Daniel J Isom

I said in my  Turning 39  post last year that I probably wouldn't post something like it this year and I'm not going to. That post was a deep look into what was going on in my life and what had gone on since my  Turning 32  post. Both were written in a sort of stream of consciousness style where I asked a lot of questions and made a lot of statements that I may or may not have stuck to. This post is not that. This is just me recognizing that I am not in my thirties anymore. I am 40 now and I will be in my 40s until I am not. Hopefully I will be in 50s until I am not and then in my 60s until I am not and well...you get what I'm saying. The title of this post comes from a favorite animated show of mine called Aqua Teen Hunger Force . I'm not going to explain what the show is about or why the main characters are anthropomorphic fast food items. You either know it or you don't and either is fine. When I saw the clip again recently, I knew I wanted to use the qu...

   The new school year brought a whole new set of headaches, as we navigated virtually learning. It was an overall better month than August for blog related matters, but not by much. 1)  Write at least 2 blog posts each month We went to the Jurassic Quest exhibit in Philadelphia. Shared my new favorite thing to watch: T90Official's Age of Empires II casts. 2)  Complete the 10 x 2 Board Game Challenge We got the first of two plays needed for Gold West in with Shawn and Kelly. I really like this game a lot, but Christine isn't really a fan. We now need to average 3 plays a month for the rest of the year. I've moved beyond concerned that we might not finish this challenge to seeing it as doubtful.   3)  Bake at least 2 different baked goods each month It took some time before baking commenced in September, but as the temperatures dropped I got more in the mood. I started the month off just making a couple loaves of rustic sourdough. They came out pretty...

  A couple months ago, I started watching various video games being streamed on Twitch. My favorite channel by far has been T90Official, who casts various Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition games. T90Official a.k.a Tristan also shares the best of his content to his Youtube channel . I never thought I'd be a person who watches e-sports regularly, but I guess it's no different than me watching friends playing one player video games when I was younger. There are a lot of tournaments and high level games, so there are hours and hours of games to watch each week. I actually found out that Age of Empires II got a new edition released from another Twitch channel that I watch. I had such fond memories of playing the original over 20 years ago that I needed to know more about the new one. In 2019, the game got updated graphics, campaigns, and civilizations. I downloaded and played a few games on our crappy laptop, but I really want to get a new computer so I can play more often.  No...

July was the month I've been hoping for all along. I did some blogging, we played some games, and there were plenty of tasty baked goods. I don't expect the rest of the year to go this way, but it was a great month overall. 1)  Write at least 2 blog posts each month Christine and I took a trip to  Chesapeake City and the Fairwinds Cottage . I shared one of my favorite YouTube channels,  You Suck At Cooking . 2)  Complete the 10 x 2 Board Game Challenge Thanks to our trip to Chesapeake City, Christine and I had some time to play some games for our challenge. We started off by playing our second game of Warsaw: City of Ruins. I really like how fast the game plays and how fast it ramps up in the later rounds. Split over two days, we played both of our games of Potion Explosion. Christine kicked my ass both times. The first game was closer than I thought, but the second was a bloodbath. We also got in one play of World's Fair 1893 and I pulled out a close victory. I like...

Aside from the baking portion of my monthly accomplishment updates, I haven't done any food related posts in a while. Today, I thought I'd also share another one of my favorite YouTube Channels, You Suck At Cooking . I stumbled upon it a couple years ago when I first started to consume a lot of YouTube content. As I've said in previous posts, I was very late to the game when it came to subscribing to channels. The nice thing about that is I normally have many hours worth of content to watch when I do find a channel I like. Since food is one of my main interests, I started watching a lot of food related channels. The name alone made You Suck At Cooking stick out immediately.  YSAC, as it's sometimes referred to, is a show about cooking (obviously) but it's got humor, original songs, montages of various animals (usually dogs), and reoccurring skits. The videos are normally less than 10 minutes long, so watching all 110 current videos wouldn't take you that long if...

If April was chaotic, May was absolute anarchy. The month flew by as time has seem to have lost all meaning. I spent a lot of time doing yard work and playing outside with the kids. I also started working out more than I have previously, but that's a post for another day. It was an okay month overall, but I'd like to get all three goals running on all cylinders at the same time. 1)  Write at least 2 blog posts each month Highlighted a new show that I really enjoyed called  Dispatches from Elsewhere . Shared the exciting die cast racing channel from  3DBotMaker . 2)  Complete the 10 x 2 Board Game Challenge I was hopeful for May knowing we'd be stuck home every weekend, but the kids just don't make gaming easy for us. I did get to play in person with a couple of friends who spent the night on their way down for vacation. Waiting for the kids to be asleep was key to making that work. Christine and I did play some games online with friends, but the kids spent t...

A few months ago I wrote about my new favorite sport, Marble Racing , something that I'm still very much into (Go Hazers!). Shortly after I got really into watching marbles zoom down sand courses and around formula-1 style tracks, I was turned onto another racing channel. 3DBotMaker is a youtube channel that does something similar to Jelle's Marble Runs, only with 1/64 scale diecast cars. Now I've never been much of a car guy, but my brother and I had hundreds of these diecast cars when were were kids. We'd spend hours making ramps and courses to race them. So naturally I took to watching this after seeing a single race. The ascetics and courses have gotten better and more complex each season. What used to be just plastic track in a room has now become an incredibly elaborate set up with lots of detail using the scenery you'd see on a model train table. Another addition to the production value is a pair of announcers who do commentary on the race, much like wha...

March was certainly and interesting month for us. Christine and the kids were home for most of the month because the schools closed and then moved to distance learning. Working for the Division of Public Health, I've been rather busy dealing with COVID-19 related matters on top of my normal work. Despite the madness, it was a great month for all three things I wanted to accomplish. 1)  Write at least 2 blog posts each month It wasn't a long post, but I covered the new site layout . One of my most read pieces covered my new favorite sport, Marble Racing . I took some time and did the 10 Games Exercise . 2)  Complete the 10 x 2 Board Game Challenge We got back on track and knocked out both plays of Azul. I love how simple the game is, but I don't like how Christine beat my ass both times. With those two plays, we have 16 left to go by year's end. 3)  Bake at least 2 different baked goods each month March was another great baking month. There was no theme, ...

Just before the chaos that is Coronavirus shut everything down, I stumbled upon marble racing. I've always been a fan of oddball sports, so it was no surprise when I immediately took to it. At first, I though it was just videos people had done where a handful of marbles raced down these elaborate sand courses (Marble Rally). Little did I know, it was so much more. Sure, there are some one off races, but there are seasons where marbles qualify to get into them. Then the same marbles compete in race after race, gaining points depending on how they finished. At the end of the season, a champion is crowned. I would have been all in for just the sand courses, but then I found the youtube channel of the people who runs these races. On top of all of the one off races on sand and other elaborate outdoor courses, there are also marble Olympics (now named Marble League). They adapted various Olympic events where both individual and teams of marbles compete for medals. Points are tracke...

I love to laugh so naturally I'm drawn to stand up comedians, sitcoms, and comedy movies. As funny as ensembles casts are on TV and in cinema, watching a single person stand up on stage telling jokes produces the best and hardest laughs from me. I'll laugh so hard that I'll cry, can't breathe, or even hurt my sides. Nobody makes that happen more than Bill Burr . His brand of angry comedy where he rants about everyday situations absolutely kills me.  Rolling Stone magazine called him "the undisputed heavyweight champ of rage-fueled humor". That couldn't be more true. Here's an example of said humor: On The PF Collective , we do a Top 5 topic every week and earlier this year we ranked the best stand up comedians; Bill was obviously my number one choice. His stand up is great but another big reason for that is his Monday Morning Podcast . Twice a week (Monday and then Thursday for the Thursday Afternoon Just-Before-Friday Monday Morning Podcast ) he...

If you were really into Vine before it got shut down, you probably know SungWon Cho a.k.a ProZD . I didn't find out about him until I saw some of his YouTube videos retweeted by people I follow on Twitter. Many of his videos are recordings of him playing multiple characters, often making fun of tropes in video games and anime. He also hilariously covers topical issues like the recent Laurel - Yanny debate. Speaking of that, I've probably watched his video on it a dozen times and shared it with others because I find it so funny. Here it is: Professionally, SungWon Cho is a voice actor and has done work on various video games and TV shows. I wanted to take a minute to highlight him because he's one of my favorite YouTube personalities. Some of his other content includes unboxing videos, board game reviews, and trying various foods, often ramen. If you like to be entertained or have interest in any of the topics I listed, go check out his channel . I promise you won't...

When I'm at work, I tend to listen to music or podcasts. As I mentioned, I've been listening to a lot of Twenty One Pilots as of late. Sometimes I let YouTube just play the videos as they come up so occasionally a cover of their music gets mixed in. That's how I found GnuS Cello's channel . GnuS Cello is run by Stefano Cabrera , a musician who mostly plays the cello, ukele, and seagull merlin guitar. It was his instrumental of "Ride" by Twenty One Pilots that came up and I fell in love with it immediatly. I had forgotten how much I loved listening to the cello. My brother used to play when he was school and is/was incredibly talented. I hope he decides to pick it up again. Above is that cover I spoke about. Please give it a listen because Stefano is incredible. He also does covers of many other artists including: Linkin Park, Imagine Dragons, Coldplay, Sia, and a many others. I don't watch the videos every time, opting to just listen, but I do reall...

This post is going to be short one but I wanted to bring your attention to a YouTube channel that I really enjoy run by Chevee Dodd . He runs a show called  The Daily Shed  which is "a YouTube series with new videos, Monday thru Friday. This is a sort of talk show… not a vlog… and in it, I discuss topics suggested by the community and then we all have fun in the comments." Each video is normally between five and ten minutes long and could be about anything. He talks about things going on in his life, shares other YouTube content to check out, shares wood working projects he's doing, talks about board games and that industry, and a whole lot of other topics. Chevee's openness to share personal stories is what really drew me in over the past few months. I used to check a video out here and there when I saw a topic that was interesting but now it's something I look forward to every weeknight. I've even gone back and watched nearly all of the episodes he...