Wasting Time, Playing Games

How do you waste time on the internet? Do you have certain blogs you read, or perhaps a slew of webcomics? Maybe you like to go on omegle and meet new people? Or maybe you just look at porn, even when you're not in the mood? (That one's weird.) Or maybe, JUST MAYBE, you play free games online. Well if you do, you're in luck, I'm about to list some awesome websites for you.

First, Bookworm:


This game is pretty simple. You get a bunch of letters on tiles dumped randomly in columns, out of these letters you try to create words. Longer words get you more points. A green or gold letter tile is worth bonus points, and there are words that will get you more points as well. BUT WATCH THE FUCK OUT, SOME OF THE TILES ARE ON FIRE AND WILL BURN EVERYTHING IF YOU DON'T USE IT QUICK. If you dig Scrabble and other games of that ilk, you'll dig this.

Next, Winterbells and other games on Orisinal:


I don't remember when or how I found out about this game, and I don't recall ever becoming so frustrated by something so cute. Winterbells is a game where you play as a bunny. This bunny jumps up into the sky and hops on bells that fall slowly from the heavens. You must jump from bell to bell and try not to fall back onto the snowy ground. How ADORABLE. The first bell is worth ten points, and each subsequent bell you jump on increase by ten points exponentially, ie 1st bell = 10 points, 2nd = 20, 3rd = 30 which gives you a total of 60 points for the first three bells. Also, you can jump on a bird passing by which doubles your points! How DELIGHTFUL.

But listen here chum, as you go higher and higher into the obsidian nothingness of the sky, the bells grow farther and farther apart. And not only that, they also get smaller! Soon your jumping on nothing but what seems to be dinner bells that are so far apart your LITTLE BUNNY TOES BARELY REACH THE EDGE BEFORE YOU FALL TO YOUR...well not death, the bunny always lives. In any case, as you egt higher and higher, and the game gets harder and harder, the idea of falling (and thus haveing to start over) is a thought equal to great, searing pain. Take a look at LOL-Comics #101:


SEE?! This is what this game does to you. Anyway, along with Winterbells, this site houses 57 very simple and extremely cute games. Good stuff!

And finally, the thousands of games on Kongregate:


This website is pretty unique within the niche of game websites. It took the blueprint of a normal free online gaming website and added one very important feature. The entire website itself is a a game, sort of. Anyone can submit a game to the website, if it gets approved then the public gets to play it. BUT, if it gets really popular, the website can add Kongregate badges to the game. Meaning, not only can there be missions to beat, levels to finish, and checkpoints tor each in your game, but you can added other milestones to get points within the website itself.

Confused? Ok, it works like this: I have an account and by getting these badges, I gain points and my accounts level increases. At the moment I'm at level 13 with 1,303 points. Why does this matter? Well it's kind of psychological thing, these points can't be redeemed for much besides bragging rights, but it's more about the idea of trying to go farther and reach goals I guess. Like not doing anything else until you finish that next chapter of whatever book you're reading. No real need to do it, yet you feel compelled. Also, next to each game are chat rooms you can join and talk with people as you play. Sort of neat, but can be dumb too of course.

OH RIGHT, THE GAMES! There are tons of great games on Kongregate, and of all different kinds. Check out my favorites.

Have fun wasting your life away!

-James

Now playing: Mr. Bungle - The Air-Conditioned Nightmare

New comics taken from old comics. FUN!

By now I'd imagine most savvy folks are familiar with "Garfield Minus Garfield", the hilarious comic that takes Garfield strips, removes Garfield, and showcases Jon as a depressed schizophrenic leading an awful life.  Today I'd like to introduce you to "Scott Meets the Family Circus".

Scott Gairdner is hilarious Los Angeles comedy dude involved in sketch comedy and internet videos.  He also takes "Family Circus" comics, then adds "unseen" panels where he shows up and tells everyone in the Circ-verse to stop being dumb.

I feel really stoked to live in a world where this kind of stuff is so easy to produce and distribute.  Especially THIS kind of stuff.  As a long-time fan of comic stuff, my gateway drug was newspaper comics.  Newspaper comics are mostly atrocious.  SURE there are a few select exceptions, but I believe newspaper comics were invented for those rare weirdos that will sit and read an entire 'paper from cover to cover and need a little dose of entertainment.  Guh.  Anyways, I'm a big fan of this and hope more people find cool ways to make fun of the funnies.

-Dash

Webcomics: Part 4

I've been rereading some of my favorite comics. As mentioned on the podcast, I've been (and just finished) reading Preacher again, and once I had finished I started rereading Concrete, which probably is my favorite comic of all time.

So, once a week or so, I go through all my webcomics that I read and catch up. Others make sure to read them whenever they individually update, but I like it better this way for some reason. Just taking 45 minutes and going through all these wonderful comics via Webternet.

I got to one and thought, man this webcomic is really REALLY good. I should go to the first one and reread the whole series up to the present! (as opposed to up to the future?) For some reason I never have done this with a webcomic before.

The webcomic discussed is SUPER MEGA, seen here:

CLICK TO ENLARGE

Some information from the SUPER MEGA site:

SUPER MEGA was started February 2004. Everything on this site is made by me, Brett Brimmer- AKA "Johnny Smash". I'm 21 years old and in college. I live in Tucson, Arizona.

How I would describe SUPER MEGA is stick figures acting crazy and irrational in a crazy and irrational universe that is very yellow. There is no continuity except for very rare occasions (see: PLANET TO THE MOON storyline) and a few recurring characters such as Funky Man and Head is a Dinosaur.

Usually though the comic just has people saying very ridiculous things to one another. And the dialogue is usually hilarious and very weird. The most recent SUPER MEGA had someone saying, "RONALD HENRY GEORGE YOU'VE TIED TWO BEARS TOGETHER, WHAT HAVE YOU DONE". And a few panels later, we do indeed see two bears tied together. It seems that Mr. Brimmer/"Smash" really enjoys the surreal and making it hilarious and thank goodness for that. This is a webcomic that produces hilarity with every new strip.

And the art works! The art totally fits. If I saw this comic with really detailed and colorful art, it would seem like a lot of other non-continuity webcomics. With the stick figures and yellow background, it makes everything seem even MORE weird. And somehow SOMEHOW, the really simplistic facial expressions makes everything seem that much funnier.

CLICK TO ENLARGE

So if you enjoy weird comedy, stories about horses, robots, planets and other stuff, PLEASE check this out. It is super super funny. No relationship drama between characters, no inside jokes, no psuedo-intellectualism, no bullshit. Just a really fun time.

-James

Now playing: Toroidh - V

Re-re-re-REMIIIIX

Hey, so I like webcomics a lot right? I've made 3 posts about them and junk. Well this post IS about a webcomic sorta, but not really.

There's this webcomic called "Dinosaur Comics" and it's really good and made by this Canadian dude named Ryan North. Every comic looks exactly the same, six panels of a T-Rex smashing things, while seeing a Utahraptor and a Dromiceiomimus and talking about all sorts of things. The words change, but nothing else does. Here's a sample:
CLICK TO MAKE IT LARGER

HOWEVER.

There is a website that lets you to "remix" the comic. As in, panels from all of the comics mix with each other! This allows for accidental hilarity of the best kind! Let me show you some great ones that came up for me:





You can create comics with 2, 3 or even all 6 panels! How fun! If you'd like to do your own, PLEASE CLICK.

-James

Now playing: Acid Bath - The Bones of Baby Dolls

Webcomics: Part 3

So the other day I did something very awesome. Hopefully you all read and remember THIS post where I talked about the webcomic Wondermark. Well, thanks to the joy of Twitter/internet, I had a chance to talk on the phone with the creator Mr. David Malki! It was very nice. So, why not do another spotlight on a webcomic!

This post is going to be about Horribleville by K.C. Green.

Link.

A sample:

CLICK THE IMAGE TO MAKE IT BIGGER.

Horribleville is a webcomic whose main protagonist is the author/artist himself! Mr. Green is very self-deprecating and his jokes show this. Luckily for us it's hilarious instead of just sad. Also, K.C.'s pacing is UNBELIEVABLE. Possiby the best in all the webcomics I read.

The comic teeters between super realistic and all out craziness. Green is a very unique artist who can't really be put into any sort of box regarding style. He does whatever the comic calls for, which is nice since most webcomics stick to one particular style.

This comic does have some sort of continuity. There are regular characters, such as The Editor, Writer's Block and Doosty the cat who wants to kill K.C. Recently the comic has centered around Green's struggle with the comic itself, which makes my brain want to melt with how meta that is.

The coolest thing (to me) about this comic isn't the fact it makes laugh out loud more often than not, or the weird art or the killer kittie. No, it's the fact that it's like looking into someone's brain. This comic is partially a diary and instead of just descriptions of thought, we get art to go along with it! Not only do we get his thoughts on his life, but also his crazy ideas or silly daydreams. This comic is definitely not for everyone, but I bet it's one more people can relate to than most others.

-James

Now playing: Tombs - The Great Silence

Webcomics: Part 2

So I HOPE you all have checked out the webcomic we here at We're Friends! have started. You have right? Why wouldn't you really, it's not like you're a jerk or anything. Well, if you have, you noticed how great it is. It stars the two of us, naturally, and we get into all sorts of wacky hijinks. However, there are other comics on the internet that are "great" too. Some may even say they are of the same calibur, or even better! These people need to be rounded up and thrown into wells. You can commence this action right away, bring a friend!

One of these webcomics is called Wondermark.

Click here!

A sample:

(Click to enlarge)

Now I bet, since you guys are such smarty-pants, that you've noticed that this comics looks, shall we say, different. You'd be right! The man who creates Wondermark, a fellow named David Malki!, takes pictures from the 1800s and early 1900s and creates tableaus such as this with them. What a lark!

He uses old catalogs, actual cartoons from that era and all sorts of books. I've actually watched him create one of these live (thank you INTERNET) and it's not as easy as it may sound. He either creates the joke/story before hand and has to find/modify the correct pictures to use. Or he finds some funny looking cartoons and creates a joke/story around them. Oh, he also can draw very well. So don't say this isn't a "valid" comic, because you read what I said about wells before.

The comic does not have any sort of continuity, and is extremely funny. No romance or human drama here, just a bunch of absurdity, humor and sometimes topical issues! I implore each every one of you to go check it out. And email him with a link to this blog so maybe he'll notice me and ask me to the dance.

-James

Now playing: Ulver - Your Call

Webcomics

So here I am, listening to that old Icelandic so-and-so Björk, and figured I'd share some of my favorite comics a la internet every so often with you out there. Wherever the hell you are. So! Let's begin.

BEAR AND KITTEN

Click Me!

A Sample:



CLICK IT TO MAKE IT BIGGER.

Bear & Kitten tells the story of two roommates, one a bear the other a kitten, who are anthropomorphic sometimes. It is also done by two things that are alive, those being people named Andy (writer) and Angie (artist) and they might even be going out. Don't quote me though.

Bear eats honey and has a brother with a mustache. Kitten likes Japanese food and bathes by licking herself.

This comic is weird and hilarious. Somehow being both lowbrow and witty simultaneously. In a single comic you might see a dick drawing and clever wordplay. Bear and Kitten uses real-world situations, crazy storylines (time travels, wild west shootouts, etc), animal mannerisms and general odd-ness to be funny. No punchlines here, because they aren't needed!

And the drawing is neat. Almost like a watercolor painting that was never finished.

Anyways, check it out.

-James

Now playing: Björk - Desired Constellation

This is entirely true.

Who else has cats and does this? Answer: EVERYONE.

xkcd - A webcomic of romance, sarcasm, math, and language - By Randall Munroe

-James