Willy Toledo’s Human Paladin

Yeah, I had no idea who Guillermo Toledo was, either.

Blizzard launches podcast

Blizzard has just launched Blizzcast, their monthly (?) podcast talking about all things Blizzardy. This inaugural edition kicks off with interviewing Sam “Samwise” Didier, their art director, who talks about his history and process and a bit about StarCraft II. There’s also talk about the Sunwell Plateau, a new area coming to World of Warcraft later this year.

One of the things I like about Blizzard’s podcast is that the transcript is freely available. This was probably originally done to make translating the podcast into other languages easier, but it’s nice for them to make it widely available. (And, on that note, Blizzard, make the text for the voice emotes in WoW visible again, like they were in alpha. That text is also available for translation purposes, after all.)

You can subscribe to this podcast here

Penny Arcade on FigurePrints

Shockingly, I received no FigurePrints coupon for Christmas or my birthday. (I know! Can you believe it?) This may be a blessing in disguise, though, since it gave me the time to get cool gear for my dwarf hunter, instead of going with the mismatched stuff he had (including really silly looking pointy shoulder armor from Karazhan).

It’s an issue that Penny Arcade has touched on in two recent strips: one, two.

Playing Earth: The MMORPG from Mars

I’m finishing up my grad school application right now — I have to polish one essay, start my other, upload my writing clips and pay my application fee before Monday, then set up my writing test locally and take it — and if I get in, I’ll be 3,000 miles away from my wife and child.

Besides the ever-present Treo, one of the ways Jenn and I will stay in touch will be World of Warcraft. (No Goldshire jokes, please.) It’ll let us interact in real time in an environment that allows us to “see” each other, after a fashion.

It turns out that NASA has a similar idea. Future astronauts on a Mars mission will likely do something very similar, logging into an Earth-simulation MMO to interact with loved ones back home. Sort of like Second Life, but with fewer freaks (probably).

Podcast line-up, December 2007

So, you got an iPod for [holiday of your choice] this year, did you? Well, in addition to sticking your entire CD collection into it, you can use it to replace your radio with a custom made channel, which you can pause, rewind or skip ahead with, too, via the magic of podcasting. It’s certainly what I’ve done, although I get a lot of podcasts from radio stations, mixing and matching for my own personal tastes.

Below is what I’m listening to now. Copy the links into the podcast software of your choice, such as iTunes:

• alt.NPR: B-Side Radio
• APM: Marketplace
• Coverville
• Denver Post’s Lyrics Undercover
• From the Pages of the Post
• Grammar Girl’s Quick and Dirty Tips for Better Writing
• KCRW’s Film Reviews
• KCRW’s Martini Shot
• KCRW’s Minding the Media
• KCRW’s Morning Becomes Eclectic
• KCRW’s The Business
• KCRW’s The Treatment
• KCRW’s Today’s Top Tune
• KQED’s The California Report
• MPR: The Current Song of the Day
• NPR: 10 a.m. ET News Summary
• NPR: Driveway Moments
• NPR: Foreign Dispatch
• NPR: Science Friday
• NPR: Story of the Day
• NPR: The Bryant Park Project
• Official Disneyland Resort Podcasts
• On the Media
• Our Ocean World
• PRI’s The World: Geo Quiz
• PRI’s The Sound of Young America
• StarDate
• That Sound
• The Kevin & Bean Show from KROQ
• The Loh Down on Science
• The Loh Life
• The Official LOST Podcast
• The Onion Radio News
• They Might Be Giants Podcast
• The Week in Tech
• Tiki Bar TV

Not all of these are daily. Some are weekly, a few are monthly and some are quarterly or follow no set schedule. I used to get more, like Fresh Air, but I found myself either not having time to listen to them.