Some poor lady walked into the train tracks and died :(

It’s the thought that counts. Mother’s Day vlog up now!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jkt5Dkx0m5s

“Why don’t you ever discuss controversial issues on StephenVlog?” I’ll tell you.

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It’s available! Go download the album if you’re into this sort of thing.

This contains all 24 tracks that I used in the StephenPlays Pokédex video. They are, as the album art explains, simply the MIDI files from Red & Blue with the instruments altered—an incredibly simple process using Garageband. Even so, people have been asking where they could get the tracks, so now they’re available. Have fun, and happy listening!

First off, if you’re reading this and haven’t seen it yet, watch the completed StephenPlays Pokédex video. Do it. I’ll wait.

That video is much more than some funny words and drawings. It represents the past few months of my life, and watching the video fills me with all sorts of emotions. Someone pointed out that from the time I first released a video about the then upcoming Pokémon LP to the completed Pokédex, exactly one year (well, 366 days) passed by. An entire year! The actual LP only went on for about 9 months, but that’s still a ton of time.

This was easily the largest and most difficult video project I’ve ever undertaken. It probably didn’t seem like such a big deal when looking at individual episodes, but standing back now and viewing the entire process and how much work went into creating everything blows my mind. I’m not trying to toot my own horn—while I am proud of myself for completing it, there were some serious problems along the way, and I learned a lot of things about myself and the ways I deal with stress.

I’m happy to report that as of today, however, I feel almost completely stress-free. Even though I’m still about 2 weeks behind on the vlog, we have 10 mail videos to record, and I have no LP videos currently in reserve—I feel amazing. I’m not sure people who watch the vlog realized how much stress this project put me under at times. November and December were very brutal in particular. To know that it’s all behind me is an incredible feeling.

It also comes at a great time in the channel’s life. StephenPlays has been doing wonderfully lately, with over 10,000 new subscribers in the last four months (nearly half of those coming in the month of April alone). We have continued to grow over on StephenVlog as well, just hitting another milestone of 20,000 total subscribers. I’m amazed and humbled by the numbers that were so much smaller not so long ago. I thank everyone from the bottom of my heart for continuing to support us and enjoying our content. Mal thanks you, too.

Now then, what’s ahead? Uncharted 2 has begun and is receiving very positive attention, and I’m super excited to play through it. I don’t think I talked enough about it, but Uncharted was one of the best games I played in 2012. (I’d say the best but I played Shadow of the Colossus!). From the small amount I’ve played so far I can already tell it’s going to be an amazing game.

After Uncharted 2—if everything goes according to plan—I’ll be doing Ico, the “sequel” to Shadow of the Colossus (it was actually created before, but the events happen after). Anyone who has seen our Shadow of the Colossus LP will know I spent a lot of time researching the game and polishing every aspect of the episodes. You should expect the same level of quality for Ico. In addition, Thomas recently gave me a copy of the novelization of Ico, which is something I’d like to read before doing the LP, so I can incorporate aspects of that as well. It’s going to be a large project, but I honestly feel capable of anything now that Pokémon is behind me.

The only uncertainty is what will follow Twilight Princess. Currently Mal and I have a few games in mind but we haven’t decided on one quite yet. You could be seeing something retro like Kirby’s Dream Land 3, or something more modern, like TimeSplitters: Future Perfect. We’re also eager to start Dead Island, though I wouldn’t expect that next.

I’ve also been asked when we’re going to announce the winner of the contest for Twilight Princess. Soon! The reason we haven’t already is that we plan on having an additional contest. We’re giving away a copy of the game, but we’d also like to give away a Twilight Princess-themed StephenShop shirt. The only problem is that we’ve been so busy working on Pokémon (and, to a lesser extent, Chugga’s new logo) that we haven’t had time to finalize it. Once it’s done, we’ll end the current contest and start the new one. Oh, and you’ll be able to buy the new Zelda-themed shirt, too.

We actually have a laundry list of shirt designs on paper—nearly 10 new ones—that should be coming to life within the next few months. At least one of them isn’t actually related to our videos at all, and is an old shirt design Mallory created while in college. We’re hoping to bring this to the store for anyone interested in wearing her designs, because they’re pretty awesome. There’s no release date set for any of this stuff, so keep your eye on the Vlog/Twitter/Facebook.

Alright, I’ve rambled on long enough, so go back to watching animated gifs.

~Stephen

…George Jones. Not the soda. (This time, at least.)

I was thinking about this earlier and figured I should write it down somewhere lest I forget, and since I’m trying to use tumblr more, this seemed like a good place.

George Jones passed away today at the age of 81. For those not in the know, he was a very, very famous country music star, with a career that spanned 50+ years. If you’ve never heard his stuff, search YouTube for “White Lightning” or “He Stopped Loving Her Today.” I’m not the biggest country music fan, but George Jones was a musician I could definitely appreciate.

He was also my grandfather’s (my mom’s dad) favorite musician. My grandfather was a singer/songwriter himself, and a self-taught guitar player. He enjoyed both gospel and country music, and would regularly perform at various venues and record music in his studio. He always loved George Jones and said he was his favorite musician. He’d even play his songs during performances and record covers for his albums.

In 2006, it just so happened that the stars aligned, and my grandfather visited us at the same time George Jones was playing a one-night only concert here in Myrtle Beach. Our whole family got tickets.

The special part was the fact that despite being his favorite artist, my grandfather had never actually had the chance to see George Jones in concert before. This was the first time.

I’m not sure what it’s like to follow a musician’s career for 50 years since I haven’t lived that long, but needless to say, my grandfather thoroughly enjoyed that concert. He talked about it for months.

That was the first and only time my grandfather would see Jones in concert, since he passed away three years later, in 2009. Today more than ever, I’m happy that I was able to attend that concert with him, and remember the excitement and happiness on his face.

As an interesting side note, I almost didn’t attend that concert because *my* favorite band, They Might Be Giants, was playing that same night in Charleston, SC. It would have been my first time seeing them, just as it was the first time my grandfather saw George Jones.

Also interesting is the fact that had I gone to the TMBG concert, I could have possibly run into my good buddy/librarian Thomas, who was at the concert that night. We wouldn’t meet for another 5 years, in 2011.

More interesting still? I recently went to that Charleston venue (Music Farm). It was a They Might Be Giants concert. And Mal and I went… with Thomas.

Hope you enjoyed my story! :D