Photobucket vs. Flickr

Well, I finally bit the bullet and transitioned my future image-hosting over to Flickr.  We'll see how this goes.

So far, I'm impressed with the fact that uploads are very fast and images are staying in the correct order within their set.  There also seems to be a lot more third-party support for Flickr, with regards to upload plugins and account management.  On the flip side, there's a bit of a learning curve - where Photobucket was designed for this sort of thing, Flickr seems a little more focused on self-inclusive "check out my photostream" sort of thing, and I'm not entirely sure how well it handles image linking.

I'll continue to host the archived images on Photobucket, but moving forward all new posts should be displaying links from Flickr.  Fingers crossed that this works out!

On My Sporadic Posting Schedule

Sorry, sorry.  I know things have slowed down to a crawl, over the last couple of weeks especially.  There are a few reasons for this:

• I've been sick.  Like, crazy feverish throat infection sick.  It hit me on Sunday - Saturday night Heather and I went to some fancy-schmancy restaurant for her birthday, and the very next day I woke up feeling like hell.  By Monday I was a total wreck, running a fever of 101 which lasted about 48 hours, my throat felt like sandpaper and every joint in my body ached like I'd just run ten miles.  I was bedridden until yesterday when I dragged myself back into work, but I'm still not at 100%.  More like 65% at this point (which is up from the 52% I felt like yesterday).   
• I've been busy.  I don't mean that in an "I'm too busy for you" way.  Believe me, I'd like nothing better than to focus on Apocalypse POW! for a couple of hours a day.  Unfortunately, the reality is that my department at work is staffed by a skeleton crew, and a bunch of things have happened in the last two months that have resulted in a massive backlog for me personally.  For example: I got married, which meant that I took two weeks off, and when I came back - much to my surprise - no one had done all of my work for me.  We also experience a yearly back-to-school rush around August and September, so that hasn't helped. 
• Image-hosting problems.  Once again, Photobucket is giving me problems.  Their custom organize option is far inferior to the one their original site offered, and I might carefully order images for ten or fifteen upcoming posts only to come back to my Bucket the next day to find that ordering randomly shuffled, for no apparent reason.  It's really starting to tick me off.  So if anyone has any suggestions on how to transfer 800 unposted images, in existing order, to a different image hosting site, I'm all ears.

The good news is that much of this is now in the past, and I should be getting back to a slightly more regular posting schedule, assuming all the stars align properly.  By Monday I fully expect to be back in fighting form, our back-to-school rush appears to be slowing down, and while Photobucket is unlikely to fix itself in the near future, I'm sick of waiting for them to get their act together and I am looking at new image-hosting options. 

I have some good stuff lined up, so don't go anywhere!

Distractions

Sorry! Sorry for the lack of updates the last few weeks. I wish I could say that this is likely to change in the near future, that I'll put my nose to the grindstone and really buckle down and start posting five times a day, but let's be honest - that's not gonna happen. Work has been insane lately, and I'm planning a wedding which is not five weeks away. I probably won't get back to a regular posting schedule until I'm a married man.

I'll still try and get at least one update per week, as time permits. This blog has been a much-loved and much-needed outlet for going on three years now - but, you know, real life and all that tends to interfere. I promise that in a couple of months, my posting frequency should increase substantially.

Photobucket Strikes Again

I apologize if anyone hit up Apocalypse POW! over the last 24 hours and saw the Photobucket "bandwidth exceeded" error.  About a year ago I upgraded my account with them to Photobucket Plus specifically to avoid this sort of thing, but in the process of transitioning to a completely new interface, it looks like Photobucket also forgot that I was a paying member.

Naturally I had no idea until I checked today and saw the "bandwidth exceeded" messages, and then realized that they stopped billing me around the time that they did their upgrade.  I've re-registered for Photobucket Plus, so this shouldn't happen again. 

Good News, Everyone!

After two months, the missing Photobucket features have returned! I have a ton of sorting and maintenance to do before I can get back to posting on a regular basis, but you should start seeing new posts starting on Monday.

The Life And Times Of

What have I been up to lately, while Apocalypse POW! has been on hiatus? Quite a lot, and thanks for asking.

· Bioshock: Infinite. This is the big one - I've been waiting YEARS for this game, and the day of release has finally arrived. I got my copy yesterday but haven't had much of a chance to play yet (work, went out for all-you-can-eat Sushi with the fiancee, came home and watched New Girl, and then went to bed) but what little I have played has been spectacular. I can't comment much on the story or even the gameplay, since I'm still looking for Elizabeth and thus technically going through the intro, but this game just oozes quality and polish. I have no doubt that Irrational Games put an immense amount of talent, effort and testing into Bioshock: Infinite, and I can't wait to get a chance to really get into it. Sadly, that probably won't be this weekend, as I have out-of-town family obligations, but hopefully it'll be soon.

· This is a huge, huge weekend for TV. Not only is it the third series finale of The Walking Dead, but season three of Game of Thrones and the back half of season seven of Doctor Who also start airing. It's a good time to be a geek. I have to say, I've been enjoying the hell out of this season of The Walking Dead. After the very spotty and uneven second season at the farmhouse (which was altogether dull and populated by irrational and unlikeable characters, but was peppered with the occasional brilliant moment), I've been relatively impressed. The Governor has been handled well, the introduction of Michonne (and to a lesser extent Tyreese) has satisfied my comic-book-nerd expectations, and the writing has been getting better with every episode. I'm excited for the finale but dreading having to wait a year for season four.

· On February 4th, the very day it came out, Heather went out and bought me Fire Emblem: Awakening for the 3DS. I've been playing it daily ever since, and I can't recommend it to you 3DS owners enough. It's the first 3DS game released since the system was introduced that I would consider a must-play - I've never even been into tactical RPGs all that much, but Fire Emblem: Awakening is just incredible. One word of advice, though: unless you want to beat your head against the wall in frustration, don't play with perma-death options enabled. I made this mistake during my first game - which lasted about two hours - and was perilously close to flinging my 3DS into the wall. It wasn't until I started over in Casual mode that I was able to really get into it.

· I was accepted into the beta for the Android game Ingress this morning. Ingress is an augmented-reality mobile game, in which one joins either the Resistance or the Enlightened, and various objects like energy and portals are overlaid on a map of your city. I haven't been much of a fan of mobile games - controls tend to be wonky, and I just haven't found any that really grab me - but Ingress is a horse of a different color. I've only played around with it a bit on my transit into work today, and it definitely needs some polish (it sometimes doesn't want to pinpoint my actual location, for example, and even when I'm standing still my icon moves around quite a bit) but the concept is appealing and I'm sure they'll work out the kinks in time.

That's about it. I'm sure I'm forgetting something relevant, but that sums up what's taking up much of my time and attention these days.

Still On Hiatus

Hey guys - I know there's something self-defeating in posting about being on hiatus while still on hiatus, but I just wanted to let you know... I'm still on hiatus. I have so much cool stuff to post, but until Photobucket gets their act together, I'm taking a break from things.

Photobucket is claiming that the feature I need is one of their top-requested features right now, and should be coming "in the next couple of weeks". I'm guardedly optimistic.

At any rate, things will return to normal relatively soon.

Apocalypse POW!: Slow Month Edition

Hey everyone, I wanted to give you all an update on this blog's current status.

You may have noticed a lack of updates over the last week or so. There are a couple of reasons why things have slowed down, and will continue to be slow for the next little while.

To begin with, I have been SIIII-ICK. Started out as a brutal cold that's going around but developed into bronchitis. I started feeling under the weather last Wednesday; by Saturday it had developed into a full-blown misery storm. Thursday and Friday were a slog to get through, and then I had a long weekend which was utterly ruined. I came into work on Tuesday and lasted an hour before I had to go home, and while I'm back today and on the mend, I haven't much felt like updating (work itself has been difficult enough).

Secondly, though, and perhaps more relevant to how things will play out in the coming weeks: as you may have noticed, I use Photobucket as my primary image-hosting site. Paying customer and everything. I've had some trouble with them over the last couple of weeks, and today when I logged in, I discovered that I was being forced to abandon their 'Legacy' interface and move to their 'New' interface. This new interface, while promising "more control" in my image-hosting needs, has not yet implemented the ability to sort images in-album. Since I rely on this feature heavily to sort my pictures before and after posting them (primarily to ensure that I'm not re-posting anything) and there's no option to roll back to the Legacy interface, I am pretty annoyed. Not to mention the fact that my current library was "re-organized" in the transition, and there's nothing I can do about it.

I have it on good authority that this is a feature they're planning on re-introducing, based on the widespread demand. I have sent a very irritated ticket to Photobucket Support for good measure. But until I have the ability to sort my images properly, things are going to be slow around here. If I don't see any changes within a week or so, I plan on taking my business to Flickr or some other image host (whoever gives me the ability to sort things the way I need to). If I do that, though, we're looking at a transition time of a week or longer.

So basically, you might not see any updates here for a couple of weeks. Don't think that Apocalypse POW! is dead. We'll get back to our regular posting schedule soon.

Santarchy XI: Christmas Is Coming

Santarchy XI: Christmas Is Coming (106mb .ZIP file)

Here it is, my eleventh annual Santarchy Christmas mix. Click on the image to download the entire album.

Happy holidays! See you all next week.

Tracklist:

01. fun. - Sleigh Ride
02. Jonathan Coulton - 2600
03. John Anealio - Batman Smells (A Rebuttal)
04. Kirby Krackle feat. The Doubleclicks - Baby It's Cold Outside (Hoth Version)
05. Sufjan Stevens - X-Mas Spirit Catcher
06. The Wellingtons - I Guess It's Christmas
07. Barely Pink - Come On Christmas
08. The Baseballs - Ring Ring (A Lovely Sound)
09. The Pipettes - White Christmas
10. The Chevelles - Come All Ye Faithful Surfer Girls
11. Emmy The Great & Tim Wheeler - Christmas Day (I Wish I Was Surfing)
12. August Burns Red - Carol Of The Bells
13. TheCoop - Algorhythmic Bells
14. The xx - Last Christmas (Live on Radio 1's Live Lounge)
15. Yeah Yeah Yeahs - All I Want For Christmas
16. The Killers - I Feel It In My Bones
17. Tracey Thorn - Like a Snowman (Stephin Merritt Cover)
18. Sufjan Stevens - Christmas in the Room (Silver & Gold Version)
19. Diamond Rugs - Christmas in a Chinese Restaurant
20. Dropkick Murphys - The Season's Upon Us
21. Garfunkel And Oates - End Of Year Letter
22. The Head and the Heart - What Are You Doing New Year's Eve
23. Andrew Bird - Auld Lang Syne
24. Blink-182 - Boxing Day

UPDATE: Mediafire wasn't sharing the archive, so I've switched over to FileDropper and it seems to be working now.

After These Messages

Sorry for the lack of updates over the last week. Been busy with work, time off from work, caring for a sick girlfriend, fighting off getting sick myself, and general life demands. Hopefully we'll get back to a daily update schedule soon, starting today.

In the meantime, here are some things that I've been doing over the last week:

· Went and saw Wreck-It Ralph in 3D.
· Started playing the fantastic indie zombie-survival sidescroller Deadlight.
· Got about three-quarters of the way through reading Avengers vs. X-Men.
· Finished the main storyline campaign for Batman: Arkham City (now I have to go back and get all those damn Riddler trophies).
· Came THIS CLOSE to beating Kingdom Hearts: Dream Drop Distance.
· Discovered, despite my general dislike of Facebook games, something called The Grinns Tale, an RPG\RTS-type game that has been consuming my life (and which can also be played in a non-Facebook setting at Kongregate.)

Technicolor Yawn

Sorry about the lack of updates over the last week. I got knocked on my ass by the worst stomach flu virus of all time, and I'm only now recovered enough to think about anything other than puking and wishing I was dead. I have a whack of updates to get through today, so let's see how far I get!

More Like Apocalypse LAME! Amirite?

Yeah, so, you may have noticed that I've exceeded the bandwidth limit on my free Photobucket image hosting account, resulting in literally every single image on this site being suddenly unavailable. I'm a little annoyed, because I was not actually aware that I had a 10-gigabyte-per-month limit, but also kind of impressed, because I've hit the ceiling on my 10gb-a-month limit. So, um, thanks? Anyway, the monthly counter resets on the 21st, but hopefully I'll have a solution to this problem in place before then, so just hang in there.

UPDATE #1: So I've done a little bit of research and discovered the cause of the traffic max-out: some clueless idiot of a blogger linked directly to one of my images, which caused such an insane spike in traffic that it killed the remainder of my monthly bandwidth. Seriously... just look at this spike. I went from a couple hundred daily views of various images to 12,682 views of a single image (the Tintin in R'lyeh one, if you're curious) in the span of about two days.

Not to go off on a rant or anything here, but the first rule of not being a total jag on the internet is that you don't directly link to other people's images. I have always gone out of my way to host images myself, specifically because I didn't want to put someone else in the position that I now find myself in. The fact that this has never happened before is a pretty clear indication that the vast majority of people out there understand the basics of internet etiquette, but it only takes one inconsiderate person to wreck things for everyone else. With a blog like Apocalypse POW!, which showcases the work of other artists and creators that I think deserve more attention and applause, I don't have any rights to these images themselves, but I definitely think I have certain rights as far as the hosting of those images are concerned. So if you like something that you see here and you want to reblog it, upload it to your own host and link to that.

UPDATE #2: I've now upgraded to a Pro account on Photobucket, which is something I probably should have done a while ago, and images are back now. In the long run it'll probably be for the best, but I can't deny that I kind of resent having my hand forced like this. I've always resolutely resisted placing ads and such on my blog, partly because I'm not doing this for money and it seems a bit crass and mercenary to try and target my visitors like that, but also because I think they're just plain ugly - they break up the aesthetic of an otherwise consistent website. Having said that, as of today Apocalypse POW! is now running at a deficit, and it's all thanks to one unthinking jerk.

And On A Personal Note...

So I wanted to take a break from regularly scheduled updates and talk a bit about the purpose of this blog and where I hope to see it going in the future.

Apocalypse POW! was originally a videogame-themed off-shoot of my former blog, Cabinet of Curiosities. For a while I made the effort to keep both blogs updated concurrently, but after a few months I decided to put Cabinet of Curiosities on permanent hiatus so I could focus all my attention on blogging about videogames - primarily, videogame art. Now, after 250 posts, I feel like I'm hitting my stride with Apocalypse POW!, but I also feel like there's still room to grow.

One of my primary goals with this blog was to draw attention to some of the amazing, clever, wonderful artists out there who focus on videogames in their work, whether through painting, graphic design, sculpture, illustration, digital art and - for lack of a better word - consumer design (a category that would include t-shirts, album covers, application and device skins, and so forth). I've noticed that a lot of blogs don't bother to credit the original artist when reposting their art, and while I can understand the lack of motivation, I also can't help but think that it's somewhat unfair to that artist. To that end, I try to not only credit the artist for every piece that I post here, but I also try to provide at least one link to their home page or, if they have work for sale on Etsy, Redbubble, or the like, a purchase page. At times I've put a great deal of effort into trying to track down the original artist of an image I came across through my daily art-perusing channels, and I consider that a necessary part of what I'm trying to do here - which is to showcase and feature artists that I appreciate and art that appeals to me. Occasionally, despite my best efforts, I won't be able to locate a source for an image that I really want to share... When this comes up, or when I mistakenly attribute an image to the wrong source, I urge anyone who knows better to let me know in the comments.

Right now I'm averaging about 3000 hits a month, and while that isn't a mind-boggling number, I am kind of pleased to note that anyone at all is paying attention to what I'm doing here. All I might ask is that people comment more. I'd really like to get some feedback on what I'm doing right, what I need to be doing more of, and what I need to stop doing altogether. As starry-eyed and idealistic as it may sound, I like the idea that this blog could become more of a community, and that visitors might send me links to other cool art they've found or even their own art. The internet is a huge place, and while I do my best to trawl the more common fishing spots, there are backwaters and tidal pools and whole rivers of cool things I would be posting about if I knew they existed.

As for where I would like to take Apocalypse POW! in the future, I have a few ideas. For a long while I've been posting nothing but art, and I've gotten away from reviews and editorials. There are a few reasons for this. First, being employed full-time doesn't leave me with as much time for gaming as I had when I was in university, and whereas I might have once spent 20 hours playing through a game in the course of a weekend, now I'm lucky if I get 10 hours in a week. Secondly, I tend to write most of my posts from work. This means that while I can easily take five or ten minutes to throw some image tags into one of a handful of pre-existing templates, I rarely get the chance to conceive of, and then write, an actual article made up of words and stuff.

All that aside, I would like Apocalypse POW! to have a more editorial slant going forward. I'd like to get back to my Five-Minute Impressions and One-Line Wonders review features, and start to post more lists as well. I'd like to start featuring more music - nerdcore, geek rock and chiptune music primarily. I have a lot of ideas for Apocalypse POW!, although as always, the main obstacle in achieving everything I'd like to here is time limitations. So with any luck, you'll start seeing both new and returning features in the near future, and I'm always open to your feedback and suggestions and requests.

Heeeeeeere's Johnny

As you can see,  Apocalypse POW! is back on Blogger after an extended, two-month jaunt being hosted on Tumblr.  There are a few reasons why I've decided to forego Tumblr for Blogger:

1. Not once in the four years that either this blog or my previous blog, Copperpott's Cabinet of Curiosities, were hosted on Blogger did I run into time-out errors or "Sorry, our servers are currently overloaded" messages.  On Tumblr, this was a weekly - and often daily - occurence.

2. Tumblr is, at heart, an image feed, and its interface is designed around the idea of allowing members to quickly and easily post pictures.  Blogger, on the other hand, allows for a much wider scope.  It may not be as inherently user-friendly as Tumblr, but I'm accustomed to the way Apocalypse POW! functions on Blogger.

3. It's much easier to track visitor stats and page-hits on Blogger than it is on Tumblr.

Now, don't get me wrong.  I'm not slamming Tumblr, because what it does, it does extremely well.  At the end of the day, I just felt like this blog's potential was being limited by the concept behind Tumblr, in that it's more of a collective, a social network of bloggers.  Blogger, on other hand, puts the focus on individual blogs and I feel more of a sense of creative freedom and less of a sense of obligation to simply reblog the interesting posts that I see there.

Also, take note of the fact that I've done a few redesigns here and there.  Most if it is just cosmetic, but I like the overall effect.

So in short... I'm back on Blogger!

Good News, Everybody!

I'm transitioning over to Tumblr, since it makes following and reblogging much, much easier, so be sure to head over there and check it out! (The Blogger edition of Apocalypse POW! will be put on hiatus for the foreseeable future.)

http://apocalypsepow.tumblr.com/

One-Line Wonders: Ah! MADNESS.

Oh, right -- I have a blog. Huh. Forgot about that.

Actually, no I didn't. I just haven't had time over the last few months to keep it updated as regularly as I'd like, despite my best intentions. I could go into all the extremely boring real-life, grown-up things that have been taking my attention away from Apocalypse POW!, but you'd find them extremely boring. So instead, let's focus on a topic that is relevant to everyone's interests: the games I've been playing, instead of updating here. That's right, it's time for another installment of One-Line Wonders.

Transformers: War For Cybertron (PC, Wii, PS3, 360, DS)

Graphics: 7/10
Sound: 8/10
Gameplay: 7.5/10
Design: 7/10
Semi Truck Trailers Vanishing Post-Transformation: 0
Peter Cullens: 1

If the whole point of Transformers is that they're robots IN DISGUISE, TF:WFC seriously drops the energon ball -- despite some fairly solid squad-based gameplay, I'm not really that interested in Bumblebee and Ratchet transforming into Cybertron-style vehicles and zipping along overwrought, Michael-Bay-ish purple Cyber-avenues.

Optimus, pre-Prime. So young and fancy-free.

Dragon Quest IX: Sentinels of the Starry Skies (DS)

Graphics: 8/10
Sound: 6.5/10
Gameplay: 5/10
Design: 7/10
Monsters Fought To Reach Level 25: Roughly Five Billion
Interest In Alchemising New Items: 1.75/10

I'm apparently the sole dissenter on this, but DQIX fails where DQVIII succeeded: instead of offering a compelling, consistent storyline with well-designed NPCs and teammates, it seems to have been designed with the MMO crowd in mind and is far too open-ended and arbitrary, from its multi-player structure to its all-too-frequent non-random monster encounters to its spawned dungeon (or 'grotto') architectures.

Seasaurs: Not Metal Slime Kings.

Dragon Quest Heroes: Rocket Slime (DS)

Graphics: 6/10
Sound: 6/10
Gameplay: 8.5/10
Design: 8.5/10
Objects That Can Be Fired At The Enemy During Tank Battles: Catnip, Chili Peppers, Yourself
Other RPGs Spoofed: Chrono Trigger, Final Fantasy: Crystal Chronicles, Harvest Moon

Another entry in the Dragon Quest franchise, this one is incredibly fun, humorous, and full of series in-jokes that only a die-hard fan will get (you play a BLUE SLIME, for chrissake; you encounter tanks (TANKS!) based on familiar monsters from the DQ canon; you even rescue Morrie from DQVIII (in slime form, of course) which allows you access to the Tank Masters tournament) and, while aimed at a slightly younger crowd, is a worthy addition to the Dragon Quest universe.

Yes, that tank is a giant Slime. Yes, that's awesome.

Space Invaders Extreme (DS)

Graphics: 9/10
Sound: 8.5/10
Gameplay: 8.5/10
Design: 8/10
Epileptic Attacks Per Second: 2.25
Idea Of What Is Going On Here: None

I picked this game up with a certain amount of jaded cynicism -- I mean, Space Invaders? Really? -- but then I played it for five seconds and my mind was literally blown.

SERIOUSLY WHAT THE EFF IS GOING ON

Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Survivor (DS)

Graphics: 7.5/10
Sound: 6/10
Gameplay: 7.5/10
Design: 7/10
Hipsters and/or Cultists Populating Tokyo: 8,000,000
Number of Games in the Shin Megami Tensei Series I Have Not Played: 23

Like one of my all-time favourite DS games, The World Ends With You, SMT:DS is an unconventional RPG in a contemporary urban setting... But unlike TWEWY, the squad-based combat and "Devil Auction" gets dull in a hurry, and it's fallen out of rotation for me.

Yeah, WENDIGO. We don't like your kind around here.

Singularity (PC, PS3, 360)

Graphics: 8.5/10
Sound: 8.5/10
Gameplay: 8/10
Design: 7.5/10
Timelines Altered: 1 (so far, but it was a doozy)
Freaky Ghost Children Encountered: One Too Many

For every original concept in the FPS genre, there are ten run-of-the-mill entries, but thankfully Singularity is not one of them: the time-shift between 2010 and 1955 concept is artfully executed, and the whole Soviet-environment-with-horrible-monsters thing works surprisingly well.

If Bioshock was inspired by Lenin rather than Rand, and did away with that whole "underwater" gimmick.

Where's My Jetpack?

Just a quick status update: Apocalypse POW! is still alive, but your humble blogger has had far too much on his plate to update in the last couple of weeks - a situation which will be remedied shortly, I assure you.

As for what I've been up to, here's an overview:

· 12/26/09: Assisted my mother in the purchase of a new laptop and wireless router.
· 12/27/09 - 12/28/09: Set up and configured said laptop and router for said parent.
· 12/29/09 - 12/31/09: Preparation for, and execution of, New Year's Eve plans (which mostly involved drinking extensively - on all three days - and watching TRON).
· 1/1/10: A hungover viewing of the Doctor Who season finales, and joint teary farewells to David Tennant, with my roommate.
· 1/2/10 - 1/3/10: The purchase of parts for, and assemblage of, a new HTPC\web server\gaming rig.
· 1/4/10: Start of the school semester.
· 1/5/10 - present: Your standard chaotic first week of classes.

So there you have it.  I am, naturally, very excited about the new rig and getting caught up with all the PC games that have come out since 2004 (which was the last time I was able to play anything new) and subsequently getting even more manic and obsessed with the state of gaming as it stands in 2010.  I've already started playing Batman: Arkham Asylum and Fallout 3 and could not be more impressed with either.  But I'll save my philosophical ruminations on both for a later date.

Also of note (and a brief tale of the origins of Apocalypse POW!):

Sometime in 2010 - hopefully sooner rather than later - this blog will be shifting over to a new domain and joining the Hit Points web family.

The Hits Points is a geek-rock band started by my exceptionally-talented brother Jordan (who is also a webcomic artist!) and Kevin Gau, lead singer of The Left.   Their songs range, in theme and lyrical content, from 8-bit gaming nostalgia to dating a fellow Dungeons & Dragons player to just how mind-bogglingly old Cthulhu is (clue: very old,) and so on, and though I am clearly biased and not in a position to be objective, I'm of the opinion that they sound pretty god-damned great.

About a year ago, around the time the band formed and they were still in the song-writing phase, Jordan, Kevin and I were throwing around ideas for album titles.  I suggested "Apocalypse POW!", which they liked, but there was no way of knowing whether or not they would ever end up using it at that stage, and since I considered it a far-too-brilliant name to pass up just like that, I decided to adopt it as the name of my new blog instead.

Well, it's now a year later and Jordan and Kev are in the studio, putting the final touches on their debut album.  It seems more likely than not that they'll go with the Apocalypse POW! title, which is cool, but will potentially create some cognitive dissonance, so what we've worked out is that we'll be establishing a central blog hub (and by we, I mean myself) which will host a number of affiliated blogs: this one, the official Hit Points blog, a film blog, and possibly others.  

So, exciting developments in the mix.  Watch this space!