The State Of The Malden

The State of the Malden is, er, not as strong as Ice Cube. On the bright side it is stronger than the quality of his movies.

In the last two years since this blog started we have seen the birth of a podcast (more on that later) and now a comic strip! Also it has been the repository for a ton of geeky shit. Unfortunately, the lion’s share of that has been video game related. And while we do love our video games, that isn’t all we are about. This focus has probably stunted what the purpose of this blog is.

So it would appear that the time has come to restate the purpose of this blog.

• This blog is for the use of all former Malden residents, visitors, and their friends. And knowledge of degrees of separation will tell us that is a lot of people with a wide range of interests.
• This blog is a place to share those interests with the aforementioned group of people and anyone who should happen upon this blog.
• This blog is a place where users can post original creative works or existing ones, that they want to be shared with the Malden community.

So with these Prime Directives (nerd) stated, open arms are extended to all of those previously mentioned people, who would like to use this blog but haven’t yet. Also we would like to reassure those that do use the blog but post things elsewhere that NOTHING is off-topic and anything is welcome here. So in this spirit we would like to open up submissions for a new, all inclusive blog header. Dimensions are 780 x 95 pixels and jpeg is the easiest to deal with.

Now it is time for the Maldencast. It started as an experiment, became an excuse for old friends to chat, and now is an unwieldy, purposeless monster. Ideally the podcast should act as an audio compendium for the blog where we can talk about the things we’ve been posting. Also it is open to any and all Maldeneers who like to hear their scary disembodied voice coming from their iPod earphones. In the comments section below is a great place for discussion on what you would like to see The MaldenCast become.

So in closing we’ll just paraphrase the last paragraph of Obama’s State of the Union Address.

The spirit that has sustained this blog for more than two years lives on in you, its people. We have finished a difficult year. We have come through a difficult two years. But a new year has come. A new decade stretches before us. We don’t quit. I don’t quit. (Applause.) Let’s seize this moment — to start anew, to carry the dream forward, and to strengthen the Malden once more. (Applause.)

Thank you. God bless you. And God bless the Malden. (Applause.)

If You Have Found Yourself Wondering…

…”Hey why has the blog been so quiet lately?” or “Where’s the latest podcast?”

We assure you we have been very busy. And while we can’t be too specific, we present to you Exhibit A.

Um, Yeah…

So I know I haven’t been leading the charge here but the blog does still work. Just saying…

Also, who want’s to Podcast Wednesday Thursday Monday?

The Official Malden Twitter is Go!

I know some of our authors are a bit twitterphobic, so here is our official Twitter that they can use and hide behind the Malden Umbrella of Anonymity!

Podcast trouble.

I give up! The show was recording the entire time and yet, after I saved it, I was left with nothing but the initial conversation about workplace drama. I have no idea how it happened, but the show is gone. This is getting ridiculous and I’m kind of sick of it. I can’t seem to catch a break being the editor. We have to figure out a different system that doesn’t rely on one computer, or I’m done recording it.

Sorry to waste your time, fellas.

Schedule change coming up for Podcast.

I need your input fellas. Wednesdays aren’t working out too well, especially for Ian. I’m moving back to my old schedule and won’t be available either. Mike’s internet access is going to be really sporadic for the summer.

The only day, I can think to do the podcast is Monday evening. That way, if I need to edit it, I can have it ready by Tuesday. I seriously doubt Sunday would work. I know I’d rather be doing something else that evening, especially now that summer is here.

Well, we have a couple of weeks to figure it out. If nothing works, then it was a good run while it lasted. We can always start it up again come winter, when we’re stuck inside.

Randomness: The Retro Game Challenging, Ass Eating, Twitter Intergrating Edition

So while most of you are Tiger Uppercutting your way through the day (Gamefly and the USPS are conspiring against me) I have been spending some time with a few less celebrated pieces of software.

Retro Game Challenge is quite a bit of fun so far. The premise is a bit long in the tooth to explain here so I’ll let wiki do it for me. Are you caught up now? Anyways, you end up challenging a bunch of 8-bit classics, not ones you’ve ever played but lovingly recreated homages to games that will instantly (in most cases) be familiar to you. As you progress not only do you get new games but game magazines that have tips and tricks for you to peruse if you get stuck. I HIGHLY RECOMMEND and it appears that with such a small print run it may be increasingly hard to find, so nab one soon.

So, Noby Noby Boy… where do I begin. In many ways it is the truest form of a sandbox game. It’s from the creator of the Katamari games so that should give you an idea of how bizarre it is. The highlight for me so far is eating a man and then a cat and then shitting out a cat-man. Also there was this one time I stretched myself so far I snapped in half and had to eat my own ass to become whole again. It’s only $4.99 on PSN so just buy it. I’ll PayPal you Five bucks if you felt you didn’t get your moneys’ worth.

So, obviously we’re all finding less time to come here and blog about the dumb crap we’re into. I’ve seen the hits and all our ad revenue spiraling downward. Now, I know you’ve all heard of Twitter, regardless of how you feel about it, for the purposes of this blog it would be a real quick and dirty way to update us on what you’re doing/playing/eating/fingering etc. without having to go through the hell of writing the thoroughly thought provoking content we’re used to seeing here.

So get or tell me your Twitter name and I can set-up an RSS Feed or widget right near the top of the page. It’ll be great, you wanna yoga flame one of us? Just Twitter it and it will be up at the top of the page for all of us to read. So, yeah, go do it our something.

Oh and finally if I could plant a seed (and this maybe absurd because we can’t even organize a game night)…

PODCAST

Yeah, I just typed it. Now tell me in the comments if that’s even something any of you would be willing to attempt.

Also, say hi to Ian in that terrible Conan O’Brien post, he misses you.

New Can, Same Great Backwashy Taste

New theme is running. I’m a fan of it. It shows the post’s author, it doesn’t stretch out the banner and it’s sexier without being cluttered.

Going forward, I have made everybody an admin (still waiting on Steve) and I just want to stay if there’s something you’d like to change, do it. This is everyones’ place and you can rearrange the furniture as you see fit.

Just remember, I still have the big bedroom.

Welcome Back…

Okay guys it’s been awhile and I’d like to give this a try again.

If you wanna author your own posts all that’s required is a wordpress account and then I can set you up as an author.

The original idea is the same, just a place to write our musings and keep each other updated on what’s going on.

I know myspace serves that function but I hate logging onto it, and wading through all the garbage that comes with it.

Hope we can make this like the old bulletin board minus all the crashing.

Possibly the new talky place…

Well we all know that our BB sucks hard ass and that weblogs are the duck’s nuts. We’ll give this a try if I can get multiple users working…