Good morning!

At long last ... it's finally finished ... and here it is!!

In celebration of my one year anniversary here on Patreon, I'm ridiculously excited to have this video to share with you all, Captain and Tenille's 'Love Will Keep Us Together'.

I brought 5 ukuleles and every t-shirt I own into the studio and was filmed in front of a green screen (that's how we got all those pretty colors) as I recorded the song. The end result looks so slick that it almost looks like I lip-synced after the fact, but everything you see in the video is from the actual recording session. 

I would record a track, change into a different t-shirt, record another track, and so on. If I recall correctly, I wound up putting down 8 different uke tracks and and 14 vocal tracks. And yes, even the solo was recorded in costume. I'll just leave it at that until you see the video.

I've loved this record since I was a kid, the arrangement is insanely great and it was so much fun figuring out how to play all those parts on the uke. When mixing the recording, I wanted to try to have a similar sound to the record, so we did things with effects to try to make some of the ukes sound like tack pianos and even tried to cop the synthesizer sound in the solo (I think we got pretty close).

This thing was a HUGE undertaking, a little over two months in the making, and I leaned heavily on Kris Magyarits, Bob Schachner and all the amazing folks at Alkemy X in Philadelphia. I'm a tough taskmaster, but they really worked and worked on it with me until it delivered the goods.

So, Happy One Year Anniversary to all of my patrons here on Patreon. A year ago, even attempting a video like this would have been a pipe dream, just another idea I'd get and think "damn, it would be really cool if I could do that". All of your support has allowed me to make some of those ideas reality. Thank you. I'm so grateful. 

Let's start year two! In fact, I'll have a big announcement about that tomorrow.

- Jim

Temples, churches and religious structures tend to both be large (because they are built with the help of a whole community instead of a single person or family) and central to a lot of games (because in a world where gods have direct power over the world, it seems to make sense that their churches would wield significant power also).

Thus they make great game fodder.

This map is of a church and two nearby structures (although the northern structure didn’t quite fit on the page – you can assume the remainder is more dormitories and libraries).

The main structure is the temple proper, with some publicly accessible shelves of religious scrolls and similar on the right, a small chapel on the left, and various other chambers for priests, visitors and worshipers.

To the east of the temple are the office of the head of the temple and associates, and a dormitory for brothers in training, men at arms, and those loyal to the temple but too poor to offer more than their toil and bodies to the religion (and in some churches, a few paladins and low level clerics).

You can get the map at 300dpi from the blog post at https://rpgcharacters.wordpress.com/2015/09/04/friday-map-the-temple-of-marid-scurn/

Gearing up for an adventure using the Fate Accelerated Edition (FAE) and I wanted something a little strange. I stumbled upon this wonderful geomorph by Andrew Makarov ( https://plus.google.com/u/0/+AndreyMakarov/posts/HrisciYYkf3 ) and it was the perfect inspiration. I wanted a bit more of a cavern the players would need to get through so I added some to his design. Way I see it, Projekt Se7en has discovered something high in the mountains near Nepal and are concocting nefarious plans to utilize the mystical and otherworldly remains of their discovery.

I have included a FAE version of the map as well, with area's clearly marked for those who wish to use the map in their FAE game.

http://www.ohjoysextoy.com/form-5

Dang, this was a strange little toy! It's supposed to be good for all sets of genitals, from vulvas to wangs, but Matt and I found it to be... well. Read the review. Hmm! :-/

Yesterday I received a most awesome gift from Mark Hassman, a wonderful leather cover for the Rhodia dotmark tablet. I immediately had to draw a map to test out the paper and see how it worked. The result is above. 

Love it love it love it!

Way I see it, this ruined castle has wasted over the years, including the ramp that used to head to the drawbridge, which unfortunately has wasted away as well. Just getting up the ramp and walking across those boards to get into the castle will be dangerous. I figure this could easily be good for a night or two of adventuring. 

Thanks Mark, I love the pad and cover and will certainly be using them to bring more cool maps to everyone!

Happy Wednesday everyone,

Matt

EDIT: Map fixed!

Goal: A simple, elegant tour of the Space Station that makes sense to Earth Bound Humans.

Scott reads tweets on the ISS! Tweet him and see if he replies! http://bit.ly/TwtStnTour

Check out his Instagram: http://bit.ly/InstaSPAC ⇊⇊⇊⇊ More info Below ⇊⇊⇊⇊⇊

Please consider following Scott on both Instagram and Twitter. This will probably be NASA's measure of how successful working with Smarter Every Day is.

https://twitter.com/StationCDRKelly

Instagram: http://bit.ly/InstaSPACE

Follow ISS Research while he's on orbit:

https://twitter.com/iss_research

A special thanks to Scott Kelly

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scott_Kelly_%28astronaut%29

Comment thread on Reddit:

Tweet ideas to me @SmarterEveryDay

Awesome video game style Radar animations by:

http://eisenfeuer.com/

See the official NASA Space Station Tour:

https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/main/suni_iss_tour.html

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Tweet ideas to me @SmarterEveryDay

Instead of saving for my kids' college, I make videos using the money I would have saved.

The thought is it will help educate the world as a whole, and one day generate enough revenue to pay for their education. Until then if you appreciate what you've learned in this video and the effort that went in to it, please SHARE THE VIDEO!

If you REALLY liked it, feel free to pitch a few dollars towards their college fund by clicking here:

http://bit.ly/KidsCollege

Warm Regards,

Destin

http://www.ohjoysextoy.com/defective-by-melanie-gillman/

Melanie Gillman created this very touching, thoughtful comic about a non-binary couple trying to get pregnant.

Ladies and gents, I'm excited and jittery. I've overloaded my responsibilities once again and I will be writing an album worth of Sega Genesis music for the indie game "Where's My Mommy?" The game is currently on Steam Greenlight and needs your votes. Please hit http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=516355703, log into steam, and hit that Yes button so we can self-publish!

Attached to this post is the unedited music from the trailer. Also, a build of the game will be shown sometime in the next month (I think?) so my current plan is to have three more tracks (not counting this one) by the end of the month, at which point they will become a secret EP for you, my Patrons. =]

Let me know what you think and thanks for your support!