"The boy who lived a secret life in World of Warcraft"

https://www.bbc.com/culture/article/20241024-the-remarkable-story-of-the-boy-who-lived-a-secret-life-in-world-of-warcraft

 I don't normally turn my blog into a "hey look I found something cool on the Interwebs" deal, but I found this BBC article very interesting. It's all about a disabled (sadly deceased) teenager who lived an entire life within the game World of Warcraft, often mirroring the things that he wanted to do with his life but was unable to. He developed deep friendships and even romances in the game. It's interesting to think that video games, often still seen in society as little more than a time-waster, can feel incredibly real to the people playing them, especially if the person playing is unable to fully experience reality.

Well worth a read, in my opinion, and I'd be interested in watching the documentary.

Ahead in the Polls

This is what Donald Trump suddenly being ahead in the polls feels like.

Goes to show, don't get too comfortable with the polls leaning in any direction. Just because it looks like your candidate is winning doesn't mean you shouldn't go out and vote. If anything, it should motivate you to vote extra hard. I cast my vote a few days ago (white dudes for Harris, baby), and I highly encourage you to let your voice be heard as well. If Donald Trump wins, it'll be four long years of a large beaver swinging a boulder on a chain at us.

Also, definitely go watch Hundreds of Beavers. If you're as stressed about the election as I am, trust me, you'll need a mindless, goofy comedy to make it through the next eleven days.

Friendly Reminder

Friendly reminder that an "uncommitted" vote or a vote for a third party are, for all intents and purposes, a vote for Trump. And if you think that Trump is going to do anything to help the innocent Palestinians suffering under constant daily hellfire, you're delusional.

Foreshadowing in Coraline's "Other Father Song"

 (WARNING: Major spoilers for this 15 year-old movie)

I finally got around to watching the animated spooky season classic Coraline last night, and yep, it's a high-quality piece of work. There really need to be more stop-motion horror movies, if you ask me.

Of course, as an enormous They Might Be Giants geek, I loved the "Other Father Song," written by the band and performed by TMBG's John Linnell in the film (John Hodgman does the speaking voice of the character). This video really changes how I see the song. It's a cool edit that shows the surprisingly dense foreshadowing in its lyrics, how Other Father was trying to warn Coraline all along. The best of these hints is "She's as cute as a button in the eyes of everyone who ever laid their eyes on Coraline," which is genuinely insane writing. Other people in the comments note that he says "eyes" three times in the song, corresponding to the eyes of the three ghost children. I have no idea why the world's other lyricists even try when they're around.

I could go on about how crazy some of it is. It's a fun watch if you want to see one of the movie's best scenes in a different light.

"Our eyes will be on Coraline..."

Regular Show

They took Regular Show, a series owned by Warner Bros. and produced exclusively for a Warner Bros.-owned network, off of Warner Bros.' streaming service. Just as I was finally watching it through for the first time, as well.

I will never not miss the days of Netflix on the Wii when you just had every movie and show you wanted in one place.

Holy Crap, They Found the Tord Video

I'm stepping into a minefield of a controversial situation here that also requires a lot of context, so let me get that out of the way first:

• Eddsworld is an animated web series created by the late Edd Gould.
• It's very good at its peak, though I don't consider myself a very high-level fan of it, especially considering that its fanbase is not only incredibly annoying, but also essentially responsible for two ruined lives.
  
• Tord Larsson was one of the original cast members of the show, he left in 2008.
  
• He has basically disappeared since and has been living a quiet, anonymous life.
• After Edd's death in 2012, he briefly resurfaced with a video paying tribute to Edd.
• He deleted it after facing backlash.
• The video has been lost media for years and years. For a long time, the only clip of it was in a video eulogy compiled by Eddsworld writer and cast member Thomas Ridgewell (aka TomSka of asdfmovie fame), and the complete audio track of the video leaked a while back.

It's been a big deal in the lost media and web animation communities for a while, largely due to the sheer difficulty of finding it. Many lost YouTube are not lost for long, thanks to the Internet Archive. But the video, except for the eulogy clip and the audio track, have been a notable exception.

Well everyone, it's been a crazy week for the fandom. There's been a controversy involving Matt Hargreaves, the current showrunner of Eddsworld and the only original cast member still involved with the seris, in which he acted like a bit of a jerk to a fan online. This led them to cancel a convention appearance (they claimed it was something else, but that timing was not a coincidence, come on), and now, this.

They found the Tord video.

It's right here, on the Internet Archive (if I remember correctly, it has some fresh language and suggestive references, watch at your own risk). Just got uploaded on the third, nobody knows where it came from or how it was found. It seems to be the same account that leaked the audio version a couple years back. I genuinely cannot stress enough how big this is. This is an enormous piece of lost media that was just dumped online out of nowhere. This is a historical moment for web animation and lost media. We have experienced a generation-defining event for chronically online teenagers.

Controversy seems to be ensuing in the aftermath of this finding. Tord is still a somewhat divisive presence in Eddsworld history, for various reasons, leading to its own controversies. Tom has apparently started blocking accounts on Instagram that have been spreading the video. The people who thought the audio leak was disrespectful to Tord's privacy are back and making the exact same points.

I could have predicted this, but I didn't, because I genuinely didn't think this day would ever come. They found the Tord video. That's crazy to me. It's on the Mount Rushmore of lost YouTube videos along with "Super Mario 64 big star secret". It's actually insane to me that they found it.

Anyway, it's way too late for me to be writing this, and I have to go to bed, but this is pretty freaking huge.