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That's PS!

Tag Archives: vlog

Easy DIY Boss Monster Insert

25 Friday Mar 2016

Posted by allhailskippy in Nerdcrafting

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allhailskippy, Boss Monster, Boss Monster 1, Boss Monster 2, Boss Monster Insert, craft, crafting, crafts, DIY, DIY Boss Monster insert, DIY Insert, how-to, HowTo, Nerd crafting, Nerd Crafts, nerdcrafting, Paper Craft, pattern, That's Pauls Show, That's PS!, thatsps, tutorial, vlog

I was at my friendly local game store (FLGS) a few years ago (and a different local ago) when my eyes happened upon a game that as soon as I saw the artwork on, I instantly had to have. That game was Boss Monster. The cover is an 8-bit style that looks like it belongs on an old NES cartridge. Once I’d opened up the box, I was most definitely not disappointed. Every card was its own piece of pixellated

Buy Boss Monster 1 & 2

(Affiliate Link)

retro art. And the best part, you get to play as the boss monster themselves as you try to thwart the hordes of unwitting do gooders who are constantly trying to break down the doors of your trap laden den of nefariousness. How cool is that? So when I saw that there was an expansion, I of course had to acquire that bad boy too.

Skip ahead a few years. I’ve recently been trying to clean up my board game storage to better accommodate all of the various games I’ve managed to collect over the last little while and I when I got to my copies of Boss Monster 1 & 2, I realized that I wasn’t really storing them all that well, since you can’t really fit all both games cards into a single box properly. So I sat down with both games, and ended up designing a simple solution to store all of the components in a single box, made out of components from both boxes.

That design is one I’ll share with you today as I teach you how to make your very own Boss Monster insert out of not much more than some card stock, glue and a couple magnets.









Boss Monster Insert

Boss Monster Insert

Temple of Elemental Evil Unboxing – [Dungeons & Dragons]

11 Friday Mar 2016

Posted by allhailskippy in Unboxing

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5h Edition, allhailskippy, D&D, D&D Board Game, D&D Unboxing, DnD, Dungeons and Dragons, Elemental Evil, Elemental Evil Unboxing, Temple of Elemental Evil, Temple of Elemental Evil Unboxing, That's Pauls Show, That's PS!, thatsps, Unboxing, vlog

Last last year I purchased myself a copy of Wizards of the Coast’s latest entry into their Dungeon & Dragons adventure system board games; Temple of Elemental Evil. It’s the 4th game in a series of games that are very simplified versions of the D&D table top games. I enjoy them because they don’t take a great deal of prep, and can be played by pretty much any body regardless of their knowledge of the Dungeons & Dragons system.

Since these games are usually jam packed with lots of cool pieces, I figured I’d record myself opening up the box, and showing you all what’s on the inside. I was not disappointed. There are LOTS of miniatures, a bunch of tiles, and a crazy amount of little cardboard pieces that while not used every time you play the game, are all part of the overall gameplay as you return again and again to battle the forces of elemental evil.

One of the things that really stood out as different than the previous versions, is the fact that the core gameplay is based on 5th edition, instead of 4th edition. I found that this really simplified a bunch of the game mechanics, in turn making the whole game play just a bit smoother. The other major change is the fact that this game also has a campaign mode, so as you progress through the game, you retain some items, and the deck has different components added depending on the outcome of your previous play throughs.

I hope you enjoy as much as I’ve enjoyed playing this game since I opened it. Which is a lot!

You can get your own copy from Amazon.com (Affiliate Link):

Temple of Elemental Evil Unboxing

DIY Lego Dimensions Case

04 Friday Mar 2016

Posted by allhailskippy in Nerdcrafting

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allhailskippy, craft, crafting, crafts, DIY, DIY Lego, DIY Lego Case, DIY Lego Dimensions, how-to, HowTo, Lego, Lego Box, Lego Case, Lego Dimensions, Lego Dimensions Box, Lego Figurines, Nerd crafting, Nerd Crafts, nerdcrafting, pattern, Paul Mason, Paul the DIY guy, police box, That's PS!, thatsps, tutorial, vlog

Lego Dimensions Case

Has it really been almost 3 years since I added content here? Crazyness. Amazing how time flies. Well time to get this party re-started!

I’ve recently started playing the latest game in the series of Lego games, LEGO Dimensions.

It’s incredibly fun, and I’ve been collecting all of the figurines as they’ve come out, which left me with the issue of figuring out a way to store all of them.

To solve this, I designed a case that I think fits the bill.

It takes a couple hours from start to finish to build (excluding painting.. which takes a few hours on its own) but for me it’s totally worth it. I end up with a handy way to store all my Lego characters, and it looks pretty cool too.

Pattern is available here

Lego Dimensions Case

Norman Rockwell Coke Puzzle

10 Thursday May 2012

Posted by allhailskippy in Challenges

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allhailskippy, Barefoot, challenge, Coca-Cola, Coke, Jig-Saw Puzzle, Jigsaw Puzzle, juggling, Norman Rockwell, Paul and Shawn, puzzle, puzzles, That's Pauls Show, That's PS!, thatsps, toy shelf, vlog

I was out of ideas when I did this video, so I spent some time looking around my place for something I could film. As it turned out, I hadn’t done a puzzle in a REALLY long time, and happened to have a 500 piece one I like in my closet. I decided to give it a whirl.

It only took me about 3 hours to complete the whole thing, which means I got approximately 1 piece in place every 20 seconds or so. It felt pretty quick (although my butt would disagree as it was quite sore from sitting on hardwood for that long) Videos that I’ve done since then where I had to sit on the ground have included my bean bag chair for comfort.

When putting a puzzle together (and I’ve done more than a few in my time), I almost always start with the outside pieces first. I find them fairly easy to locate in the box, and it gives me a pretty good idea where everything is going to go. The best part of this step is getting a hold of the corner pieces. There are so few of them, it feels like finding a treasure each time.

Once I’ve got the outside complete, or nearly complete, I sort by colour. Typically different areas have common colours. And while I’m doing that, I separate any easily distinguishable pieces, like faces, hands or words. This is only possible on smaller puzzles. Once you pass the 1000 piece mark, you just have to take some colours at a time, and work with what you’ve got instead of pulling them all out of the box.

Continue reading »

Advice for starting a Vlog

01 Tuesday May 2012

Posted by allhailskippy in Blog Posts

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advice, allhailskippy, beyond viral, creativity, g+, google plus, google+, how-to, ira glass, marketing, nalts, nalty, starting a vlog, That's PS!, thatsps, videos, vlog

I was asked by Chuck on Google+ if I had any advice for starting a vlog for those who are slow to get started. And it turns out that I do. If you’re thinking about making a vlog (or any other type of video). Here’s my advice. I hope it’s helpful for you.

I found this video to be a great motivator for me. He really nails on the head what I think a lot of people go through (if not everybody) as beginners.

  • Do it because you enjoy/want to do it. If it feels like a job, or you’re making something for an “audience”. It’s just not worth it. I know I talk to an “audience” a bit in my videos, but I really do enjoy watching what I’ve made myself (as well as making them)
  • Just do it. Take out your camera and start filming. Once you’ve got some film, find a video editor that matches your price range, and cut it together. There’s lots of them out there and they range from free to bloody expensive. Expensive doesn’t mean better either. Just try and find one that works for you. I use Final Cut Pro X, and though I know a LOT of people hate it, but it works well for me. You’ll learn as you go, and find what does and doesn’t work well for you. But your first video will not likely never be “perfect”, and the best way to find out what to do is to start doing it. I found originally that setting myself to a set schedule helped force me to put content out. It forced me to consider them “good enough”, and then move on to the next thing. I’m putting out less content now, and putting more time into each one, but I also have a personal goal of “once a month” so that I don’t end up putting it off indefinitely.
  • Find someone who can give you brutally honest feedback. The people who you know (friends and/or family) are likely the people who are going to watch your videos first. They’ll say things like “that’s good” or “I really like this”, but they will rarely have the heart to tell you the things that they don’t like for fear of sounding nitpicky or negative. The single biggest factor for me improving my videos was finding a friend who was able to tell me everything they didn’t like about my videos. It can be hard to hear, especially after you’ve put a lot of effort into them, but they’re often right. And if that person thinks it, you know that people who watch your videos that don’t know you will probably think it as well, but rather than tell you, they’ll just leave quietly.
  • Be flexible. Start with an idea, but don’t let that idea keep you from growing or changing. I started by challenging a friend to do weekly videos. Now I make nerdy crafts. It evolves, and I hope over time will continue to evolve. I like to try new things to see if they work. If they do, great. If they don’t, let them go. As long as you’re happy with what you’re making, that’s all that matters.
  • Read as much as you can. Read everything from “how-to” articles online to marketing books. Nalts has an interesting one about viral marketing, and what that really means on YouTube. It’s a bit dated, but a good read none the less. Making the video is half the battle. Getting people to actually want to watch them is the other half, and there’s no “easy” way to do that.

If you haven’t done so already, I’d highly recommend watching the vlogbrothers vlogs. The final motivator to get me to actually put my videos online was their channel. I started watching them from the very beginning. They were super low tech. They didn’t really know what they were doing. They didn’t have much in the way of editing, or polish and they weren’t doing it for the crazy fan base they have now. It was just 2 brothers with an idea of talking to each other over videos every day for a year, and the commitment to actually do it. I figured if they could do that, there was no reason I couldn’t do the same thing (not their idea, but just the actual doing it)

I hope that something in here’s enough to get you up and going on that thing you’ve got floating in your head as just an idea now.

 

Bel-Air Beat Poet

27 Friday Apr 2012

Posted by allhailskippy in Challenges

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allhailskippy, beat poet, bel-air, challenge, fresh prince, fresh prince of bel-air, lyrics, poem, poetry, Sean and Paul, Shawn and Paul, spoken word, That's PS!, thatsps, vlog

When I started That’s PS! It was supposed to be a weekly video where myself and Shawn challenged each other to do something. And although that’s not how thing have ended up, it was a great way to motivate me to put “something” out each week and really force myself to learn something, finish and move on.

We weren’t looking for perfection for the first video. Just something that was made to the best of our current abilities, and I think that this fit the bill nicely.

This is the first video I made that I didn’t think was completely horrible. It’s still pretty bad, but I felt like I was on the right side of the learning curve.

It’s got multiple cuts, some picture in picture, and a fancy filter and everything. OK, so it’s not the next James Cameron movie, but it’s a start.

I hope you enjoy this in the spirit in which it was made.

Cheers!

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