Art's DM Den

“That stretches credulity. Swap out a noun with some space thing.”

“They’re going to elaborate anyway. What if we wrote a new proverb?”

A very late Halloween post.

Grem, Nyu, Snoot and Wrench were told to dress up as horror villains.

Happy Valentines Day!

DID YOU KNOW YOU CAN WATCH THE ENTIRETY OF “PIRATES OF DARK WATER” FREE ON ARCHIVE.ORG??? How DID the world forget about a cartoon with production values this high and a detailed, all-original fantasy setting this ambitious? @revretch​ and I just watched it all beginning to end this week, and it was one of my favorites when I was a kid, but I didn’t appreciate back then just how unique it really was. People barely even talk about it in review videos, just endless videos about the boring Sega Genesis game. The plot, characters and setting were actually original ideas by Hannah Barbera’s CEO at the time, who also created The Pagemaster, an American Tail, and…produced the “Child’s Play” movies as well as helped design Chucky’s look, apparently? Chucky’s dad made this??

The last few episodes start to get darker and the stakes higher, but then the series just sort of “stops,” and not even on any noteworthy cliffhanger. It just ends halfway through the main quest and was never continued in any official form, anywhere. There were comics that only re-told the TV episodes, and the video game just has some quick tacked on ending of its own. I’m working on a review of its creature designs, there’s a LOT.

It's approximately $3.75 a pound for Sam's club bulk butter, bread is around $1.45-1.70 a loaf, cheap American cheese is about $18 for 160 slices.

So- assuming 18 usable slices of bread, 1/2oz of butter per sandwich, and a slice of cheese?

8¢ for bread. (averaged)

12¢ for butter.

11¢ for cheese.

That's 31¢ a sandwich. And that's using real butter.

Swapping to margarine drops the butter to 4¢. So 23¢ a sandwich. Or 77¢ profit, less than 10 sandwiches an hour to pay yourself minimum wage.

Looking again the cheepest I can find is 18 cents a slice. So that comes to 64 cents a sandwich. Better but that's still not including taxes permits and other et cetera.

I'm actually wrong for the bread- it's 12 sandwiches a loaf, not 9, (for GV) and 10 for the Sam's bread.

Remember you can't use the heels.

As for butter- you'd use a butter roller, so I'm probably over estimating with a full half ounce.

As for sliced as needed cheese?

Actualize. Become the 1-dollar-grilled-cheese-man of your dreams.

It's approximately $3.75 a pound for Sam's club bulk butter, bread is around $1.45-1.70 a loaf, cheap American cheese is about $18 for 160 slices.

So- assuming 18 usable slices of bread, 1/2oz of butter per sandwich, and a slice of cheese?

8¢ for bread. (averaged)

12¢ for butter.

11¢ for cheese.

That's 31¢ a sandwich. And that's using real butter.

Swapping to margarine drops the butter to 4¢. So 23¢ a sandwich. Or 77¢ profit, less than 10 sandwiches an hour to pay yourself minimum wage.

Looking again the cheepest I can find is 18 cents a slice. So that comes to 64 cents a sandwich. Better but that's still not including taxes permits and other et cetera.

I'm actually wrong for the bread- it's 12 sandwiches a loaf, not 9, (for GV) and 10 for the Sam's bread.

Remember you can't use the heels.

As for butter- you'd use a butter roller, so I'm probably over estimating with a full half ounce.

As for sliced as needed cheese?

It's approximately $3.75 a pound for Sam's club bulk butter, bread is around $1.45-1.70 a loaf, cheap American cheese is about $18 for 160 slices.

So- assuming 18 usable slices of bread, 1/2oz of butter per sandwich, and a slice of cheese?

8¢ for bread. (averaged)

12¢ for butter.

11¢ for cheese.

That's 31¢ a sandwich. And that's using real butter.

Swapping to margarine drops the butter to 4¢. So 23¢ a sandwich. Or 77¢ profit, less than 10 sandwiches an hour to pay yourself minimum wage.

Looking again the cheepest I can find is 18 cents a slice. So that comes to 64 cents a sandwich. Better but that's still not including taxes permits and other et cetera.

So YEARS ago. Mark was in a podcast called The Edge of Sleep, which was adapted into a TV series... Which was never released

Until

Mark made a movie adaptation of a video game, Iron Lung. He's put all his energy into this film, directing, producing, editing, even starring in it. the movie is done, and he's working to get it released in theaters.

We, the public don't know why, but we know that some doors have been locked on the release of Iron Lung, however some big wigs somewhere have promised that if his popularity alone can put Edge of Sleep in the TOP TEN a lot of doors will open for Iron Lung. He wasn't allowed to even say where it would premiere, nor was it advertised AT ALL

So now, Edge of Sleep has shadow dropped on Amazon Prime in the US. Three days BEFORE they even told Mark it would air. In order to get this man's work out in theaters this thing has to get to the top ten by word of mouth alone.

So. Watch Edge of Sleep! It's an apocalyptic horror. There are some mild gore warnings (blood, knife mutilation, brain dissection, self harm). Even if you can play it in the background and let it run just so it gets views thatd be helpful.

“What the hell is that?”

“This here is a ‘possum’. Behold it’s rage!”

Possum hisses when someone tries to pet it.

“Good boy! I shall name him, Little Warrior.” 🥹😀

Everyone else: 😐🤨

Sorry to bother you. Haha

No bother at all! That was an excellent idea!

All welcome Little Warrior!

An actual sentiment I saw.

Get better standards. Please.

The inclusion of a trope/idea/etc you like does not make something good, nor worthy of your defense. Praise good media for being well written, criticize poorly written media.

This is why so much stuff is poorly written now. Because all it takes is for a trope to be used, a character archetype to exist or the inclusion of a basic idea (a reference, a character you find hot or relatable, etc) for people to praise it.

You love strawberries? Stop eating dog food and praising it because someone put a rotten strawberry on top.

Find and eat a strawberry shortcake, made with skill, care and quality ingredients. There, the strawberries are used to enhance every other quality of the cake.

I try my best to keep a positive outlook on things.

That doesn't mean I'm not going to criticize the things I see and watch because I genuinely believe that we need to be honest and critical of art and media for it to improve.

I think it's especially important to critique the writing for a piece of art because I think the writing is the bedrock of all storytelling.

So you're going to come across me criticizing video games or movies or television when I think their writing is substandard.

Arcane has been my bar for a few years now. It is exceptionally well written on a technical level and that enhances the emotional and thematic elements of the story. Arcane's stupendous writing elevates it to a level where it stands out in today's media landscape.

Unfortunately, so much media today falls exceptionally short of that standard.

Nothing better exemplifies this than Star Wars, a franchise who has been churning out substandard stories for a while now. And along comes Andor, a show that (largely) keeps a high standard of writing and eschews much of the failings of the other Star Wars stories.

Andor stands head and shoulders above any other modern Star Wars media in terms of quality and depth. I wish all of Star Wars was made like Andor, but it isn't.