Heyyy, welcome to the GNAPcast: your source of geekly entertainment! Tune in every Thursday as we talk about everything from LEGOs to Brit Lit and beyond!
Episodes
Thursday Feb 14, 2019
Thursday Feb 14, 2019
Heyyy, welcome to the GNAPcast--your source of geekly entertainment!
Where we last left off (cue ripple dissolve), Seth and David were meandering through the alphabet naming off their favourite Star Wars Legends characters...until they both completely forgot how the alphabet works.
So, in an effort to correct that mistake (and find out who Seth's letter "L" character is), we present the second almost-half of the Star Wars alphabet in our longest episode ever! (There are still spoilers, but at least we fixed the counting problem this time. ;))
Fun Facts & Extra Stuff! - David
Weekly GEM (David) - Basso profundo is a specific range of extremely low bass voice, which is coincidentally also shared by Sir Christopher Lee (Count Dooku)!
L (Seth) - Among others, Mark Hamill has portrayed The Joker (Batman), Judah (Joseph, King of Dreams), Fire Lord Ozai (Avatar The Last Airbender), and Master Eraqus (Kingdom Hearts series).
N (David) - I was correct! The Lost Tribe of the Sith are directly connected to the ancient Sith Naga Sadow, through a series of novellas that manage to cross five thousand years of Legends canon.
W (David) - Rather than the Blue Angels, the X-Wing novels are more along the lines of Top Gun, but if Top Gun were a series.
Y (Seth) - Knights of the Old Republic was released to consoles in 2003, while the Darth Bane trilogy were released from 2006-2009. I still remember reading the third book of the trilogy when it was brand new...ten years ago.
Thursday Feb 07, 2019
Thursday Feb 07, 2019
Heyyy, welcome to the GNAPcast--your source of geekly entertainment!
(Editor's Note: For your reference, this episode was originally recorded in January of 2018, just after the release of The Last Jedi. That's how far in advance we record these.)
Featuring a brand-new opening segment, join Seth and David this week as they dive deep into all 35 years' worth of Legends lore and name off their favourite characters, all the way through the alphabet! (As such, there will be spoilers in this episode too.)
Don't worry if you've never heard of most of these characters, either--we love talking about these stories and will explain just enough to pique your interest. ...Yeah, who are we kidding? We'll explain way more than you ever wanted to know!
Either way, come along with us for another trip through hyperspace into that galaxy far, far away! (And also discover that neither David nor Seth can count letters. Oops.)
Fun Facts & Extra Stuff! - Seth
A (David) - Admiral Ackbar's homeworld is known by two names--it's referred to in-universe either as "Dac" or as "Mon Calamari."
C (David) - The only other name by which Darth Cognus is ever referred to in Dynasty of Evil is simply "The Huntress."
E (Seth) - Etain's son, named Venku, reappears in the first several volumes of the "Legacy of the Force" series as a prominent figure in Mandalorian politics.
I (Seth) - By "controversial topic," I mean that the Jedi Order has been extremely inconsistent about their stance on marriage throughout the stories. During the time of the Tales of the Jedi comics, for example (set in 4000 BBY), marriage wasn't forbidden amongst Jedi as it was during the Rise of the Empire era. Luke Skywalker's restored New Jedi Order also did not disallow marriage (for obvious reasons, as you'll see later)
K - Interestingly enough, Kyp Durron has been a controversial character both in- and out of universe, due to his impressive Force abilities, headstrong nature, and overall character arc throughout numerous books.
L (David) - Timothy Zahn, author of the Heir to the Empire trilogy, wrote a short story called "An Apology" several years back that prominently featured Luuke Skywalker.
Thursday Jan 31, 2019
Thursday Jan 31, 2019
Heyyy, welcome to the GNAPcast--your source of geekly entertainment!
Here we go again with another Google Autofill game, this time centered on the much-beloved puzzle series Portal! (As such, this episode contains heavy spoilers for both Portal and Portal 2. You have been warned.)
Join Seth and David as they ask Google (and each other) insightful questions about gaming's dumbest robot, gaming's most cake-loving robot, and possibly the worst company CEO of all time--looking at you, Cave Johnson.
Fact Checks & Extra Stuff! - David
"Does Wheatley Love Chell?" -- Isaac Asimov's Three Laws of Robotics
"Is GLaDOS Evil?" -- All we had to do was pull that lever
"Is Cave Johnson a Real Person?" -- More of J.K. Simmons' memorable voice roles
"Is Cave Johnson a Real Person?" -- The famous lemons rant
David's Fun Fact: In the Portal games, abusing the camera is one of my favorite pasttimes! I used detached cameras to speedrun two different test chambers in Portal 1--Chamber 17 (using only two portals and a camera stacked on the Companion Cube), and Chamber 18 (cleared in 47 seconds using a detached camera to prop open the door).
Thursday Jan 24, 2019
Thursday Jan 24, 2019
Heyyy, welcome to the GNAPcast--your source of geekly entertainment!
Welcome to the first episode of Season 2! It's been a long time in coming, but it's finally here. We've got all sorts of new stuff in store for you guys, so buckle up and grab your beverage of choice--it's gonna be a trip!
Join Seth and David as they travel back a long time ago, to a galaxy far, far away as they discuss and expound on Star Wars: Legends! We mentioned it a handful of times in Season 1, but the Legends canon is something very dear to our hearts. In this episode, we explain just exactly what that means and why we love it so much. (And also spoil a lot of books. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED. TWICE.)
Not only that, but we give you some free lessons on literary terms, so you're even learning something useful! ;)
Seth's Fun Fact: David and I first met while both of us were trying to explain the game of sabacc, which we mention about halfway through the episode.
Thursday Dec 20, 2018
Thursday Dec 20, 2018
Heyyy, welcome to the GNAPcast!
'Twas the week before Christmas and all 'cross the booth, not a creature was stirring save three nerdy goofs.
Seth Andrew and Cassie were having some fun, then David said, "Hey wait, I'll record that one."
He dashed to the console and set up some mics, then checked to eliminate awkward volume spikes;
And with a thumbs-up we all started to talk, in accents with a script that was no cakewalk;
Til finally we came to the end of the scene, and now here it is-- you'll see what we mean.
The Mousetrap invites now, all cheerful and odd, but as we perform it, there's no need to applaud.
A wintertime mystery to dry all your tears, or at least that's the hope til Season 2 premieres!
Wednesday Nov 21, 2018
Wednesday Nov 21, 2018
Heyyy, welcome to the GNAPcast! Here, for your listening pleasure, is the third installment of the GNAPcast Season 1 bonus features!
In a special aftershow episode following their discussion on Greek mythology, join Seth and David again as they chat about their favourite mythological monsters (as well as some less mythological ones), and show exactly why they should never be freestyle rappers in a new bit called "Deliberately Awkward Raps!"
Now for some quick updates:
Season 2 of the GNAPcast will premiere in January 2019! We have a lot of new things in store for this season and can't wait to share them with you.
We mentioned this one being a Patreon episode at the very beginning. That was a plan we had for the GNAPcast that wasn't able to go anywhere at the time due to life, but we are working on setting up a Patreon account! You can follow Seth on Twitter @seaofinkmedia for updates and whatnot.
Saturday Oct 20, 2018
Saturday Oct 20, 2018
Heyyy, welcome to the GNAPcast! Life has an odd way of interrupting things that are supposed to happen, but without further ado, enjoy this second offering of bonus features!
Featuring Seth and David, join the GNAPcast hosts once again as they tackle the famous Who's On First? sketch, originally performed by the comedy duo Abbot and Costello.
See you soon!
Friday Sep 21, 2018
Friday Sep 21, 2018
Heyyy, welcome to the GNAPcast! This is the first of the Season 1 bonus features coming your way, only a day late because life. (We're working on it...)
Anyhow, behold the GNAPpetizer! Contained within are some of Seth and David's favorite moments from the first season, featuring bloopers, David Outta Left Field, a plethora of particularly pallid plosives (otherwise known as beatboxing), and much more! Enjoy!
Thursday Sep 06, 2018
Thursday Sep 06, 2018
Heyyy, welcome to the GNAPcast! This is just a little announcement from Seth, letting you guys know what to expect until Season 2 comes out! (I also apologize PROFUSELY about the somewhat worse quality of the audio--the software and I fought over that track for five and a half hours.)
Update Dates (All are Thursdays at 3:30 EST):
September 20th
October 18th
November 15th
December 20th
The new season will drop on January 17th (provided the universe and our computers don't explode first)!
Also, here are links to our social media pages!
Thursday Aug 30, 2018
Thursday Aug 30, 2018
Heyyy, welcome to the season finale of the GNAPcast! In our last episode of Season 1, David explained the science and strategy behind the competitive event of speedcubing, or solving Rubik's Cubes really quickly. His explanations made too much sense, though, so we turned to the internet and decided to ask it questions about them!
Just when you thought Rubik's Cubes were complex enough, we find a way to make them even more convoluted! Join Seth and David for our last episode of Season 1 as we play Google Autofill with Rubik's Cubes (though not at the same time, that might be difficult).
It's been a great season! We've enjoyed sharing all this craziness with you guys and are really looking forward to more. Tune in next week for a quick GNAP-date. (Yes, we did really just say that.)
Fact Checks and Extra Stuff! - David
Again, because this episode was recorded so far in advance, some of the information is a little outdated. Never fear, though! Here are some further explanations and links for you to find out for yourself:
F - Here's a link to The Cubicle, if you want to buy your own puzzle cube.
K - And here's a link to ZCube, for all of your puzzle cube or keychain needs!
L - The Rubik's Cube mechanism
N - Here's a forum post from SpeedSolving, talking about more of those bizarre cube names.
O - An online timer, in case you want to try your luck.
P - Herbert Kociemba's website
U - We may have already included this link in the last episode, but here is Kevin Hays' underwater world record video.
V - Back at The Cubicle! In addition to puzzle cubes, you can also find some silicon-based cube lubricants (cubricants??) here.
W - The name I couldn't remember in the episode was SeungBeom Cho (who does go by Steve, so I got that right). However, the current world record (as of May 5th) is by Feliks Zemdegs, with 4.22 seconds.
X - The X and O Method is also called the Ortega Method, or the Corners-First Method. To use this algorithm, you solve all of the corners (creating an 'X' on each side with the center pieces), and then solve the edges while using the corners as a reference. This was actually the very first method I used to solve a cube, though I had no idea what I was doing at the time. You can read more about it here.
Z - Since this is an audio episode and I'm talking about an extremely visual thing, here are some links to the kinds of things I'm talking about! This is the zigzag pattern, and here are some other ones.