We're Getting Older In Mind; Younger In Body

Happy birthday to us? Me and Clover both turned a year older in March. To that end we’ve decided to clean up the site a bit and keep the good vibes going for 2019! Excuse us while we restructure both ourselves and the content.

The schedule on the site is now no longer available as we have no real use of it anymore. When we first started the website, Clover specifically wanted to stream on a schedule since she believed she would have the time (and willpower) to do so. Unfortunately things didn’t pan out that way and it turned into a sporadic listing of things that I did on YouTube alongside her very brief intermittent streams. I’m thinking of adding an additional page down the road that would feature some type of content (perhaps news of some sort?) but I’m going to have to think it over a bit so that it’s something interesting to work on while being still related to us. Maybe a “What we’re watching / playing right now” might be a good idea, but we’ll see.

Onto the more exciting parts of the internet, this month we’re bringing you technology you never knew existed. And no I’m not talking about futuristic Elon Musk level technology; more so I’m talking about things we as a society briefly used and then threw out with the garbage like last year’s flagship cell phone. The channel is called Techmoan and you can get a juicy sampler down below of what he has to offer. If you like what you see, we encourage you to check out the rest of his videos and we’ll make sure to give him a proper link on The List.

On the game front we have an interesting piece of news in the form of an announcement for Vampire: The Masquerade Bloodlines 2 (what a title). The original game was heralded as a cult classic among PC rpg fans back in the day when Troika games were still alive. Myself personally I had very fond memories playing as a sexy, demented Malkavian running through the streets of Los Angeles and was one of my greatest experiences in a role playing game at the time. Unfortunately as I’ve gotten older, the years have tempered my expectations for any sequel of any game to be as good as the first; and I treat this announcement overall with a lot of trepidation. Although the original writer for the game (Brian Mitsoda) is back at the helm directing the story, I can’t help but wonder how many other influences have seeped their way in considering it’s a Seattle based studio (Hardsuit Labs) in charge of putting the thing all together now. It’s funny that in the next installment of the series you play as a “thin-blood” Vampire whose powers are greatly diminished; as it’s some sort of possible correlation on how the game itself might be in terms of quality against the original. Time will tell I guess, but none the less they’ve got my attention so far.

If you’re interested in the game but don’t actually have the time to play through it, I HIGHLY suggest this text commentary play through of the original game. This has got to be one of the greatest, put-together runs I have ever seen on YouTube of any game; and I can only hope and pray one day that the runner decides to do another similar series for the game’s sequel.

That’s it for now and this brief update. We’ll be seeing you around next month! Here’s some VTMB art to close it all out. (Artist is Omri Koresh and you can visit his official website here)

Don't Let Something As Simple As Life Stop You

Its been quite a rainy season where I live, and a lot of days being forced indoors sometimes gives you a different perspective of the world. Especially when you decide to say “screw it” and go outside and embrace the deluge and go about your day as if it was clear and sunny.

That introduction to this month’s update is kinda of a metaphor for just doing something you wouldn’t normally do; and kinda of the crux of the theme for the following content I’m about to talk about.

First let’s start off with the biggest example of not giving a shit (while staying productive) with a man who has done so most of his life to great success. That man is David Goggins; and if you haven’t heard about his book / audio-book yet - you’re in a for one hell of a story. I’ll link you to official site which will branch you off to whatever platform you find comfortable for digital books or audio-books (which I highly recommend nowadays for any literary material frankly). Just click on the picture and stop overthinking things.

Let’s hop on over to the slightly paranormal world of 2013 and talk about a (in my opinion) fantastic TV series that unfortunately never got a 2nd season. This show is called “I wouldn’t go in there” and its host Robert Joe visits a myriad of places in Asia that have a troubled history that leads to current day urban legends. You can find more of a synopsis on the official site here (although it’s a bit dated) or you can just simply watch it over on Amazon if you have prime membership here. I’ve also decided to link to Robert’s personal homepage cause he’s a cool guy and working on some projects at the moment that might peak your interest if you become a fan of the show.

What monthly update wouldn’t be complete without me trying to shoehorn some type of video game in here? As I said last month and I’ll say it again this month… the fires are really dying with me in terms of getting some interest going with the current video game climate. If it’s not another Battle Royale type game, it’s probably some other overly produced, over budget game with (insert random) politics thrown in somehow to further alienate me from even looking at it.

That being said, I did stumble upon a fairly cute mobile game called “Triple Fantasy” (formerly known as Arcane Straight) that might interest some folks here who came here from my Dungeon Maker tutorials. The lack of waifus and husbandos may be a turn off for some however! If this game had bare pixelated chests (for all its characters - I don’t discriminate) I might of done a YouTube video series on it. As it stands now however, it gets a honorable mention on the o’l website since it’s quite a fun family friendly game that anyone should be able to pick up. As I mentioned earlier, I usually avoid games that look like this simply due to the fact that there are SO MANY OF THEM on the Google Play Store. However, I took a chance (the theme of this update) and it turned out to be a pretty fun game all things considered. It even got editor’s choice - for what’s that worth I guess. Link is in the picture as always.

Since I talked about exercise last month, it’s only fitting I talk about food this month to close out the update. Let’s talk about one particular competitive eater Yuka Kinoshita. If you ever wanted to see someone probably half the size of you be able to put away food that seems fit to feed a NFL professional football team… prepare to be amazed! I’ll also make sure to add her on the list. Her channel is linked via the YouTube video below.

Have a good one folks, and i’ll see you next update!

Sweet Stuff For The Idle Brain

One of my goals for the new year was to make the site more of a hub of interesting content; and there’s no better way to do so then to revamp The List page with some new stuff to check out. I’ll save you the trip over there with all the links down below and a brief description on why you might want to look at them. If you haven’t checked out The List and are a new visitor to the site - I recommend you do so before anything else!

First let’s start with some more ruin porn from a couple of guys who do them well. If you checked out Dan Bell and were left yearning for more; The Proper People should scratch the same itch sans artful montages and kick ass music (really Dan is fantastic in the audio department). A sample video below to wet the appetite.

Next we’ll be moving onto a singular piece done by Fredrik Knudsen who has a series called “Down the Rabbit Hole” which looks at various internet curiosities of personas living or else-wise. My particular favorite of his work was a recent one based on “TempleOS” and the downward spiral of its creator. You can check out the lengthy tale down below.

As mentioned in my final blog of 2018 - getting fitter day by day has become a somewhat small obsession and I’m still on track with it. So while you are perhaps chewing on the meat of the previous content I just recommended; why not get back in shape while doing so at the same time? Contrary to popular belief you can get quite fit by doing workouts in the privacy of your own home with next to no equipment. Anyone that tells you otherwise has an agenda in mind of selling you a Gym membership, a book they wrote (or worse yet a PDF file they put together online) and a line of supplements to make your muscles bigger, breasts larger and penis bigger - all 3 at once maybe! Joking aside, I hope you find the new Health category under The List useful to things me and Clover both use regularly.

In terms of video games (specifically mobile) - nothing really new has caught my attention as of late worth mentioning unfortunately. A lot of games (that shall rename nameless for the sake of not riling up unscrupulous developers and paid shill reviewers) turned out to be flops or “honey traps” after putting a few weeks into them only to hit an abrupt and very blatant pay wall. A shame really since a lot of them seem to have a lot of time and effort put forth in making a quality product that ultimately was “thrown away” by horrible macro transactions. And yes - I do mean macro and not micro. When you start needing the equivalent of hundreds of dollars to stay remotely competitive or sane in what you’re playing - we’re talking big bucks and not pocket change. So I’m going to have to just repeat what I said in most of 2018 and refer people to go play Destiny’s Child (Korean version is uncensored by the way!) and Dungeon Maker if they have the chance to do so. They’re both quality products and games you can sink your teeth into if you give the chance to do so. I’ll still be on the lookout for the “next best thing” to hit the market; but until Stella Maiden gets a final release date, things aren’t looking too good at the moment.

Also happy Lunar New Year 2019! If someone can let me know the artist for this picture - would be appreciated. None the less - have a good year of the Pig!

Looking forward to going back into the past

Another year comes to an end! I just realized that the website will soon reach 2 years old as well as the Youtube channel I made to support it. Naturally I find myself in a strange situation I never intended to be in; and that’s living the idiom of “tail wagging the dog”.

When I began this whole crazy experiment back in January of 2017, I had envisioned that I would update the website with a lot of content followed by support videos on Youtube to help drive traffic over. My previous update in November was a perfect example of what I had originally wanted to do, but the “bug” of views and likes made me skip the middle man and just post directly to Youtube.

I realized that I’ve messed up; and I now need to start focusing on getting the site back on track moving forward with 2019 and beyond. I haven’t figured out the proper way of approaching it yet, but I know for sure I’m going to be adding a lot of stuff not listed on the main channel to the site. It’s a start; and I think I will post “major” videos on Youtube if I feel it needs the exposure, or is talking about something so obscure it’s easier for those who want to spread the word to just see it directly. I need to make BoxInACorner an interesting place to visit, and not supplementary material as it stands now.

This goes onto my next subject; and that is diversifying what the site is all about. I had originally intended to talk about a wide array of interests that I had and go into the more esoteric corners of the internet. For whatever reason I forgot this, and it shows looking back at the all the updates I’ve posted in the previous years. It’s not completely ruled by gaming, but it’s certainly heavy leaning towards. I never did talk about a single interesting technology item I bought, never did talk about a single paranormal experience I had, nor mention anything even remotely personal or “rant” like. Maybe that last one doesn’t need to be there ever; but it’s still confusing (to myself) why those topics never seem to come up when I wanted to post something. That changes with 2019 going forward, and I hope the very few people that actually check out this site, as well as future folks who come here can appreciate the new direction going forward. I’m not abandoning gaming at all, however it’s just not going to be constantly about it as it appears to be now.

Speaking of gaming, I find myself more and more playing games of yesteryear than I do of modern ones. I find myself oddly loading up games that ran on Windows 95 machines and the original PlayStation. I also use my “gaming” PC simply for editing videos and watching documentaries. I find myself “progressively regressing” in that I find interest, comfort, and peace with playing the stuff already out rather than looking forward to things not yet existing. Save for a few ground breaking titles such as CyberPunk 2077 and (in my humble opinion) Stella Maiden on Android - there’s nothing that strikes me as interesting coming out soon. It’s a struggle to find something on a personal level that appeals to me. I think this is what stunted the content I wanted to put out for for the previous 2 years; always hoping to run into the gems and talking about them like Yakuza (series), Planet Master, Dungeon Maker, Fight’nRage and Destiny Child (which is now in English albeit censored to hell and back - play the Korean version!). I’m going to start making an attempt in the future to just play games (no matter how old they are) and sharing my experience with others. I did a video hardly anyone ever watched about Cybernator on the Snes a while back; and that was exactly something I need to load up again alongside older games on other platforms. It’s time to drop the insecurity of “the new” and just embrace what’s good and fun.

Some of you may have watched in abject terror back in May when I did a play through of Yakuza 6 and you saw my face. This was the last time I was “on screen” and showed myself. It was at the very end of my “cut” phase of leaning down since 2012. A lot physically has happened since then; in that I have done every thing possible in my power to reach a personal goal I set out years ago.

I’ve always been a small guy most of my life - about 5’6” and 140lbs. Back in 2012 I had reached a weight of 160lbs while having (which I can only presume) a body fat % of 20. Things needed to change, and I had sworn to myself that not only was I going to drop the excess weight, but I needed to get physically fit in the process. I had made the grievous mistake back in high school that cardio was king, and that running and dieting right would lead me to be healthy looking and overall fit. What it ended up doing was making me “skinny fat” and barely able to lift a 15lbs dumbbell. So let’s just say I have tried to deprogram myself from the stupidity programmed into me from my old Cross Country coach and have really gotten into strength and conditioning training. Finally at the end of 2018 I can stop loosing weight and start putting it back on.

So what does this have to do with anything related to the site? I’ve been dog tired to the point of sitting down at a keyboard makes my teeth sore. It’s also the reason why content on the site has been slower going and something I need to work on balancing with my fitness goals. If I’m too tired to even enjoy updating the website, that’s something that needs to be addressed. I find Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi work to be the most helpful for everyone in any walk of life to follow in terms of productivity. You can read more about it (abstract) here or clicking the picture below. You can also watch this funny video clip because it’s what I’ve been essentially looking like for the last 6 months (until I fixed my form and stopped being a moron). You should also watch this clip for those serious about getting back in shape.

For those not in the know or have no idea whom I’m speaking of, my wife does stream (intermittently) over at Twitch.tv

Here’s a small clip of her recently (not terribly exciting stuff).

In a nutshell Clover has been going through the same existential crisis (link to a YouTuber perspective) I have been going through in terms of gaming and personal health. For her in particular it’s more related to mental than physical. After taking it easy in the last 2 months after finishing up her 100 days of consecutive streaming - Clover has come to the (tentative) conclusion that moving forward she needs to re-evaluate her time in front of the computer. I won’t say more than that cause it will better if she gave the words directly from her mouth. I will say however that 2019 will see a happier, more dynamic Clover when she actually decides to come onto the stream; cause it will be coming from a place of pure interest rather than obligation as it has been.

Finally let’s close out 2018 with a huge thank you to all of the kind followers over on the YouTube channel as well as the followers / subscribers on Twitch. You guys keep us going, and I can’t stress the important of a simple thank you sent our way once in a while. We promise to finally update the “About us” page in 2019 with full body photos. I need to get SWOLE quick and Clover needs that School Girl Outfit purchased. We’ll see you in 2019!