AdamPFarnsworth | Cheerful Ghost

Space Jam 2... or Ready Player 2?

As a 15 year old basketball fan when Space Jam came out, and it having my all time favorite player (Larry "Grandmama" Johnson), I've always been a huge fan of the movie.

There's a long standing debate amongst fans whether Michael Jordan or LeBron James is the greatest basketball player in history (which often is split between generations. Gen X and older generally say MJ, whereas Millennials and younger often say LeBron).

I personally fall into the MJ camp, and therefore kinda have a bias against LeBron, unfortunately. He is far and away the best player of this generation, and I shouldn't let my "get off my lawn" attitude take away from how great LeBron is, but I'm just not a fan of his.

So, when I heard they were "remaking" Space Jam with LeBron, I *hated* the idea. I was simply not going to watch it out of spite.

But, that's pretty childish of me, I know lol. And this trailer looks like a lot of fun! I have HBO Max, so I'll be watching this soon after it comes out 🙂🧡🏀🧡

OH, I almost forgot to actually talk about thr trailer! Dude, this has some serious Ready Player One vibes, and I'm 100% into that :)

GregoPeck Super Member wrote on 04/03/2021 at 07:14pm

I fall into the MJ camp, too. I really only cared about basketball during the Bulls MJ years. This does look interesting, though.

I felt the Ready Player One vibes, too. I actually wrote a post about it in the discussion forums. I finished the book last weekend and am now reading Ready Player Two.

AdamPFarnsworth Post Author wrote on 04/03/2021 at 07:32pm

I wrote about Ready Player One back a few years ago when I read it. (I enjoyed the movie, but loved the book). How is the second book so far?

GregoPeck Super Member wrote on 04/03/2021 at 07:45pm

I'm still in love with Art3mis. Right now I'm in the part of the book where we find out the bad thing that's going on in the book. It was definitely a surprise. I believe the RP2 movie is in production. I thought I saw a chocobo in that RP1 movie, but it turned out to be an ostrich from Joust. The movie, but perhaps the book more, made me think of what I'd be like in the OASIS. What would my avatar look like? I think I'd look more like Z. I'd definitely have some blue going on. I'm not sure what my ride would be. I love the Dellorean, though I could also see me on a chocobo. As for my airship, well I love the Ragnarok from FFVIII a lot, but I also love the X-Wing (I think they're sexy) and the Firefly ship.

Will_Ball Game Mod Super Member wrote on 04/03/2021 at 09:35pm

MJ the better player, Bron the better actor. Did you spot Dame as a CG robot? https://twitter.com/chold/status/1378379715317178372?s=21

AdamPFarnsworth Post Author wrote on 04/03/2021 at 11:22pm

Of course I noticed him! #RipCity #DameTime

GregoPeck Super Member wrote on 04/04/2021 at 02:11am

I don't know who that is.

AdamPFarnsworth Post Author wrote on 04/04/2021 at 04:12am

He's probably the best player the Portland Trailblazers have ever had. Check out this amazing highlight reel of game winning shots (the last two shots were in the playoffs and won the series)
https://youtu.be/p5lG34RTJ98

GregoPeck Super Member wrote on 04/04/2021 at 04:38am

Wow this guy really can get it in just in time. At first, I didn't see what was so special, though it was close, just not as close as the others. Then #1 and #2 were confusing as well, since the clock hit zero either before the ball went in or as it did. Still, very impressive (though my interest for sports died long ago).

AdamPFarnsworth Post Author wrote on 04/04/2021 at 05:04am

In basketball, as long as the ball has left the shooter's hands before time is up, it's good. It's often referred to as a "buzzer beater" 😀

GregoPeck Super Member wrote on 04/04/2021 at 06:19am

Ok, that explains it. Thanks!

GregoPeck Super Member wrote on 04/08/2021 at 11:47pm

MT at NewRockstars as a new video pointing out the very MANY Easter eggs found in the trailer (and yes, even he also mentions how it's like Ready Player One): https://youtu.be/AQEdQ7wBZPM

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This Is What A "Second-Person" Video Game Would Look Like

We've all played First-Person and Third-Person games, but this video takes a look into what a Second-Person game would look like.

The narrator defines what first-person, second-person, and third-person voices in writing is, and then shows a very cool example of what could be considered a second-person level in the game Driver: San Francisco.

A second-person mechanic could be an interesting thriller/horror game. Making a Friday The 13th type game, where you see your character from the point of view of the killer, as you attempt to get away (or fight back).

Spider-Man: No Way Home

A teaser trailer for Spider-Man, with the name announcement!

I absolutely love the Sony/Marvel Spider-Man, and I can't wait for Christmas! Hopefully we'll all be vaccinated by then!

George Lucas Expertly Explaining How The Force Works

As much as we give George a hard time about writing the prequel trilogy, he has some really good thoughts on The Force, and life in general.

I don't have much to add to what he says in this video; I just recommend watching!

jdodson Admin wrote on 01/05/2021 at 11:26pm

I respect George a lot and hope he's more involved with Star Wars moving forward. With that, I find his ideas of the force and the jedi are hard to relate to. To focus on the dark side and light side as selfless VS selfish to be good but somewhat hard to approximate because I really don't think wanting things is ultimately bad. I find the black and white thinking of the Jedi in the prequels to be very off putting, dangerous and one of the hardest parts of organized religion. You take good things, like being selfless and putting others ahead of yourself and translate that to certain actions and dogma which are entirely wrong.

It's not bad to be afraid your Mom is a slave on Tatooine. It's not inherently evil to be scared. It doesn't make you space Hitler to have a dream where your wife dies and that shakes you. It just makes you human. Fear doesn't mean you have an evil heart. The Mandalorian as seen with a certain character seems to espouse this too, in that baby Yoda is afraid therefore scary because he might be evil. I don't really think fear means much more than we contain human emotions and those emotions come up. I don't think the most evolved form of humanity is the abandonment of emotion I think it's accepting what we are and making good choices anyway. When the Jedi distance themselves from hard emotions they give more power to them because accepting our humanity is the best path to disarming out unfortunate tendencies. The worst strategy is to hype up "bad thought" and try to pray it away or whatever the heck the Jedi do.

I appreciate Star Wars a lot but when you boil down religion and attempt to organize it and make a creed of it I think things tend to get hard which is why I frankly have a hard time with the Jedi. If they existed in our world, I'd try and get as close to their power and abandon the core mindset and if that made me a Sith then so be it.... Jedi.

AdamPFarnsworth Post Author wrote on 01/05/2021 at 11:31pm

I think Lucas is saying it's more than black and white. There needs to be balance to the light and dark side. It's not a good thing to be fully selfless, as then you will never look out for yourself, and at the most extreme would end up quickly dead, as you'd be giving up everything of yourself for others. Also, being selfish is important, for the same exact reasons. There needs to be balance, not a domination of Jedi or Sith.

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"I've Got A Bone" - Dan Bull

Now that it's October, Halloween 🎃 season can begin!

This song has a fun "This Is Halloween" type vibe to it and I just thought I'd share!

The Rise of Virtual Sports and ESports

I used to play a lot of fantasy sports. You'd generally pick a team of players (football, basketball, baseball, etc) from all the guys playing that day, and then as they compile stats (points/rebounds/steals/etc in basketball, passing yards/catches/touchdowns in football, just to name a few), you get a cumulative point total for your team.

But now there aren't any sports being played...
at least no sports being played by humans.

In the video above you'll see 2 virtual NBA games being simulated by a Playstation. No one is playing the characters, it's just a simulation. (My wife thinks this is the dumbest thing ever lol) On the various fantasy sports apps, before the games, you can choose lineups, just as if they were real games, and then watch along and root for "your" players. The website https://www.awesemo.com/ has been running both NBA and NFL simulations, and I've found it really fun to watch along with. And really, I don't see much of a difference in passively watching real players play games, or simulated players play games (my wife strongly disagrees and thinks this is the dumbest thing ever lol)

I'm not really into NASCAR, but today I stumbled upon eNASCAR/iRacing, and I might become a full-time fan. Actual NASCAR drivers race virtually against each other, using realistic multi-monitor simulators on their computers. The graphics of the simulation look really, really good.
Here's an example of what a race looks like (this was on FOX, and had real racing commentators) https://youtu.be/g75HghckIyY?t=474
And here's an example of what their racing setups look like: https://youtu.be/nHDH0pL_qBM

There are a ton more Esports/Virtual Sports out there. I've seen Virtual Golf (sometimes there are simulated players like Happy Gilmore and Shooter McGavin lol), Virtual Baseball in addition to various Virtual basketball and football simulations. And fantasy apps are venturing into Reality TV as well. You can create a "team" of players for the show Survivor, and you get points for things like Wins Immunity/Cries on camera/Catches Seafood.

And of course League of Legends has had fantasy sports for years now. Here's a post Jon wrote back in 2014 https://cheerfulghost.com/jdodson/posts/2043/league-of-legends-gets-the-fantasy-football-treatment

Almost all the Virtual/ESports contests are free to enter, and many allow multiple entries, so you can try different lineups and see how they score. It's a fun thing to fill the time with, and occasionally you can win 5-10 cents lol. My favorite app is FanDuel, which you can download from any app store, or go to this website https://www.fanduel.com/

The Batman - Camera Test

I geek out over superhero movies, and this camera test just dropped for The Batman.

I didn't think we needed another Batman movie... but we probably always will lol.

This is very simple, but looks so rad!

The History Of Speedrunning

Since speedrunning is often topic on Cheerful Ghost, and we run Speedrunning competitions at the Portland Retro Gaming Expo, I figure this is a fitting video :)

It covers the history of speedrunning, from the super old school "demo" days of Doom to the current Games Done Quick.

Black Widow

The first trailer to Black Widow is out!

I'm still a little worried that this will suffer a similar fate as Rogue One and Solo for (prequels where we know the ultimate outcome, thus making the stakes for the main character not as high, because ultimately they live), but I am more excited for this than I thought I would be.

Maybe because I'm in the middle of a Winter Soldier rewatch (as I'm rewatching it, I honestly wonder if I ever actually saw it? It feels like the first time I'm seeing scenes in it lol), but I'm just lately getting into Nat's character. Endgame was sad for her, but wasn't *that* sad to me, but I bet next time I watch Endgame, it'll hit even harder after watching Black Widow.

Enjoy the trailer! It has Hopper in it!

GregoPeck Super Member wrote on 12/03/2019 at 03:39pm

Awesome! The only thing that's always bothered me about Black Widow is that I always thought she was from Russia (or the area), but she doesn't have a fitting accent. The other characters in the trailer from her past do, I wonder if that ever gets explained.

There is the Endgame question, too. Didn't Cap return the soul stone? If so, does that mean Nat comes back? Maybe Tony's sacrifice brought her back. Although, she could be "back" but only in an alternate timeline. Maybe some of the characters she reunites with return in later movies and (Disney+) shows.

Thanks for sharing the trailer! I recently got caught up w/ the MCU movies and have been watching a YouTube channel called New Rockstars, which analyzes these movies (and more like Star Wars, I wrote a post about it in the forums).

AdamPFarnsworth Post Author wrote on 12/03/2019 at 03:52pm

New Rockstars is one of my absolute favorites! Another channel I recommend is Emergency Awesome :)

jdodson Admin wrote on 12/03/2019 at 04:40pm

I give this trailer four spiders! 🕷🕷🕷🕷

jdodson Admin wrote on 12/03/2019 at 04:41pm

Also. Is David Harbor the Russian equivalent of Captain America? PLEASE BE REAL

AdamPFarnsworth Post Author wrote on 12/03/2019 at 05:02pm

Yes! He is!

Travis Admin wrote on 12/03/2019 at 06:31pm

Greg this takes place after Winter Soldier, so well before she died. Thus Adam talking about it being a prequel where you know the character’s eventual outcome.

I’ve always just assumed that she’s a super spy so she has to blend. Actual Russian spies lived in the US in the 70s and 80s and spoke with a perfect American accent so they could blend in.

GregoPeck Super Member wrote on 12/03/2019 at 08:26pm

Yeah, when it takes place wasn't a question. I expected it to take place then, probably because of New Rockstars. As for the accent, good point, Travis.

Will_Ball Game Mod Super Member wrote on 12/03/2019 at 09:34pm

"I’ve always just assumed that she’s a super spy so she has to blend. Actual Russian spies lived in the US in the 70s and 80s and spoke with a perfect American accent so they could blend in."

Travis seems to know a lot about this. Hmmm

Travis Admin wrote on 12/03/2019 at 09:51pm

Hahaha

I watched The Americans then read about the real stuff it was based on.

Travis Admin wrote on 12/03/2019 at 09:52pm

And that paragraph that starts with “there is the endgame question too” made it seem like you thought she was alive after endgame

jdodson Admin wrote on 12/03/2019 at 10:05pm

WAIT GUYS WHAT HAPPENS IN ENDGAME? SPOILER MUCH?

GregoPeck Super Member wrote on 12/03/2019 at 11:30pm

I realize that for sure, Travis. I was just speculating on a "what if" post-Endgame thought. I think it was New Rockstars that said it should take place just after Civil War. This was before the trailer was released. I guess the question of this movie is, why? Why are they showing us this? Does it some how connect to past or future MCU movies and/or Disney+ shows? Or does it just fill out the character, letting us get to know her better. Maybe I'm looking too deep into it.

Yeah, Jon, well yeah, Adam did kind of put a spoiler in the post, so I've kind of gone with the assumption that all of us here have seen Endgame. I think you're joking, though, it's hard to be sure. LOL Still, I'm glad I just recently watched Endgame. Although, I knew of Tony's fate before I watched it, I some how caught a spoiler, but that didn't make it any less dramatic, I just didn't know how it happened or when.

AdamPFarnsworth Post Author wrote on 12/04/2019 at 03:19pm

What if everything about Black Widow taking place in the past turns out to be only the first half of the movie, with the second half being in the MCU present day, with Belova fighting as a good guy? Perhaps Nat captures Taskmaster, but somehow he escapes in the present day, and Belova is recruited by Fury to hunt him down?

Will_Ball Game Mod Super Member wrote on 12/05/2019 at 04:02am

All characters will be played by skrulls.

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Infinity War/Endgame Dance Off

For something completely different, here's a high school dance team, performing the story of Infinity War and Endgame :)

*spoilers for Infinity War and Endgame* lol

AdamPFarnsworth5

135 Posts

Space Jam 2... or Ready Player 2?

This Is What A "Second-Person" Video Game Would Look Like

Spider-Man: No Way Home

George Lucas Expertly Explaining How The Force Works

"I've Got A Bone" - Dan Bull

The Rise of Virtual Sports and ESports

The Batman - Camera Test

The History Of Speedrunning

Black Widow

Infinity War/Endgame Dance Off

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Black Widow New Trailer

Space Jam 2... or Ready Player 2?

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