaving my notes down below.

When you enter the site, you’re greeted by this screen, alongside a stock alarm sound, and the Dino Squad theme.

This next part is hard to show, but I’ll do my best. This is actually a cube that you’re just in, and there are interactive elements in the room that, when you hover over them, they have special prompts that go to other areas of this flash site. Also, it is noticeably slow to scroll.

[the floor]

[the wall directly facing the logo, presumably the entrance]

[the wall on the right]

[the wall behind]

[the wall on the left]

[the ceiling]

On the left hand side, there is a Music Player, that goes through memorable tracks from the Dino Squad soundtrack, like “Dino Squad” (the main theme), “Transformation” (the transformation sequence song), and “BaBaBa!”, a song that I don’t remember ever being in the show, and sounds similar to the transformation theme, but acapella. Also, Rump is there, for some reason?

[the music player]

Now, this is where it gets really interesting. There was an ability to make accounts through the site, and gain “Ooze Power” through, presumably, doing well on the mini-games, some bones (?), and a badge system that, when clicked, doesn’t do anything.

[the user profile]

From left to right, the dino silhouettes are: Buzz, Caruso, Fiona, Max, Roger, and...Moynihan? Veloci? It’s impossible to know, but it’s presumably Veloci, because Moynihan wasn’t revealed to be a raptor until the final episode (or second to final episode? I’m a fake fan).

On trying to click on any of the games, a log-in option comes up -- you need to log in to play the minigames, which means that I can’t play any of them, because it’s impossible to make an account now (I tried).

[the log-in page]

When I try to register, there’s the outline of the Dino Squad logo, but no site content shows up besides that. This is a running theme, so I’ll only show the emptiness once. Also, it’s important to note that I think the tube at the top of the window is ooze, which is a delightful touch.

[the empty screen]

The interactive elements of the room are either mini-games or character/story info sheets, so I’ll go through them one by one, starting with the character/story info.

Character/Story Information

Right by the door, there is a green monitor that offers you the ability to “Get the 411 on the DinoSquad, their vehicles and weapons.” Unfortunately, they won’t be quite able to deliver.

[characters hover-over text]

Here is the character select screen. Did you know that it’s Rodger, not Roger? I didn’t. Unfortunately, of the characters listed here, only Caruso and Victor have their original info, which will be displayed first without comment below.

[character select screen]

[caruso’s info sheet. if someone else wants to transcribe this, be my guest, but there’s just too much text for me to do time-wise.]

[victor’s info sheet.]

On another green monitor, Dino Video would be available, where you could “Watch the latest DinoSquad shows and video clips online”. Unfortunately, it brings up a menu with two choices, and neither of them work.

[dino video hover prompt]

[menu options for dino video]

Next, we have the Dino Dictionary, with “Crazy facts about the Dinosaurs that roamed and ruled the earth for over 160 million years.” Unfortunately, these links are dead, too, but they’re shown as options in the archive file web, so they might be viewable.

[dino dictionary hover text]

[dino dictionary menu options]

Next are the character hovers. These would, on click, take you to their page. Only Victor’s and Caruso’s work.

[veloci hover text]

[max hover text]

[caruso hover text]

[fiona hover text]

[rodger hover text]

[buzz hover text]

Next, we have some tips for going green. This is the same reference center that the Dino Dictionary uses, so it likewise doesn’t work.

[Go Green! hover text]

Moynihan and Rump’s text comes next. I can’t imagine what the log entry for Rump would have been.

[moynihan hover text]

[rump hover text]

That was all of the informational parts of this website. Now, it’s time for some fun.

Mini-Games

Or it would be, if they worked.

For all of the following, it just prompts the login page on-click, so I can’t really do anything or show what it might have looked like, unfortunately.

The first game is Dino Dodge, where you “Test your skills at this crazy game! Catch the bones, badges, and ooze, but dont [sic] get hit by the Dino-skulls!”

[Dino Dodge hover text]

Next, My Squad. This is where you’d click to party up and stuff, I’m guessing, but it just brings me to the Login page, and I can’t do anything with it.

[my squad hover text]

[what the squad page could have looked like. under it, with the circles and icons, could have been a way to display your most awesome badges.]

Next, and possibly the saddest part of these, is RaptorQuest. “Your Squad will need all the ooze power possible to complete these 3D missions to save the world from evil primordial ooze.” I don’t know what this could have entailed, but it sounds like all of the ooze power from playing the games mattered here, and that there were 3D missions that could have had something of a storyline are gone? I’m in mourning.

[RaptorQuest hover text]

After RaptorQuest is Oozefest, a game where you “Load up on ooze and fire away at Victor Veloci and his side-kick to send them back to their primordial state in these three Dino-levels!” Presumably, oozing them is a bad thing in this game, although how well that holds up to canon is debateable.

[oozefest hover text]

My Badges is next.

[my badges hover text]

The final game is Hyperdino. My immediate guess is that this would play like the Manhole Game-and-Watch game?

[hyperdino hover-text]

[manhole game]

Some Interjections

1. This website was made very early on, and was probably only using the pilot characterization.

Most importantly to this being that Fiona’s penchant for speed is what is most notable about her here, when that was really only in the pilot/dino-cycle part, near the very start of the show. The logo isn’t necessarily a giveaway, but the Max/T-Rex picture at the top is one that I don’t see much except on early promo art.

2. Did they make new art for this website, with this room, or was this an early base idea?

3. Why was there an option to advertise, and where would the ads be shown?

4. Victor has many weapons and vehicles, but doesn’t have the wonderful Dino Dirigible yet?

5. This site (and its Flash) isn’t backed up besides the WayBack Machine.

It’s not in BlueMaxima’s Flashpoint, but I couldn’t extract the whole swf file from the html -- just the landing page, with Max and the alarm. If there’s a way to back this all up as one swf, that’d be spectacular, but from what I can tell, it’s using a mix of swf files and other files to deliver content.

Thank you for reading, and I hope exploring the site is/was fun! If you find anything I didn’t, please reblog and add!

#dino squad #early internet #digital preservation

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sidequestingpod · 5 years

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low budget podcast tools

I want to talk a little bit about the tools I use to make (and promote) Sidequesting! This show is a low-budget, primarily one-person production. All the money I use to make the show comes out of my pocket, so I’m trying to keep it as inexpensive as I can. Here’s some of the things I use, in case anyone is looking for advice for their own shows (or is just curious).

Google Docs

You’ve probably heard of this one. I use it to write my scripts! It’s free (up to 17 GB), and I like having an online backup of everything I write. When it comes time to send the script to actors, I just give them the google doc link.

Audacity

Audacity is a free audio recording and editing program. I use it to record my lines and edit the episodes together. It’s a simple, easy-to learn program. It lacks many of the “fancy” features of other editing programs, but I use some of the effects (noise reduction, amplify, fade out) every episode.

Pinecast

Once you’ve got an episode, you need to host it somewhere. Right now, I’m using Pinecast’s free plan, which allows me to upload 10 episodes for free. I’ll be switching to the $5 a month plan on episode 10 to keep the show going. Pinecast has additional plans that give other things (such as advanced analytics), but this plan is great for me.

A quick note - be wary of free hosting services. Check the terms and conditions closely. Who owns the work you upload? Will the service be running ads on your show? Maybe not, but definitely check.

Carrd

Your podcast should have a website! It should be a place with all the information on your show - episodes, cast and crew, social media handles, transcripts, press kit... It’s good for everyone involved in your show, and the show itself. I use carrd.co for my website. With a free account, you can create 3 one-page websites (the url will end in .carrd.co for each of them). There are a bunch of templates you can customize to create something that looks really nice. Some other low-cost options I’ve seen used are wix, wordpress, and tumblr.

Canva

I have a Twitter, Instagram, and Tumblr for my podcast, and I wanted to have some visual posts to promote episode releases with. I use canva to make a mood board and a graphic for each episode. I post the mood board a week before as a sort of “sneak peek” and I post the graphic when the episode comes out. These are especially great for Instagram (where you need an image to post). Canva has paid pro plans, but you get a lot with the free version.

A quick note - make sure you’re using royalty free images to promote your podcast! Unsplash and FlickrCommons are good places to start, and canva also has some images available for use.

Headliner

Speaking of social media, sometimes you want to share clips of your show! On headliner, you can upload segments and add an background image to create a video you can download and share. You can also add a waveform, captions, and a “time-elapsed” bar. You can make 10 videos a month for free! That’s plenty for me.

Trello

And lastly, I use trello to organize everything. Nothing sticks in my memory, so I’ve got to write it all down. I like the system of columns and cards that trello uses, because it’s really flexible. I have columns for different stages of the production process and cards for each episode that I move from column to column as things get done.

And that’s that! There’s definitely other free software/website out there, but this is what I use! Thanks for reading.

#podcasting #podcast #audio fiction #audio drama #fiction podcast #podcast advice #long post #info

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krimto-basi-hahm · 5 years

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how I became friends with brandon rogers: not clickbait

i’ve been making some more brandon friends on here, and I realized that a lot of y’all don’t know my story. I would love to tell it here! for those of you that don’t know him or care, feel free to scroll past lol

(and this whole story updated to the end of 2018 is available here)

2015/2016

I actually found his channel through his first youtubers react episode in december of 2015, but I clicked away because his videos looked stupid to me, lol. after watching the teens react to try me bench, I clicked on a video for the first time (grandpa hates valentimes) in late june of 2016. I grew obsessed QUICKLY. like, I was a full-blown stan in the matter of a few days. I made my fan account on july 7, 2016. unfortunately, the account was taken down by instagram this year. anyway, I also started a youtube channel and made a video for him for his 28th birthday. he saw it and commented:

“Thank you for making this! I was a theater kid too for many, many years!!! I’m glad you’ve been able to find inspiration, never give up on your dreams!! I worked many shirt jobs for 10 years before any success, and would’ve done so for the rest of my life until I did!”

a few months later, I got some friends together and made another video for his 2 million subscriber milestone. he also saw this one and commented:

“Wow, I can’t believe I have such amazing fans who would’ve taken the time to make this for me!! Thank you SO much!!! I’m so happy to hear that people are finding friends through my videos, that’s amazing!!!! ❤️❤️❤️thanks for making this, to all of you!! Much love from the bottom of my heart!!! Thankyouthankyouthankyou!!!”

the rest of 2016 was pretty boring, so we’ll skip to 2017!!

2017

for those of you that don’t know, playlist live is a 3-day youtube convention in orlando, florida. I begged my mom to go every year since 2014, and she finally let me go this year. this also was the first year brandon attended!! I decided to make him a jar filled with reasons why his fans loved him, and I gave it to him at the event. I met him for the very first time on may 6, 2017 in the lobby at playlist.

our meet-and-great was scheduled for may 7, so we also met then.

the next day coming home, I just assumed he would forget about me and move on. I was wrong! I received this dm from him over facebook messenger:

I was SHOOK!! I felt so happy that I was able to help him that much when he was going through a hard time. anyway, the next thing I did was make the 3 million subscriber special video and 29th birthday video. he only saw the first one and commented:

“Wow, how have I not seen this yet?!? Thank you so much to each of you for making this video for me!!! This really touched me ☺️ thank you!!!!!!!”

in august, he finally accepted my friend request on facebook!! this was insanely cool because he obviously has a much smaller audience there, and I was able to get his attention easier and work towards really becoming his friend. with our facebook friendship, brandon was able to start to get into my personal life, which was really cool. he commented the nicest well-wishes when I came out of surgery and even wished me a happy birthday!! this year was also when I started working on my next present for him: the book of brandon. this book incorporated fan art, letters, and more. I was able to give it to him at playlist live 2018, so you’ll see me mention this later. onto 2018!!

2018

the beginning of the year started off quite strong, with my debate teacher giving us the assignment to write a speech about our hero. I did not hesitate to write a LONG speech about brandon and post it here. he saw it and commented:

“Thank you for this, it touched my heart and I’m embarrassed to say I haven’t seen this video until now!! Feeling the love!!”

a few months later, playlist live 2018 rolled around!! before our meetup on april 28, 2018, I jokingly said to my mom, “what if he was just like, ‘oh hey sophie!’?” sure enough, that is EXACTLY what he said as soon as he saw me! the full video of this meetup can be found here, but I’ll summarize if you’re too lazy to watch it. he immediately thanked me for my speech, obsessed over the book I made for him, and basically talked to me like we were good friends. it was MAGICAL.

I didn’t think I would be seeing brandon again in 2018. well, I was wrong. his tour came around, and he announced a performance in tampa, florida on july 15. I was ECSTATIC. unfortunately, I was out of good sentimental ideas for gifts. I made him a wall calendar full of bad pictures of him, as well as a friendship necklace and a letter. at the show, he was looking for audience participation to come up onstage and act out a “fake date.” when he saw me, he said, “omg, this is one of my biggest fans! miss sophie, I recognize you! please come up here.” I was able to watch his entire show from the stage, and even drank from a glass he took a huge sip out of. at the meet-and-greet, we talked just like good friends once again and he gushed about my gifts and videos. he even bragged about me to my parents!

with august rolling around, I made another video for his 30th birthday. of course, he saw and commented. I think this one was his favorite!

“Awww thank you all SO MUCH for making this!!! ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️ I'm incredibly blessed to have friends like each of you. Love you all to the moon and back, thank you for making my birthday that much sweeter! :D And thank you Sophie for taking the time to compile this! Take care!!! EDIT: I just made it to the end of the video. fork. I am feelin more touched than a child in prison. I look at many of you and see a younger me, especially you Sophie. I've always felt like an outcast for most of my life; never thought I'd find so many like-minded people. Thank you all so much for taking the time to do this!!!“

a month later, when I was sick in bed, I got the greatest news. brandon was coming to florida AGAIN! this time on november 25 in ft. lauderdale. I couldn’t believe he would schedule two tour stops in florida! this was also his very last stop, so it was a very special show. still out of big gift ideas, I made him a basket filled with lots of small gifts. at every tour stop, he would do a q&a for 10-15 minutes. as soon as he saw me in the audience while starting the q&a, he said “oh my gosh. this is sophie everyone...” I wish I could remember everything he said, but he mentioned how much I’ve done for him as a fan. even though he wasn’t planning on bringing anyone up onstage, he asked me to come onstage with him and help him with the q&a. brandon gave me the power of picking who he would come to in the audience, as well as asking me to answer some of his questions and really including me through the whole process. he even told me he would love to have me in a video!!! pure magic. I have clips of video from this show, so dm me if you would like to see them!!

the last thing that happened in this year was him wishing me a happy birthday again. onto 2019!!

2019

the main thing I’ll be talking about in 2019 is playlist live because that’s the main interesting event of this year so far. a few days before the event, rachel williams (his manager) gave me her phone number to coordinate with them to hang out there!! I made him a big gift bag because I was STILL out of ideas for bigger gifts. on march 2, we had our meetup. he asked the meetup attendant if he could have some extra time with me because I’m “one of his biggest fans”. he then proceeds to tell me...

“I got something for you!”

WHAT? he gives me the gift, and I give him his. we talk briefly before the attendant ushers me along. the two other people there were jon cozart and mac kahey, who both said to me “oh YOU’RE sophie! brandon was telling us all about you!” WHAT? it was a lot to process.

I open the gift and see that he has given me THE shirt BOOK from stuff & sam, THE HEART from blame the hero, a stuff & sam shirt, and a card!!! WHAT? again, a lot to process.

unfortunately, I never got to hang out with brandon and rachel because I got really sick the next day. however, they were both so understanding and carved out a few minutes to see me before I left!!

overall, this year, we have become a lot more comfortable with each other both in person and online, really talking just like friends. I am so incredibly grateful for him and everything he has done over the years.

omg thank you for reading all of this!! dm me to talk or gush about brandon or be friends whatever man love y’all!!

#my post #long post #brandon rogers #youtubers #hotbananastud #fan #fan story #stuff and sam #blame the hero

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13thhr · 4 years

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Episode #241: Reading from The Thirteenth Hour on Exercise in Seclusion and the Start of Like a Hood Ornament 1

https://archive.org/download/podcast241_202003/Podcast%20241.mp3

On this week’s show, I thought I’d touch on the topic of exercise, specifically what you can do if you happen to be isolated (either due to a global pandemic or imprisoned for other reasons, like Logan in one part of The Thirteenth Hour, which we’ll be reading from shortly.

As it turns out, there’s actually quite a lot you can do even if you can’t go to a gym. Although being quarantined does not necessarily mean you can’t go outside (the virtues of short duration outdoor physical activity is something we discuss briefly though a scientific paper – see the abstract below), you can do a remarkable amount inside, even if you have little to no equipment. I’ve done a version of the workout that inspired the little passage in The Thirteenth Hour for decades. That workout was really nothing special – just having been the body weight exercises we did in martial arts classes and other calisthenics I recall from an old Canadian Air Force fitness manual I had as a kid that we probably got at a garage sale. If you’re interested, Arnold Schwarzenegger put together a similar routine that is available for people to access here.

Here’s the passage from The Thirteenth Hour:

They’ll break you if you let them. I wasn’t the strongest person out there, and though I always had hope, now I had purpose again. I started from the beginning, with my body, the only way I’d learned how. Every morning, after I woke up, I would wash my face and clothes, if they needed washing. Then I did calisthenics – pushups, sit–ups, stretching – like I had done when I was in training. My muscles felt deconditioned from lack of use and malnutrition, so much of my strength had left me, and everything was more difficult now.

It’s hard to take it slow when your never–resting mind can envision all the things it’d like your body to be able to do once more. But in the end, sometimes it’s best to just get busy trying and spend less time thinking.

When I could comfortably walk around my cell and jog in place, I slowly motioned through the different hand–to–hand combat techniques that I had learned during my training. Who knows, I thought, if I make a break for it, I’ll need those techniques the most. After a few weeks, my stamina began to reassert itself, allowing me to wage ongoing battles against that cloaked magician, Klax. Whenever I felt myself growing tired, I saw his form in my mind and practiced harder.

More than once the guards rushed into my cell, thinking that I had collapsed or died because I was lying face down on the cold stone floor. I was actually just resting, but my guards had grown somewhat fond of me, they said, and didn’t want anything bad to happen to me. I was never sure if they were telling the truth or not; I’ll bet Klax would have had their necks if they had been so careless as to let me kill myself without his being able to see.

My agility came back last. The cell was not large enough for much, but the ceiling was high and my boots were padded, so I figured it was worth a go. Pretty much anything is, though, after you’ve been cooped up in the same room for weeks.

I tried standing on my hands again, at first with my feet resting against the wall to accustom my arms to the change in weight they’d be frequently bearing in the near future. Then handstands without the wall. Then handsprings, and finally, aerial techniques. As for the latter, the first few times, the guards must have heard the sound of my feet slamming into the stone floor because they came running. They saw what I was doing, took it as a suicide attempt, doubled their checks on my cell, and, of course, made me stop at once, lest, by golly, I crack my head open on the hard stone floor. I was too far into my regimen to really care what they thought, and it just meant I had to practice when they were asleep or weren’t looking. And try to land softer.

There were a few times when I did go overboard and missed beaning my noggin on the stones out of sheer luck. It goes with the territory … sooner or later, everybody ends up bailing in midair. One minute you’re in the air, next thing you know, your jump seems off or things just feel weird, and if you have time to think anything at all, that’s about when you think some bad words, along with “this could hurt.”

But I knew that once I regained confidence in my body and what it could do, I would stop bailing. I knew my body would get used to being in strange positions in the air again, and I knew the best way to not get hurt was to go all out on each technique. I just wasn’t quite there yet, resulting in a few midair problems and hard landings on an unforgiving stone floor. I hurt an ankle after a bad landing – an easy thing to do if you’re practicing on a hard, uneven surface like the floor of my cell – but thankfully escaped anything worse. Luckily, I had a good set of boots – one of the few things Darian’s Army did right – that were light and flexible with thick, padded soles meant to withstand miles upon miles of marching and other abuse. Later, Aurora found me a mattress, which she intended for me to sleep on (which I did, of course), but what she didn’t know was that it was the mat I used to soften my landings.

https://www.tiktok.com/@13thhr/video/6805532752927001861

https://imgur.com/gallery/yYmEOnO?s=sms

So I finally took the plunge and created a little profile on Tik Tok. To be honest, I don’t get 95% of the stuff on there, but it has some videos of people making stuff and doing flips, so that’s enough for me. I mainly just use it to post some videos of the resin minifigures I’ve made. This is the backflip animation whose frames are above.

Today also marks the first Rocketeer segment as a part of the podcast. Now, obviously, there have been many episode mentions about the Rocketeer before, though here are a few:

–Ep 18 on comics (Dave Stevens)

–Ep 53 on rewatching the Rocketeer as an adult

–Ep 235 on making the resin miniature Rocketeer

But this week’s show marks the first time starting an actual segment (kind of like how I used to do a starving artist segment before) that I’m calling:

https://imgur.com/gallery/yYmEOnO?s=sms

That’s “Like a Hood Ornament” if your interface doesn’t support graphics (that’s you, iTunes show notes). You may recognize the moniker as a line from the 1991 film. Today’s we’ll start out with the fictional bio most likely written by Dave Stevens for his protagonist, Cliff, who inspired Logan in many ways.

More coming next week! Stay safe!

∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞

There are now Thirteenth Hour toys! If you’d like to pick up one of these glow in the dark figures for yourself, feel free to email me or go to the Etsy store I set up (https://www.etsy.com/shop/ThirteenthHourStudio) and get them there.

If you haven’t checked out “Arcade Days,” the song and video Jeff Finley, Brent Simon, and I finished one year ago, click on the link below to do so!

youtube

You can find more pictures and preview clips of “Arcade Days” on IG as well as this podcast’s FB page.

Empty Hands, the synth EP soundtrack to the novella, Empty Hands, is now out for streaming on Bandcamp.

Stay tuned. Follow along on Spotify! There is also a growing extended Thirteenth Hour playlist on Spotify with a growing number of retro 80s songs.

Check it out!

As always, thanks for listening!

∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞

Signup for the mailing list for a free special edition podcast, a demo copy of The Thirteenth Hour, and access to retro 80s soundtrack!

Like what you see or hear? Consider supporting the show over at my virtual tip jar over at Ko-fi.

Have this podcast conveniently delivered to you each week on Spotify, iTunes, Stitcher, Player FM, Tunein, and Googleplay Music.

Follow The Thirteenth Hour’s Instagram pages: @the13thhr for your random postings on ninjas, martial arts, archery, flips, breakdancing, fantasy art and and @the13thhr.ost for more 80s music, movies, and songs from The Thirteenth Hour books and soundtrack.

Listen to Long Ago Not So Far Away, the Thirteenth Hour soundtrack online at: https://joshuablum.bandcamp.com/ or Spotify. Join the mailing list for a digital free copy. You can also get it on CD or tape.

Website: https://13thhr.wordpress.com

Book trailer: http://bit.ly/1VhJhXY

Interested in reading and reviewing The Thirteenth Hour for a free book? Just email me at [email protected] for more details!

Stuck at home? Think you can't exercise? Maye not! This wk on the show, we touch on #exercise you can do in #quarantine, like Logan in #TheThirteenthHour. Plus, the start of a regular #Rocketeer segment on the show! @ihavespokenpod Episode #241: Reading from The Thirteenth Hour on Exercise in Seclusion and the Start of Like a Hood Ornament 1…

#actionfigures #CliffSecord #davestevens #designertoys #exercise #figurine #martialarts #miniatures #quarantine #resin #rocketeer #sculpture

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evenstevensranked · 7 years

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#33: Season 1, Episode 11 - “Secrets and Spies”

To destress from her busy schedule, Ren takes up a secret gig performing ABBA karaoke at local Japanese restaurant. She’s super sneaky about it and Louis is determined to figure out what she's up to.

The opening shot of this episode is Ren in her room rearranging her ridiculous schedule, showing us that she’s absolutely swamped. Eileen comes waltzing in and oddly knocks after the door is already open. I just randomly noticed that. Like, give the girl some privacy. She’s all excited to tell Ren that Councilman Mackenzie (whoever that is) is looking for a new intern and that he’s expecting her call. Ren CLEARLY does not want to do this and even tells Eileen that her schedule is too busy. One look at her calendar cork board would make anybody be like “Guuuurl, you’re only giving yourself an hour and a half each week for relaxation time?! You’re 14!” Instead, Eileen looks at her schedule and says “No, honey. Look! You have Tuesday, 4:30 to 6 available!!” Seriously, Eileen?

Ren is spending Wednesday at 5pm reading to the blind. Give her a break.

As soon as Eileen leaves, Ren walks into her closet and screams at the top of her lungs. Except, it’s obviously a stock audio clip of a horror scream. Louis overhears and it’s the first clue to the budding mystery.

At dinner, Ren is curiously missing. We see that the Stevens are doing some “International Delicacy du Jour” where each family member chooses a meal from a different country to eat or something. I don’t know. Steve cooked a traditional Vietnamese meal, and I swear, the way he pronounces the dishes would never fly today. He’s like, “You already have your pho-taaaaaaiiiiii!” in the most mock Asian sounding accent ever, oh my god. He goes on to say “bon appetit” in Vietnamese, which also sounds terrible. He also cooked sticky rice and there’s a gag where the rice is, well... too sticky. None of them can get it off of their utensils. Ren comes running in late and clearly lies about meeting with the councilman. When asked, she tells them that she got the internship. That is, until Louis notices a yellow feather tucked into Ren’s shirt and makes a scene about it. She immediately deflects from that and brings up some ceramic cat that Louis broke to change the subject. Huummm...

Later that night while walking through the hall, Louis happens to overhear Ren talking on the phone in Japanese. He goes barging in “Hey, Stoolie! Why ya speakin’ in Japanese?” which is honestly so funny. It’s the way Shia says it, omg. He’s officially convinced that Ren is hiding something at this point. He has a meeting with Twitty to try and break down the evidence so far and we get a pretty memorable bit. Twitty’s reasoning is simply “Well, she’s a girl and girls do weird things. HEY! That’s a great song title. *proceeds to sing/play ‘girls do weird things’ on guitar*) This is a great scene so I’m just gonna embed it. There is one issue I’ll mention: there’s an awful overdub here. Listen to when Louis says “little miss perfect.” The audio was so obviously recorded at a different time, his lips don’t match, and he didn’t even bother to speak with an appropriate inflection so it would sound better in context. It makes me wonder what line they had him say originally...

youtube

“Get out... Get out of my house” was always one of my favorite lines lol.

We move on to the tiniest, most insignificant subplot EVER. Donnie is struggling with Trigonometry, (a subject I literally never studied in high school... is that bad?), so he gets an online tutor named Russell. The guy is a total nerd apparently and wants Donnie to help him out with the ladies. They meet up in person, and the tutor ends up being a little kid. That’s literally it. The plot never goes anywhere else. That’s it. There is a good line here, though. Russell is all “Let’s go meet girls!” and Donnie’s like “Look, kid. The only place I’m taking you is to a moon bounce.” I love this.

The next day at school, some random chick tells Louis to thank Ren for referring her to the Councilman and that she got the internship... not Ren. The plot thickens. We get a montage of Louis spying on Ren all day, even hiding in a darn mailbox, until he follows her all the way to Tokyo Rick’s -- a super random Japanese restaurant. Louis is beyond confused, that is.. until a man comes on stage and says “Up next on the mic, we have the vocal stylings of... Isis.” And we get the big reveal: Ren in a 70s style wig singing “Dancing Queen” by ABBA.

Can we talk about that fact that Ren’s stage name is freaking ISIS though?! Isis?! Really, Disney? This is honestly Illuminati territory for me. Although, Isis is also an Egyptian goddess, which is probably where they got the name from. But, still. It’s a little disturbing in hindsight to think that Ren’s alias went on to be the name of a terrorist organization. Yikes. Christy is a fine singer, but this is unfortunately not her finest performance. To be fair, she was like.. 15 or 16 here. I definitely look back at my own performances at that age sometimes and.... yeah. Not the greatest. This is another memorable scene though and deserves to be uploaded to YouTube, so... I uploaded it:

youtube

Now that Louis knows her secret, he decides to torture her with his knowledge of the situation. We get another montage of him sneakily posting Tokyo Rick’s karaoke fliers all over school, and Ren subsequently removing them. He also drops yellow feathers on her, and even sends a message for Ren to report to room 109, where he has the school band playing “Dancing Queen” (terribly.) I love this part. This is another thing that counts as music humor for me, which y’all know I’m a giant sucker for. The band is just so bad. It sounds as if every band member is on life support and being forced to perform on the verge of their last breath. They literally sound like they’re dying. Just think of the 20th Century Fox sax, trumpet, and recorder fails for an idea of what it sounds like... and times that by 10. Louis is conducting them and shouts “Javier!! That’s your cue!” which is absolutely hilarious to me. Sometimes, it’s the smallest details of this show that kill me the most. Ren walks in and Louis casually says “Isis!” When Ren asks “What did you call me?!” he responds with “I said ‘Hi, sis!’” Perfect.

Ren pushes Louis out of the room and into the hallway to scream at him and it quickly turns from a scene I absolutely love to a scene that crushes my soul. Ren gets so fed up and screams “Do you think you’re funny?! I don’t. Nobody does! In fact, we all feel sorry for you because we’re out living busy, productive lives and you have... ugh, I don’t know... NOTHING! So just BACK OFF, Nothing Boy!” - The “nothing boy” remark was always a little cringy to me. Not the greatest insult, but it’s just so sad. She kinda hit Louis everywhere it hurts the most. He’s always struggled with feeling like he has nothing special or unique about him in comparison to everyone else. The one thing he does have is comedy, and she says he sucks at that too. Dang. He just stands there and sadly takes the beating. I’m upset.

Louis takes ~the gloves are coming off~ approach and suggests that the family should go to Tokyo Rick’s as his pick for the International Delicacy thing to reveal Ren’s secret to their parents. But later on, Ren genuinely apologizes to Louis. She admits to being a little jealous that she can’t seem to relax and have fun the way he does -- so she decided to sing karaoke as a way to let off steam. It’s actually really sweet. I love whenever we get nice sibling moments between them.

I will say, there’s a funny bit where some random kid is using the water fountain near them -- he’s sort of eavesdropping so Louis BARKS at him to make him go away. Oh my god. It’s one of those out of left field moments that help make this show great. I wonder if this was an ad-lib...? If it was, I love Shia even more and I didn’t think that was possible.

Is it just me or does the kid look EXACTLY like Coach Tugnut? I’ma bout to ask Jim Wise on Twitter if he’s related to him...

EDIT: I asked. I was right. (tweet)

EDIT EDIT: I was not right. Turns out Jim was pulling my leg??? haha. We cleared this up in our interview with him. So embarrassing.

Louis accepts Ren’s apology, but it’s too late. Ma and pops are already at the restaurant. Oh, boy.

Louis obviously feels bad at this point. When he gets to the restaurant, he does everything in his power to distract Steve and Eileen from seeing Ren on stage... but fails. They’re shocked to see her. Ren was singing “Dancing Queen” again btw (is that the only song she knows, orrrr?) and her outfit got an upgrade.

Ren apologizes again and explains the whole situation to their parents. They’re surprisingly understanding! They agree that everyone should have some crazy fun every once in a while. The episode ends with Steve wearing Ren’s wig and the whole family singing “I’ve Got The Music In Me.” It’s hysterical. And ironic, because none of them have the music in them. Especially Louis. Seeing him dance and sing is truly the 8th wonder of the world. What goes through Shia’s mind while he’s playing this character? I want to know.

How does this kid go on to be a drummer? Explain.

And that’s it! Like the majority of Season 1 episodes, this one is a little slow paced.. but it works here. It’s part of the charm of the first season. I love it. I originally had this ranked towards the “worst” half of the list, but upon re-watching I found a lot of things to like about it. Between Twitty’s awful hit single, the terrible school band, Ren’s performance and the family sing-a-long.. what’s not to love?! It’s a bit of a rollercoaster between Louis and Ren but ultimately turns out fine, which always feels like a well deserved and happy conclusion. I also like how this episode isn’t necessarily a Ren plot or a Louis plot, it’s blended and I love when they’re able to do that and have it flow so well. Also, if you’ve never seen the episode before.. it’s sort of a genuine mystery leading up to the reveal. It’s actually difficult to figure out what Ren’s been doing. It’s a pretty solid episode, imo. But, not the greatest.

Thanks for reading! Thoughts? :)

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#rank #even stevens #season 1 #disney channel #shia labeouf #ren stevens #eileen stevens #steve stevens #alan twitty #comedy #old disney #review #tv review #tv shows #christy carlson romano #donna pescow

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aspiestvmusings · 7 years

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Scorpion spoilers update:

Remember... the promo for ep 3x21 “Rock Block” should air tonight, Monday, April 3rd. The episode itself airs in a week, Monday, April 10th at 10PM. (I cannot wait for the opening/teaser scene - it’s awesome!) ETA: OK, seems they didn’t show the promo on Monday night, and it’s still not up. Me, personally, I just think that this isn’t because they’re trying to keep things a secret, but because of the insane work schedule at the end of the season the video editing just isn’t done until the last moment. Because the last five or so eps were filmed each barely 3 weeks before their air date, and there’s lots of VFX & other editing work to be done & I just think that the material just isn’t ready. They have an end date for the filming & a release date for the airing of each ep, but those two dates are too close to each other at the end of the season. They work weekends, they have close deadlines, and most likely the post production just isn’t done, so no worries. We don’t need a promo if we’ll just get the ep on Monday anyway. Though they still might have the promo (and clips & pics) ready and posted by Friday. We’ll see...)

Ep 3x23/s3 finale press release should be out also... sometime within next two weeks...

Episode 3x21 promo pics & sneak peeks should be out also this week, somewhere between Monday and Friday. (hoefully well get both pics & clips)

Since they didn’t release ep 3x24 title last week, I think they won’t release ep 3x25 title this week either. Usually the ep titles become available when/before ep starts filming, but they're keeping things under wrap for the finale. But if the title is released, i will be posting that, too in the next 24-72 hours. If not, all will be posted once the full press releases are out in a few weeks.

I will be posting all new spoilers released.. (probably with slight delay, but I’ll try to posting each thing within 24hrs after things become available online). I will also be posting the new BTS pics...in a few days (there are some I haven’t posted, but I’m waiting for more to be posted by cast & crew)

I will be watching next weeks new ep live & live-blogging...most likely. Also posting the weekly “essential quintis moments” video on the night/next AM after the episode.

Heads up: I will probably watch 3x22 live, too, and live-blog a bit, but current info is that on that week the weekly “quintis moments” video will be late... posted the next day, not the same night after the ep.

#CBS SCORPION #SCORPION #QUINTIS #TEAM SCORPION #3x21 #3x22 #3x23 #3x24 #SEASON 3 FINALE #TEAM QUINTIS #QUINTIS WEDDING #FYI #PSA

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