Claims of the Normal

Claims of the Normal #085: 2012-05-27

editor@csicon.org (Breki Tomasson) — Sun, 27 May 2012 19:43:06 +0000

We’re back with another great episode! Your definition of ‘great’ still might not agree with ours, we’re nonetheless sure that you’ll definitely agree that this show is great!

This week, we talk about The Eurovision Song Contest, an intergalactic politics expert, weird jelly-like jelly, and the hypospray from Star Trek, now in real life. Exciting stuff! … Or maybe not so exciting, because we believe Petter actually fell asleep during the recording of this episode. Oh you!

In this week’s Deathmatch of Death and More Death; Team Petter pulls V (from V for Vendetta) out of his pocket, which Team Arkenor answers with their own very own Gandalf! The vote is yours!

Claims of the Normal #084: 2012-05-20

editor@csicon.org (Breki Tomasson) — Sun, 20 May 2012 16:57:35 +0000

We’re back with another great episode! Your definition of ‘great’ may not agree with ours, but you’ll definitely agree that this show is great, no matter what your definition is!

This week, we talk about intellectual property rights, piracy and feeling entitled. Then we realize that this is Claims of the Normal and head over to la-la land, in which a discussion about the Mayan calendar reveals that not all is as it seems. After that, we head over to a more interesting la-la land, in which we learn that Icelandic politicians care deeply about elves. Petter reminds us of a Kickstarter to support, so go do that, folks!

Also, Superman has a bulge. I’m not sure if that’ll come in handy when he fights Wolverine in this week’s Deathmatch of Death and More Death, however!

Claims of the Normal #083: 2012-05-06

editor@csicon.org (Breki Tomasson) — Sun, 06 May 2012 19:37:00 +0000

This is Claims of the Normal for Sunday, May sixth!

This week, we talk about a time-travelling lawywer, the possibility of life on Mars, with some trivia about chicken soup or something like that. Also, Petter and Arkenor answer tricky questions about The Avengers. This week, the Deathmatch of Death and More Death sees Team Arkenor being represented by Captain Jean-Luc Picard. Team Petter pulls Link out of his green hat and the battle commences!

Claims of the Normal #082: 2012-04-29

editor@csicon.org (Breki Tomasson) — Sun, 29 Apr 2012 21:29:22 +0000

This is Claims of the Normal for Sunday, April 29th!

This week, we talk about the Loch Ness Monster, whether or not Hotel California is related to the Church of Satan (it isn’t). Also, Dr. Simon Boxall says the picture is not one of the Loch Ness Monster. Then Breki freaks out over two plastic-looking women.

Deathmatch of Death and More Death this week sees Team Arkenor being represented by Hermione Granger. Team Petter pulls out a Sherlock Holmes and challenges the opposition!

Claims of the Normal #081: 2012-04-15

editor@csicon.org (Breki Tomasson) — Sun, 15 Apr 2012 20:11:11 +0000

This is Claims of the Normal, episode 81, for March fifteenth!

This week, I meet up with Petter and Arkenor to discuss a weird whale-sized object that fell from the sky, leaving no trace as to what it might have been or why it might have glowed green. Petter – who we can now see aging an entire year – believes it was aliens. Arkenor does not, but believes that a more rational and simple description could explain it. I subscribe to the weather balloon and/or swamp gas theory that will not send Men In Black to my home. Also, buy a book. I hear it’s good. UFOs: Generals, Pilots, and Government Officials Go on the Record is the name, Leslie Kean is the author.

Claims of the Normal #080: 2012-04-08

editor@csicon.org (Breki Tomasson) — Sun, 08 Apr 2012 18:36:55 +0000

This is Claims of the Normal, episode 80, for April 8^th, 2012.

In this episode, Petter, Arkenor and I talk about unexplained melting in Iceland, which Petter (of course) thinks is due to some nefarious alien influence. We then play ‘Is it a Condom or an Android Handset‘, followed by the first fight of round two in Deathmatch of Death and More Death! Enjoy!

Claims of the Normal #079: 2012-03-25

editor@csicon.org (Breki Tomasson) — Sun, 25 Mar 2012 20:02:50 +0000

Another week, another episode.

This week, Petter takes over Quiz Kids – because I’ve been too busy to write one and nobody else sent one in, really. Good times! Also, I’ve realized that I’ve made a horrible mistake in Deathmatch! More on that in our next episode! Enjoy!

Claims of the Normal #078: 2012-03-18

editor@csicon.org (Breki Tomasson) — Sun, 18 Mar 2012 20:57:11 +0000

This week, we tackle the difficult questions of our times. Space Nazis, blasphemy, cartoons giving our children occultic powers and the mysteries of cats going missing.

You can sponsor an episode of the show right here, read more about the hole in Austria, hear the Space Pope’s decree or more proof that Yoda is a Satanic Lord.

Claims of the Normal #077: 2012-03-11

editor@csicon.org (Breki Tomasson) — Sun, 11 Mar 2012 18:45:45 +0000

Like clockwork, on Sunday evenings, Arkenor and Petter appear on my list of people to call on Skype, and we settle down for another brilliant episode of Claims of the Normal.

This week, we introduce our new segment, Surrealist Investigation, where we recount the mysterious tale of China banning reincarnation without government approval, all in order to oppress and silence our good friend the Dolby Lama. We also look into the attempted time travel suicide of two young Chinese people that doesn’t seem to have gone exactly as planned. Also, there’s life on Mars. Or so we chose to believe.

In this week’s Quiz Kids, I ask Petter and Arkenor the trickiest of tricky questions; which television series had the following theme song? With 24 shows, both modern and antique, on the list, hilarity is sure to ensue. Then we hear the results of the Deathmatch of Death and More Death, learning what happened when Hermione Granger stood up against the oppressive regime that Inspector Gadget had tried to impose upon her. We also get two new fighters going head to head in this exciting tournament, which is now nearing the end of round one!

Let us know if you’re interested in joining the Kickstarter group for creating a huge mech of me, Breki Tomasson, that will roam the desert and shoot lasers out of its eyes. I think we’re on to something here.

Claims of the Normal #076: 2012-03-04

editor@csicon.org (Breki Tomasson) — Sun, 04 Mar 2012 14:50:57 +0000

Claims of the Normal is back, and Petter and Arkenor join me for a quick little romp through Quiz Kids and the Deathmatch!

We’ve got a new segment in planning, and will probably announce it in next week’s episode! More on that later! We’re also out of questions for Quiz Kids! Send them to us and we’ll have something to do next week!

Claims of the Normal #075: 2012-02-26

editor@csicon.org (Breki Tomasson) — Sun, 26 Feb 2012 20:15:59 +0000

It’s Claims of the Normal, so Petter and Arkenor join me on Skype for a run around the block.

It’s come to our attention that we’ve gone and put Claims of the Normal in a difficult position. MMO gaming news have moved over to The Three MMOsketeers and general geek news are over in Geek Positive. What remains for Claims of the Normal apart from Quiz Kids and Deathmatch? That’s where you guys come in; let us know what you want us to talk about!

Claims of the Normal #074: 2012-02-19

editor@csicon.org (Breki Tomasson) — Sun, 19 Feb 2012 17:44:23 +0000

Sorry for last week, but here we are; twice as interesting, twice as fun and twice as bantery! (Is that even a word?)

This week, we talk about our exciting and interesting lives (and all of our new cats!), our two new podcasts, the fate of Star Wars: The Old Republic and play an interesting bout of Quiz Kids and Deathmatch of Death and More Death. Things haven’t been better in a long time.

Oh; here’s the galaxy song; you’ll understand when you get there in the podcast.

Claims of the Normal #073: 2012-02-05

editor@csicon.org (Breki Tomasson) — Sun, 05 Feb 2012 20:40:01 +0000

It’s Sunday Evening, so I sit back down with Arkenor and Petter for an episode of Claims of the Normal.

We learn that Petter and I are siamese twins joined by the aura, that Arkenor features heavily in Swedish games journalism, that Star Wars: The Old Republic has sold surprisingly well, and that Soul Calibur V was a bit of a disappointment. We also had a bit of a diversion by talking about TV series, for once. Once Upon a Time and Alcatraz were mentioned. Briefly.

In Quiz Kids, Petter and Arkenor are challenged by Jon Broadley’s Guinness Book of World Record questions, with questions about the world’s largest natural breasts, the person with the world’s smallest waist, widest mouth, heaviest lifted weight by the nipples or by the tongue, milk squirting via the eye, fastest mile on a space hopper, running hurdles wearing swim fins, a dog walking down stairs while balancing a glass of water and contortionists in a box. It was all pretty confusing.

After announcing the winner of Quiz Kids, we moved on to the Deathmatch of Death and More Death, where we learn how the Yoda vs. Magneto fight went and introduce two new fighters. Stay tuned!

Then there’s this.

Claims of the Normal #072: 2012-01-29

editor@csicon.org (Breki Tomasson) — Sun, 29 Jan 2012 20:53:06 +0000

It’s Sunday Evening, so I sit back down with Arkenor and Petter for an episode of Claims of the Normal.

We learn that somebody’s been killing horses in Wurm, that there will be no Blizzcon this year and that TERA doesn’t like Asians and Russians. Also, Petter’s been out wrestling, where he saw the Doppelgangsters. Arkenor thinks they look quite a lot like the Chuckle Bros., a pair of gentlemen that I think look more like a pair of gentlemen doing a very poor Mario and Luigi cosplay.

In Quiz Kids we get some questions via Dellmon of the EQ2 Talk Podcast, followed by a Deathmatch of Death and More Death where we hear which of the two champions – Skeletor or Mumm-Ra – had a narrow win!

Claims of the Normal #071: 2012-01-22

editor@csicon.org (Breki Tomasson) — Sun, 22 Jan 2012 21:29:44 +0000

It’s episode 71, and we sit down for another friendly chat.

Here are a couple of things you may or may not want to know about this week’s episode:

It turns out Arkenor did actually have the right answer to the question about walking versus running through the rain, and here’s the proof:

Also, here’s a picture of a couple of the things you can learn in Star Wars: The Old Republic compared to a couple of the things you can learn in World of Warcraft. It’s quite large, so feel free to open it up in a tab of it’s own.

When in doubt, copy WoW

Claims of the Normal #070: 2012-01-15

editor@csicon.org (Breki Tomasson) — Sun, 15 Jan 2012 18:37:32 +0000

Episode 70 came and went, and with it came a visit from @Teppotastic!

Hosts: Breki, Petter and Arkenor.

Here are a couple of links you might consider relevant to your interests:

NowGamer is offering a ‘competition’ where you can become their unpaid slave.
Turbine starts selling gear with stats on them in Lord of the Rings Online. Slippery slope?
How about them SW:TOR high-res textures? (Yeah, we can’t go an episode without mentioning SW:TOR. They’re like the new LulzSec. Whatever happened to those guys, by the way?)
Is immersion in MMOs dead? Our answer was a very conclusive, definitive and resounding maybe.
The TERA beta is up-signable. Go forth and view the scantily clad ladies.
THQ cancels ALL the things.

Claims of the Normal #069: 2012-01-06

editor@csicon.org (Breki Tomasson) — Fri, 06 Jan 2012 22:08:09 +0000

It’s been a year since we recorded the first episode of Claims of the Normal, and here we are with an extra special, extra long, extra wonderful episode. Special guest, Seismic Stan!

Here are a couple of things you might want to know about this episode:

Black Peter - or “Zwarte Piet” is the name of Santa Claus’s helper in Holland.
Some people have been kicked from Star Wars: The Old Republic, for various reasons. Most of these are genuinely exploiting, however.
You can get down and dance if you want to avoid taking damage, however.
Seismic Stan can be found here and here and here and here.

Thank you for joining us for this fantastic year of podcasts! A special thanks to people like Jon Broadley, Skorp, Seismic Stan, Slurms and everybody else that has either been a guest or sent in content for us to use on Quiz Kids or something similar. We love you all and hope to continue to bring you great stuff during 2012!

Claims of the Normal #068: 2011-12-29

editor@csicon.org (Breki Tomasson) — Thu, 29 Dec 2011 15:48:40 +0000

Merry Christmas and a Happy New year, from all of us to all of you. And then there’s the podcast.

Here’s a couple of things we talked about during the episode:

Paul Christoforo is a meme.
The Dwarf Mistletoe (the arceuthobium), is fascinating.
Saint Wenceslaus I, Duke of Bohemia, is the subject of a Christmas carol.

Claims of the Normal #067: 2011-12-18

editor@csicon.org (Breki Tomasson) — Sun, 18 Dec 2011 17:39:41 +0000

This week, Arkenor and Petter joined me for a long and interesting chat about Star Wars: The Old Republic. We also talked about a couple of other things, of course, but mainly Star Wars.

There was also a great Quiz Kids about television series and a new Deathmatch of Death and More Death!

Claims of the Normal #066: 2011-12-11

editor@csicon.org (Breki Tomasson) — Sun, 11 Dec 2011 21:27:02 +0000

We’re just a couple of days away from Star Wars: The Old Republic for those that have a pre-order. How much do you want to bet that Arkenor and Petter bring it up on this week’s episode?

(Hint: They did)

Here’s something you might find interesting:

Naked Friday in Whiterun!
AFI’s “100 Years, 100 Movie Quotes“

Claims of the Normal #065: 2011-12-05

editor@csicon.org (Breki Tomasson) — Mon, 05 Dec 2011 21:19:25 +0000

We’re a day late, but that just means we’re an entire day better!

There isn’t all that much we can provide you with to signify exactly how great this episode is, but here are a couple of things nonetheless:

Arkenor sneezes right at the beginning of Quiz Kids. You have been warned.
We’ve got some great background music by Caravan Palace in this episode. If you like them, please buy their music, go to their shows or spread the good word.
There’s also the Christmas theme (sorry, “Frostfell theme”) from Everquest 2 in there.
World of Warcraft patch 4.3 is out, but Arkenor and Petter don’t want to talk about it.
What do you think we should do for our 1-year anniversary on the podcast? Get in touch and let us know!

Claims of the Normal #064: 2011-11-27

editor@csicon.org (Breki Tomasson) — Sun, 27 Nov 2011 22:12:28 +0000

It’s that time of the week again, and we made ourselves a podcast!

Here’s some stuff you may or may not want to know:

Breki has a cough.
Footloose, Fame, Flashdance, Labyrinth, The Goonies, Xanadu, Dirty Dancing, Raiders of the Lost Ark, The Last Emperor, Terms of Endearment, Chariots of Fire, Out of Africa, The Princess Bride, Top Gun, St. Elmo’s Fire and T he Breakfast Club are all great 80s movies.
Petter swears a lot.

Claims of the Normal #063: 2011-11-21

editor@csicon.org (Breki Tomasson) — Mon, 21 Nov 2011 20:15:02 +0000

We found some time between playing our new and fantastic games and recorded a podcast for you, our loyal listeners.

Here are some things you may want to know about this week’s episode.

Petter is enjoying Assassin’s Creed: Revelations.
There’s some concept art that look like they might be thinking Egyptian for the next Assassin’s Creed game.
Breki just got hold of The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword, limited edition with golden controller!
Arkenor just wrote a scathing post about Blizzard’s use of Chuck Norris in their latest World of Warcraft advertisements.
Optimus Prime – The Touch. Aw, yeah.

Claims of the Normal #062: 2011-11-14

editor@csicon.org (Breki Tomasson) — Mon, 14 Nov 2011 19:54:44 +0000

This week, I sit down with Arkenor and Petter, and we talk about how difficult life can be.

Here are a couple of things you may or may not find interesting:

Today is Arkenor’s birthday. Tweet a “Happy birthday!” to him over on Twitter: @Arkenor
Filmjölk (also known as fil or the older word surmjölk) is a Nordic dairy product similar to yoghurt using a different bacteria which gives a different taste and texture.
Mycoplasma (not Ebola) has been a bad thing these past couple of days. Shun thee, Mycoplasma Pneumoniae!
Charlie Sheen and Moammar Gadaffi soundbites can be eerily similar.
Superman is not made of lightsabers.

Claims of the Normal #061: 2011-11-07

editor@csicon.org (Breki Tomasson) — Mon, 07 Nov 2011 18:35:10 +0000

Lookie here, a podcast!

Yesterday, Breki suffered from an acute case of Ebola and couldn’t record. Today, Petter couldn’t record due to prior commitments. Since I’m obviously far more important than Petter, we recorded anyway. However, since Petter wasn’t around to talk, talk, talk, talk and talk, the show only ended up being about ten minutes long. Still; it was ten fantastic minutes.

Claims of the Normal #060: 2011-10-31

editor@csicon.org (Breki Tomasson) — Mon, 31 Oct 2011 21:25:20 +0000

It’s Monday. We were supposed to do Claims of the Normal yesterday, but Petter’s computer blew up. Duct tape and prayer held it together for this episode.

Here are a couple of things you may or may not want to know about this episode:

It would be John Candy‘s 60th birthday today if he had lived. Celebrate this by buying his two best movies: Planes, Trains and Automobiles and Spaceballs.
The Steve Jobsbook is good. Buy it.
So is Page One: Inside the New York Times. Good, that is.
Here are the dictators named in Quiz Kids:

Kim Jong Il – Dictator of North Korea
Muammar Gaddafi – Dictator of Libya
Vladimir Putin – President of Russia
Saparmurat Niyazov – President of Turkmenistan
Ne Win – Head of State of Burma
Enver Hoxha – Leader of Albania
Mobutu – Dictator of the Democratic Republic of the Congo
Francois Duvalier – President of Life of Haiti
His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al Maktoum – Ruler of Dubai
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad – President of Iran
Nicolai Ceausescu – First Secretary of the Communist Party of Romania
Kim Il Sung – Dictator of North Corea
Mao Zedong – Chairman of the Communist Party of China

Claims of the Normal #059: 2011-10-23

editor@csicon.org (Breki Tomasson) — Sun, 23 Oct 2011 19:50:11 +0000

Another week, another Claims of the Normal. I sat down with Arkenor and Petter, and we talked about things.

Here are a couple of things you may or may not want to know about this episode.

The AACS Encryption Key Controversy [Wikipedia]
Mists of Pandaria official website.
Episode 44 of Claims of the Normal.

Big thanks to Jon Broadley for this week’s Quiz Kids questions! Remember to send your suggestions for Quiz Kids questions or anything else that you feel we should bring up on the show to: podcast@csicon.org.

Claims of the Normal #058: 2011-10-17

editor@csicon.org (Breki Tomasson) — Mon, 17 Oct 2011 20:31:40 +0000

This week, I sat down with +Arkenor and Petter, and great podcastery was performed.

These are things you may or may not want to know about this week’s episode:

The Law of Jante [Wikipedia]
Shit that Siri Says [Tumblr]
Animoog [iTunes Store]

Claims of the Normal #057: 2011-10-09

editor@csicon.org (Breki Tomasson) — Sun, 09 Oct 2011 19:03:44 +0000

Another week, another podcast.

Here are a couple of things you may or may not want to know regarding this week’s episode:

Steve Jobs [Wikipedia]
Apple [Official Website]
Glitch [Game Website]
CCP CEO says he’s sorry [EVE Online Dev Blog]
List of Transformers Characters [Wikipedia]

Claims of the Normal #056: 2011-10-02

editor@csicon.org (Breki Tomasson) — Sun, 02 Oct 2011 22:22:06 +0000

It’s that time of the week again. To shake things up a little, +Petter Mårtensson took control of this episode, leaving +Breki Tomasson to the dust behind him. Oh; +Arkenor Oakshadow was there too.

Here are a couple of things you may or may not want to know regarding today’s episode.

This was Starfire in the Teen Titans.
This is Starfire today.
This is io9 being upset about it.
Deep Space Nine (the station, not the series) [Memory Alpha]
Armin Shimerman [IMDb]
Buffy the Vampire Slayer [IMDb]
Link, he come to town! [Youtube]
Största Möjliga Hänsyn [Website / Podcast RSS]

Claims of the Normal #055: 2011-09-25

editor@csicon.org (Breki Tomasson) — Sun, 25 Sep 2011 19:56:23 +0000

Heavens to Murgatroyd! A cast was recorded! Podcast, even!

Here are some things you may or may not want to know about this episode:

Star Wars: The Old Republic is released in the United States on December 20th; Europe on December 22nd.
The F8 Conference conference revealed a bunch of new things coming soon to Facebook!
Seismic Stan’s project, which we played a teaser trailer for can be found here: tech4news.org
The DC Reboot continues! Petter and Breki have read Wonder Woman #1, Superboy #1, Batman #1, Catwoman #1, Nightwing #1, Supergirl #1. The joint opinion seems to be that Wonder Woman #1 is awesome.
Some awful video game voiceovers can be found here, here and here. (Dean’s face acting make them awesome, however!)
This week’s Deathmatch sees The Riddler square off against Sherlock Holmes.

Claims of the Normal #054: 2011-09-18

editor@csicon.org (Breki Tomasson) — Sun, 18 Sep 2011 22:35:36 +0000

We did it again!

With fantastic guest Seismic Stan, we delved into the deepest mysteries of the world. Well, not really, but we had a lot of fun. Here are a couple of things you may or may not need to be aware of:

Mass Effect, Mass Effect 2, Mass Effect 3
Jennifer Hale
Ryan Stiles
World of Darkness
Vampire: The Requiem
www.tech4news.org
Ponies resembling the vampire clans. Obviously.

Claims of the Normal #053: 2011-09-11

editor@csicon.org (Breki Tomasson) — Sun, 11 Sep 2011 22:00:30 +0000

I’m back from Crete, which means Petter and Arkenor can finally enjoy the soothing sounds of my voice as we record yet another episode of Claims of the Normal!

Here are links that may (or may not!) be relevant to your listening experience:

Crete [Wikipedia]
Drowning, definition and statistics [Wikipedia]
More information about the 52 new #1 titles for DC Comics [CSICON]
Who’s the woman in the background in the new DC Comics? [CSICON]
UFOs: Generals, Pilots and Government Officials Go On the Record [Amazon]
Charles Fort [Wikipedia]
The Book of the Damned, by Charles Fort [Resologist]
Star Trek: The Original Series, Star Trek: The Next Generation, Star Trek: Voyager, Stargate: SG-1, Babylon 5, Stargate: Atlantis, The X-Files, Lost, Battlestar Galactica, Angel, Eureka, Smallville, FlashForward, Renegade [IMDb]
Ellen Ripley [Wikipedia]
Sigourney Weaver [IMDb]
Bowser [Wikipedia]

Claims of the Normal #052: 2011-08-31

editor@csicon.org (Breki Tomasson) — Wed, 31 Aug 2011 20:01:44 +0000

With just minutes to spare, we managed to record a final podcast before I fly off to Crete!

This week on Claims of the Normal:

Deus Ex: Human Revolution is awesome!
Darth Vader says Nooooo! … Again!
Star Wars: Galaxies is getting Atmospheric Flight!
Wonder Woman and Captain America fight is concluded, two new contestants step up to battle!

As always, you can find the podcast on iTunes. If you’re looking for the RSS for just the podcast, look no further! If you want to hang on to our stuff for future keeping, you can download the episode in MP3 format by clicking here.

Claims of the Normal #051: 2011-08-28

editor@csicon.org (Breki Tomasson) — Sun, 28 Aug 2011 21:29:51 +0000

This week’s episode of Claims of the Normal seemed to be all about the MMO games we’ve learned to love and hate.

Arkenor brought us some bad news from the latest update to Everquest 2, Petter quit his job (which involves reviewing MMO games, so there is a connection!) and I … Well; I didn’t play too much of any MMO lately, since I’ve fallen in love with Deus Ex: Human Revolution.

Quiz Kids today came from Jon Broadley, and this means we’ve now exhausted our backlog of questions! Send more in, people! You know where to find us.

Claims of the Normal #050: 2011-08-25

editor@csicon.org (Breki Tomasson) — Thu, 25 Aug 2011 12:30:21 +0000

Episode 50 came and went in a red wine-induced haze. Remind me never to celebrate a podcast milestone again. At least not before we record it.

Despite the many things that needed to be cut out due to my inane rambling, this was a good episode; we chatted about the past fifty episodes, the upcoming DC Comics relaunch, some Star Trek, some World of Warcraft, some EverQuest 2 and revealed who the next two contestants would be in the Deathmatch of Death and More Death! Wonder Woman vs. Captain America; this is bound to be an interesting battle, indeed!

Claims of the Normal #049: 2011-08-22

editor@csicon.org (Breki Tomasson) — Sun, 21 Aug 2011 23:09:45 +0000

Despite being so full of Americana, I found the time to call Arkenor and Petter for another great episode of Claims of the Normal.

In this episode, we talk about what a jolly good manly group of men the three of us are, with testosterone literally coursing through our bodies and manifying us beyond compare. It’s even gone so far as to make me go out and buy myself a pair of cowboy boots and feel a sense of patriotic pride when watching Captain America. Weird, huh?

We did a great Quiz Kids today, with questions sent in by Skorpion352 of … of New Zealand … and by Dellmon of EQ2 Talk. Great questions, folks, and keep’em coming! We’re down to one last group of questions before I need to start making them up!

Claims of the Normal #048: 2011-08-17

editor@csicon.org (Breki Tomasson) — Wed, 17 Aug 2011 21:31:15 +0000

It’s Wednesday. It’s getting late. Most people are wondering if it’s time to go to bed or if they have time to … eat another bagel or whatever it is normal people do. Not me; I call Arkenor and Petter and ask them to join me for a podcast.

Arkenor (leader of Team Arkenor) and Petter (leader of Team Petter) drop the animosity that plagues their relationship and sit down for a nice little chat. We talk about how Claims of the Normal is now hosted elsewhere and how we hope you’ve all followed along. Wildstar announced at Gamescom. World of Warcraft patch 4.3 allows us to do stuff we’ve wanted for ages. Solar flares threatening to kill us all! … or not.

In the Deathmatch of Death and More Death, Petter and Arkenor draw new contestants, and this week looks like it might just be a very close fight. Place your votes!

Recommendations: Salad Cream, Regular Features podcast (NSFW) and Wooords, an iPad game.

Claims of the Normal #047: 2011-08-14

editor@csicon.org (Breki Tomasson) — Sun, 14 Aug 2011 20:13:19 +0000

Sunday evenings, podcast evenings, fun evenings, Quiz Kids evenings, talk about random stuff evenings. Great fun!

First off, one piece of big news. As of quite soon, Claims of the Normal will move back to being a once-a-week podcast, where Quiz Kids and Deathmatch of Death and More Death will be played after a bit of initial rambling from the three of us. Do not despair, however! We will be creating new podcasts on the CSICON Network at the same time, bumping up the amount of podcasts on the CSICON network to two or three. Stay tuned!

This episode saw Petter, Arkenor and myself talking about a bunch of interesting stuff! For example, did you know that it is quite possible that crop circles may be caused by wallabies stoned out of their mind? Personally, I think the Australian official quoted in the article is covering things up, but that’s just me. Other animals that aren’t in full control of their intellect include a squirrel with Downs Syndrome, recently found by a Redditor.

In other news, less related to animals with mental retardation (well …) , two EVE Online-players set up a Ponzi Scheme and steal a bunch of money from other players. Also, Google+ rolls out games.

Quiz Kids this week comes from Jon Broadley and is all about the movies of the 1990s. Many furrowed brows came as a result of trying to figure this one out.

Claims of the Normal #046: 2011-08-11

editor@csicon.org (Breki Tomasson) — Thu, 11 Aug 2011 10:23:53 +0000

Wednesday evenings can only mean one thing; me calling Petter and Arkenor for another great episode of Claims of the Normal!

In this episode, we learned that Breki isn’t feeling too sharp, Arkenor is getting a testosterone shot and Petter almost had art sold to him. Such a fascinating day it has been. Also, we learned that LinkedIn is being very devious with your personal information, but luckily there is a way to turn that off. Go do so now, if you use LinkedIn.

We also played Deathmatch of Death and More Death, which you can read about over here. It speaks volumes that Petter isn’t pleased with his randomly selected fighter for this week when he says that he’ll be voting for Arkenor’s fighter. Not good, not good.

Claims of the Normal #045: 2011-08-07

editor@csicon.org (Breki Tomasson) — Sun, 07 Aug 2011 21:00:03 +0000

Episode 45 of Claims of the Normal was recorded on a lovely Sunday evening, to the joy of many a listener.

In it, we talked about Pottermore being prime real estate for con artists, Catwoman’s appearance in the upcoming The Dark Knight Rises, gay superheroes and much, much more.

Quiz Kids was played, and 80s movies was the topic! Arkenor and Petter were challenged to find the years that many of the cult classics were released. All in all, a great time was had.

Claims of the Normal #044: 2011-08-04

editor@csicon.org (Breki Tomasson) — Thu, 04 Aug 2011 07:05:45 +0000

It’s Wednesday, and Petter and Arkenor sit down with me for another episode of Claims of the Normal.

First off, we talked about Mists of Pandaria, a phrase newly trademarked by Blizzard Entertainment. Is it the next expansion? Is it an iPhone game? Is it something completely different? Inquire within and listen to our speculations, in which I reveal what an enormous World of Warcraft lore nerd I am. Next up, without leaving Blizzard Entertainment, we move over to Diablo 3, where we’ve just learned that the game will have a real-money auction house and will require an uninterrupted online connection in order to play – even in single mode.

Next up, Deathmatch of Death and More Death! This week, Petter’s champion is Mega Man. Arkenor’s is He-Man. It’s the battle of the men! Vote on csicon.org and make your voice heard!

Recommendations this week were:

Arkenor: Being a Member of Parliament!
Petter: The upcoming Rodney Orpheus book.
Breki: Instacast, an iPhone app.

Claims of the Normal #043: 2011-07-31

editor@csicon.org (Breki Tomasson) — Sun, 31 Jul 2011 21:29:54 +0000

There we go again, podcasting like there was no tomorrow. Because who knows; there might not be!

Arkenor, Petter and myself, talking for 56 minutes about the upcoming Culinary Apocalypse, From Dust, EverQuest 2, Quiz Kids and how wonderful our audience is. Also; for the first time in ages, we managed to keep it under an hour. I still don’t understand how we pulled it off.

Claims of the Normal #042: 2011-07-28

editor@csicon.org (Breki Tomasson) — Thu, 28 Jul 2011 13:31:59 +0000

Wednesday evenings are podcast evenings! I met up with Arkenor and Petter again, and yet another fabulous episode was recorded.

First of all; the post-processing for this show was completely different, and I’m wondering if the sound quality is better or worse for it. Please comment below with an opinion. What do you think?

Apart from that, not much to tell. We spoke of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, then some crummy game that they’re discounting, played Quiz Kids, gave our recommendations and revealed the latest match in the Deathmatch of Death and More Death!

Recommendations this week were: Petter suggested the game From Dust. Arkenor announced his fascination for the Guiana dolphin, a dolphin that can sense electromagnetic fields. Breki announced that he was now working out with kettlebells and suggested everybody else to do the same.

In it, Petter drew Emperor Ming the Merciless, defending him by explaining how you don’t get to be emperor by just sitting back and relaxing. Here we have an amazing character that’s simply too good to be a king, duke or earl. He’s an Emperor. Arkenor, on the other hand, drew Wolverine, and defended him by explaining how Ming has been killed in the Flash Gordon movie – by being impaled with a metal spike, something Wolverine has six of in total. Also, there’s the entire healing factor to be considered.

Claims of the Normal #041: 2011-07-25

editor@csicon.org (Breki Tomasson) — Mon, 25 Jul 2011 12:27:07 +0000

Sunday evening means podcasting! Petter and Arkenor joined me in a Skype call, and podcasting was done.

The big topic of the day was, of course, the recently announced collector’s editions of upcoming Star Wars: The Old Republic. We discussed prices, content, the logic of digital releases being limited and so on. Good stuff.

Also, there was Quiz Kids. And what a Quiz Kids it was.

Don’t forget to vote in the Deathmatch of Death and More Death if you haven’t already!

Claims of the Normal 040: 2011-07-21

editor@csicon.org (Breki Tomasson) — Thu, 21 Jul 2011 13:38:29 +0000

Sunday’s show was postponed due to the lagging of the jets. When we recorded it on Monday, it was completely annihilated due to technical issues that caused me to travel through time. It was quite spectacular, to be honest.

That said, Wednesday came along, and the time was ripe for another podcast. As this was the 40th episode, several changes were made (intentionally, unintentionally, accidentally and due to sheer forgetfulness).

First of all, the entire episode was sponsored by Dr. Toerag, who let us know that Claims of the Normal saved him from silence when his favorite podcast, the VanHemlock Podcast, decided to go on an extended holiday. Thanks for that, Doc. If you want to sponsor the show and have us read out anything you want us to read out (imagine the possibilities), just visit csicon.org/csicon-podcasts and read the instructions.

Secondly, this episode marks the beginning of Deathmatch of Death and More Death! This is a new segment that you’ve probably already noticed if you’re on csicon.org. Every Wednesday, a new death match will be introduced and discussed on the podcast. After that, for a week’s time, people will be allowed to vote for which of the two contestants they believe would win in a one-on-one battle … to the death! The first week, as you’ve seen; the contestants were Neo versus C-3P0!

Thirdly, I completely forgot to play a vintage commercial or Public Service Announcement!

Fourthly, there were no real news to talk about this episode. Nothing about any specific game company that’s been doing something. Nothing about drama within the EVE community. Nothing about an EQ2 news story. Weird, really.

Claims of the Normal 039: 2011-07-14

editor@csicon.org (Breki Tomasson) — Thu, 14 Jul 2011 10:10:56 +0000

Arkenor’s back, and Everquest 2 news abound!

A new Game Update and a new expansion are coming this year, with loads of new things. Arkenor is mighty excited, and that’s quite understandable, given what’s going on here.

Game Update 61: The War of Zek. Amongst other things, two Dynamic Dungeons (Silent City and Djinn Master’s Prism) with randomized encounters, scaling from 60 to 90. Flying Fae and Arasai. 20-90 re-itemization and a Dungeon Finder! More on http://eq2wire.com
Age of Discovery expansion, November 2011, bringing with it both Mercenaries and trade skill apprentices. Also, Beast lords and the ability to design your own dungeon!

After a quick word from our sponsor, we had a very interesting game of Quiz Kids that has led me to believe that it’s probably a good idea to impose a time limit on these things in the future.

Claims of the Normal 038: 2011-07-11

editor@csicon.org (Breki Tomasson) — Mon, 11 Jul 2011 06:43:45 +0000

Put Petter and myself in a podcast together, entirely unsupervised and with a couple of ideas for how to change the structure of the show. The results are invariably the same; horrible and awesome at the same time. One may even say … Horribly awesome.

Arkenor couldn’t join us today either, but we have hopes to see him again come Wednesday. Instead, Petter and I lay down the law on the following subjects:

Adidas Fall & Winter Star Wars collection.
Sony pulling the plug on the Minidisc … Was that thing still around?
Swedish astronaut Christer Fuglesang survives homeopathic overdose to prove a point
Heirarchical circles proposal.
Legendary Pictures to hold a Mass Effect movie panel on ComicCon this year. (July 21-24)
Collector claims to have EVERY SINGLE PLAYSTATION 2 GAME released in America. Unboxed and ready.

Claims of the Normal 037: 2011-07-07

editor@csicon.org (Breki Tomasson) — Thu, 07 Jul 2011 10:27:06 +0000

Unfortunately, Arkenor couldn’t make it to this episode, so it was just Petter and me, going off on tangent after tangent as we tried to do our best.

Biggest news of the day were, of course, the latest things from Facebook. Video chat, group chat and a slightly new design. We managed to talk about how this would affect our enjoyment of … no, wait, we didn’t. We talked about my broken tooth, Google+ and a bunch of other things. Please visit Techcrunch if you want real coverage of the awesome Facebook event.

Recommendations this week included Dune – the epic book series by Frank Herbert – Eden Eternal and the @DolbyLama. Petter then went on to give the latest and greatest updates on the entire EVE thing that’s probably getting a little old by now. He also pointed out an article he’s written on Gamereactor that covers it better than any podcast could.

Claims of the Normal 036: 2011-07-04

editor@csicon.org (Breki Tomasson) — Mon, 04 Jul 2011 08:22:39 +0000

It was our six month anniversary for the podcast – and for CSICON.org – so we decided (well, okay, I decided…) to pull out all the stops and go live via UStream and offer people the ability to phone in with comments during the podcast!

The big topic for today’s episode was, of course, Google+ and all that’s been going on there. We were (surprisingly) more or less in agreeance with each other that it’s not going to be a major challenger to Facebook, but it will definitely be cutting into the market share. More than that is hard to say before we see more of what they’re adding to the site.

Then we had a Quiz Kids segment, and I think we’re beginning to be more or less done with these sorts of questions and are looking forwards to going back to geek trivia. Not to say anything bad about your work, Scott Campbell, we’ve had great fun with your questions, but we all seem to think that Quiz Kids is just more fun when everybody has an equal chance of winning. So – back to geek trivia from now on! Who knows; maybe Arkenor will lose for once?

Other things we brought up in the Wired and Wonderful:

World of Warcraft goes F2P, sort of. Not really.
Age of Conan goes Unchained. Which is F2P. Or freemium. Or whatever.
CCP and the CSM release their respective statements on Monoclegate.

Claims of the Normal 035: 2011-06-29

editor@csicon.org (Breki Tomasson) — Wed, 29 Jun 2011 22:15:09 +0000

We’re back! Today’s episode was weird. We only really talked about two topics, but we still managed to go over time!

First of all, let’s settle the debate once and for all. The picture above is of something. Some call it Cheez Doodles. Others call it Cheese Puffs. Invariably, others have weird obscure names for it, harkening back several years and aeons to a grim and desolate past of which only whispers are heard. What do you call them? What’s the true name of this marvelous concoction? Comment below!

In this episode, we only really talked about – well, apart from the Cheez Doodles, of course – things like Google+ and the Pope writing on Twitter using an iPad. We also played Quiz Kids and had a very, very, very interesting game with a shocker of an ending. Also; recommendations were had.

Enjoy!

Claims of the Normal 034: 2011-06-26

editor@csicon.org (Breki Tomasson) — Sun, 26 Jun 2011 22:47:20 +0000

Another Sunday, another podcast. Strangely enough; we didn’t launch into yet another discussion about LulzSec in the beginning of this episode. More important things were at hand!

First up, the end of Star Wars Galaxies is at hand, and not many people are too pleased about it. Petter, for sure, isn’t.

Also, controversies abound in EVE Online, and our resident EVEologist – Petter again, really – has some choice words on the matter. In fact, he has quite a lot of choice words on the matter. He yammered on about it for so long that I went and took a picture of myself podcasting while waiting for him to be done. No, really, Petter, no hard feelings? Still buddies? After that, we talked about the philosophy of buying in-game items for money, and Arkenor and I got into a bit of a difference of opinion, but I think we managed to get out of it with our friendship intact. Arkenor, no hard feelings? Still buddies?

Quiz Kids up next; where we had questions from Jon Broadley and Skorpion352. Great fun was had, and I’ve learned that I should probably work on my Charlie Sheen impression to make this more fun in the future.

Also, LulzSec are disbanding. Yay; I suppose. Weird.

Claims of the Normal 033: 2011-06-23

editor@csicon.org (Breki Tomasson) — Wed, 22 Jun 2011 23:29:57 +0000

Wednesdays mean podcasts, and boy-oh-boy was this a doozy! If this doesn’t win Podcast Episode of the Year or something like that, I’ll be quite disappointed.

In this episode of Claims of the Normal, we mainly talk about penguins. Also, hats. Like the hat Petter wore in Japan, pictured on the left. We also introduced a brand new segment called – cleverly – Recommendations, where we give you recommendations for things to do, say, be, have or think about. Much fun will be had.

Big thanks to Skorpion352 for his questions this week, Quiz Kids became heaps fun thanks to you!

Also, a big thanks to all our listeners; we’re seeing a steady rise in traffic to the podcast every episode now, and that’s just great! Make sure to spread the word and tell people how amazingly funny, interesting and – quite frankly – good looking we are. Much appreciated!

This week, subjects covered were:

LulzSec and Anonymous team up for Operation Anti-Security.
- Young man arrested in UK, LulzSec claims he only operates an IRC server they hang out on.
- LulzSec being exposed and counter-hacked by other hackers who think they’re being loudmouthed brats.
CCP release Incarna 1.0 for EVE Online, introducing the captain’s quarters to the live game. Avatars are in! So are €70 monocles!
Also, of course, the obligatory penguin news.

Our recommendations this week!

Petter: Avadon: The Black Fortress for iPad
Arkenor: Dungeon Empires
Breki: Jim Butcher’s The Dresden Files

Claims of the Normal 032: 2011-06-20

editor@csicon.org (Breki Tomasson) — Mon, 20 Jun 2011 08:22:38 +0000

In this episode of Claims of the Normal, Petter reveals his secret superhero identity to us all! Fascinating stuff!

Other things discussed this episode:

SEGA Hacked. Personal info of about 1.3 million users stolen. Hooray hacking!
In order to combat the rising tide of cybercrime, the Japanese government has enacted a sweeping new law that criminalizes the creation of computer viruses.
LulzSec seems very eager to point out that they are not at war with Anonymous. Anon also seems to be hostile, but not aggressive towards LulzSec.
EA’s new service, “Origin”, takes on Steam.
Duke Nukem actor doesn’t comment on “clueless critics” by commenting on “clueless critics”. But want to know the truth about why journos hate DNF? It’s a conspiracy!
Fallen Earth will go F2P.
Early sales data show that 2D ticket sales are outpacing those of 3D tickets for Green Lantern and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2.

Claims of the Normal 031: 2011-06-16

editor@csicon.org (Breki Tomasson) — Thu, 16 Jun 2011 15:15:59 +0000

Hot diggidy! Despite my microphone dying for a minute there at the end, something that I managed to save through some ingenious post-production magic, the show went off without a hitch!

As you may know already, episode 31 was meant to go up on Sunday evening, but Petter was in a coma. We tried again on the Monday, but techical issues made it so that only my voice was recorded. I don’t think it would have made for a good podcast, so we postponed episode 31 for our regularly scheduled Wednesday episode. Hopefully we’ll not have any more hiccups like this on the way to episode 50.

This week, Petter, Arkenor and myself talk about LulzSec, discuss the differences between them and Anonymous, and philosophize about what direction this thing is taking. It’s an interesting enough debate, and I’m quite sure that it’s a subject that we’ll be returning to in the weeks that follow.

Quiz Kids comes next, and because Jon Broadley’s questions were sadly lost to us in the fabled episode that died, we were forced to go back to a couple of questions of my own devising. Petter and Arkenor did horribly, as usual, but at least we got a winner. Remember, good people, to send all your ideas and questions to the podcast!

Last but not least, we discussed Internet hilarity such as Literally Unbelievable, the difficulty of finding good material on Zombie Penguins and the horror that is Duke Nukem Forever. Enjoy the show!

Claims of the Normal 030: 2011-06-09

editor@csicon.org (Breki Tomasson) — Thu, 09 Jun 2011 01:32:37 +0000

Holy Scatological Humor, Batman! Episode 30 is upon us, and with Petter still out of reach for conventional Skype calls, we had Seismic Stan come and visit us again.

The following topics were discussed ad infinitum on the show today:

The things coming out of E3, in particular the Nintendo Wii-U and Dust 514!
Lulz Security hacks Atlanta-based FBI affiliate, InfraGard with around 180 passwords stolen.
13th Sony hack; this time it was Sony Pictures Russia that got hit.
Oregon woman develops “British” accent after surgery. Video here. In relation to this, Seismic Stan seemed to decide that I had a knack for accents, which I quickly displayed that I do not have. Not in the slightest. In fact, listening to my horrid impression of the Indian/Pakistani accent and the vaguely Asian accent makes me wonder why I even gave it a shot.
US media reports that 30 dismembered bodies were found in a mass grave near a rural Texas farmhouse. Police were lead there by a tip from a psychic. US media later updates, saying that absolutely no bodies were found whatsoever, nobody is dead, and police would quite like to talk to that psychic again.
Last but not least, E-Chromi is some interesting shit!

Remember to visit Seismic Stan everywhere he can be found, either his blog, his Twitter or the Eve Commune Evecast.

Claims of the Normal 029: 2011-06-06

editor@csicon.org (Breki Tomasson) — Mon, 06 Jun 2011 04:00:44 +0000

Petter’s over at E3, so it’s just Arkenor and me this week. Great fun was had, of course, but it’s never the same without Petter. Come back soon, Big P, don’t let the big country over to the west claim you forever!

United Nations declares Internet Access a Basic Human Right. This comes the same week that Syria kills the Internet access in their country.
Sony Pictures hacked by LulzSec! A Million Passwords Stolen! Honestly, Sony, you were vulnerable to an SQL injection? Really?!
Nintendo Hacked – Or Was It? Nothing seems to be missing.
DC Universe Reboot coming up!
Cell Phones May Cause Cancer!
Penguins. We weren’t sure how well this story works on radio, but our audience demanded it!

Stay tuned for more!

Claims of the Normal 028: 2011-06-04

editor@csicon.org (Breki Tomasson) — Sat, 04 Jun 2011 16:51:58 +0000

Oops; looks like I forgot to post an entry for last Wednesday’s podcast! Better late than never!

The following topics were discussed:

Cryptic sold to Perfect Worlds by Atari.
APB Reloaded – new and improved or same old?
OMG TUPAC IS ALIVE!!! … At least if you believe PBS, who were hacked with fake story about Tupac and Biggie.
Transformers: Dark of the Moon. What a stupid title. Dark WHAT of the moon?
Death Rally is a great game.
Age of Conan going Free and Unrated
New Winged Mount Thing in World of Warcraft. OMG OMG OMG MUST BUY NEW SHINIES.

Claims of the Normal 027: 2011-05-30

editor@csicon.org (Breki Tomasson) — Mon, 30 May 2011 13:10:47 +0000

Since none of us were busy busting nuts, we decided to sit down and record a podcast. Greatness was accomplished.

The following topics were discussed:

Chinese prisoners forced to farm gold in World of Warcraft.
Italian Seismologists being tried for manslaughter … because they didn’t predict an earthquake.
Mark Zuckerberg will only eat meat from animals that he, himself, has killed.
Rick Falkvinge, founder of the first Pirate Party, has some very interesting thoughts about Anonymous and where they’re headed.

Claims of the Normal 026: 2011-05-25

editor@csicon.org (Breki Tomasson) — Wed, 25 May 2011 09:26:21 +0000

We had to record a day early this week, so your scheduled Wednesday episode came on a Tuesday. Much confusion, panic, and orgies in the street are bound to follow, but we can’t have Breki recording a podcast on his three-year anniversary, can we?

Episode 26 of Claims of the Normal is bound to go into the annals of history as one of the greatest episodes in the history of podcasting, and you’re in for a treat if you haven’t heard it yet! Petter, Arkenor and I were on top of things and managed to astound each other with our wit, humor and fascinating intellects. I may be exaggerating a little, but it was a good show nonetheless!

In the Weekly Woes and Winnings of the World, we talked about how Sony’s been hacked (again), how Petter now has an iPad and how the rapture is still coming, folks! We also spent a couple of minutes discussing the private life of one Ryan Giggs, a man who would have been forgotten many days ago had he not been trying to be sneaky about things and hiding his alleged affair. Shame on you, Ryan Giggs. That’s no way to do things, Ryan Giggs. So there, Ryan Giggs. Ryan! Giggs! Oh; we also invented the Danish term “pissepeng”.

Over in The Wired and Wonderful, Breki recounted the wild adventure that he had with CSICON’s Internet service providers earlier in the day and which caused downtime for the service for nearly twelve hours. Much gnashing of teeth later, everything was back up and people were happy. We also talked about New York’s smoking ban, Ryan Seabury’s rant about being done with MMOs and all sorts of other fascinating nonsense.

Claims of the Normal 025: 2011-05-23

editor@csicon.org (Breki Tomasson) — Mon, 23 May 2011 09:24:25 +0000

For the first time in almost a month – or thereabouts – Claims of the Normal releases an episode that doesn’t even contain the name Sony.

Since we had so much fun when joined by Seismic Stan last episode, we’ve decided that having a guest join us was a good idea every now and again. Petter was tasked with the complicated task of exploiting his small, inbred and – to be honest – slightly creepy social network to find somebody, and – lo and behold! – he performed a miracle on the likes of finding a diamond ring while sifting through raw sewage and found Steve “Slurms” Lichtsinn of Multiplaying.net (His Twitter name is SlurmsMP).

This week, the Weekly Woes and Winnings of the World was about a British footballer taking legal action against Twitter and ‘persons unknown’ for alleged publication of information covered by a super-injunction. This has, of course, led to the Streisand effect coming into action. We also mentioned the sad death of Randy “Macho Man” Savage of wrestling fame.

Quiz Kids this week was a little different, and we’d love to hear whatever answers you guys may have to the question asked! Write in below or send in your answers to the podcast’s e-mail address; podcast at csicon dot org! Use the same address to send in any and all tricky questions you want Petter and Arkenor to throw their wide range of knowledge at as well! Help me out in the public shaming of my two co-hosts, okay?

Last up, the Wired and Wonderful, we brought up a couple of random things like the following:

Charlie Sheen, Snoop Dogg and R-Patz (No, not that R-Patz, I mean this R-Patz) make a really crummy song together. Really. Really. Crummy. So bad. Awful. Horrible. Just dreadful.
L.A. Noire is a good game! You should play it!
ArenaNet reveals the extremely innovative idea of an Engineer-class. Cool or total snore fest? Listen in and find out!
One in 25 teens has ‘internet addiction’, it seems. We’re all terribly worried. No. No, we’re not.

Claims of the Normal 024: 2011-05-19

editor@csicon.org (Breki Tomasson) — Thu, 19 May 2011 09:41:50 +0000

The Rapture is coming, the rapture is coming! Quivering in abject fear, we decided to try our hand at another podcast and were joined by the lovely Seismic Stan and his dulcet tones.

After much pestering and annoyance, Petter finally managed to talk Stan into appearing on the show; something we understand that he did simply to put an end to the constant messages coming from Petter. We were all very happy.

The Rapture is upon us, so we did our best to enjoy this episode as much as possible. Here’s what we talked about:

For the fifth episode in a row, we talk about Sony, as their Password Reset Page turns out to have a fatal flaw that allows people to change your password if they just know your e-mail address and birth date. Hardly the most difficult pieces of information to obtain about a person.This may be why Japan didn’t allow PSN to turn on their servers in the country, claiming that there was still the possibility that the servers aren’t secure yet.

Also, Petter thought it was hilarious to read a list of small bug fixes in EVE; going so far as to say that it’s a list that should be the basis for all patch notes in the future.

We also talked about how Cryptic Studios is now a “discontinued operation”, though support for existing games, and development of Neverwinter will continue. Everything continuing as normal, for now, but we can’t be sure how long that’ll last.

Also, here are a couple of random links brought up during the show:

Post Rapture looting!
New Yorker spends his life savings to prepare for the Rapture.
Seismic Stan’s blog and Twitter.
Petter’s Copenhagen Game Collective Interview.

Claims of the Normal 023: 2011-05-16

editor@csicon.org (Breki Tomasson) — Mon, 16 May 2011 00:04:10 +0000

Petter came back, groveling out his apologies for insulting the Dalai Lama. We’re still not sure whether or not this has anything to do with his sudden absence last week.

Note to our iTunes listeners: There seems to have been a problem with the episode, which could lead to duplicates showing up in some of your feeds. Let me know if the episode, entitled “023 – King Kong died for your Sins” doesn’t work for you by commenting below or sending me a message at @BrekiT or @CSICON on Twitter.

In the Weekly Woes and Winnings of the World, we find SOE has announced some of what they’re going to do to make things up to their customers. SOE’s servers come online, login-servers crash from load, people are barred from entry because they are flagged as “underage”, everything seems back to relatively normal. But as things are settling, we find out that Square Enix has been hacked!

Also, Facebook guilty of smear campaign against Google. Kettle, you’re super black. Some more info coming from this site too. Basically, at the same time that we realize that they’ve been leaking oodles of personal information, they’re blaming Google for being lax on personal integrity and security.

In The Wired and Wonderful, we get the sad news that Obi-Wan Kenobi is dead. This may not matter, because Judgement Day (or the Rapture) is coming! May 21st is the End of the World, according to the loons over at Family Radio. This is massive and has led people to donate their life savings to … well, to Jesus, I assume, just because they really believe that the world is ending in just under a week! Kind of like these guys. Also, a bunch of crummy television series have just been cancelled. We’re still waiting to hear whether or not this is related to the pending religious event and if the studio execs were trying to buy themselves some Karma … or whatever it is Christians believe in; Christ-points or something.

Also, big thanks to @orchidpussy for the new CSICON avatar and her Dr. Who reviews!

Claims of the Normal 022: 2011-05-12

editor@csicon.org (Breki Tomasson) — Thu, 12 May 2011 01:01:29 +0000

Petter couldn’t join us for this episode, so Arkenor and I set off to do our best not to suck too horribly at the noble endeavor to record a podcast.

This episode, the big news of the week was how Symantec has discovered that Facebook has been leaking personal information by accident to app developers. (link) Facebook has fixed the problem now by introducing SSL and OAuth as a requirement for app developers, which has caused problems for some indie app developers that are unable to afford SSL hosting. Still, in my opinion a move in the right direction; app developers are dealing with users’ private data, and therefore a certain level of professionalism should be mandatory. (link)

Later on, in The Wired and Wonderful, we had the following couple of topics to go through.

NASA and OSTP (White House Office of Science and Technology Policy) forbidden to cooperate with China. (link)
It’s the 10 year anniversary of Douglas Adams’ death!
Ireland realizes that digital pirates may be on to something. (link)
Samoa to travel forward through time (link).
Microsoft buys Skype for $8.5b; podcasters around the world tremble in fear.
Anonymous splinter group stages a coup (link). Looks like some of them have ‘given up their own’ as well! (link)

Join us on Sunday for more podcastery goodness!

Claims of the Normal 021: 2011-05-09

editor@csicon.org (Breki Tomasson) — Mon, 09 May 2011 00:31:42 +0000

Between suffering from technical issues that plagued the entire evening, we finally got a show together, and it’s a good one!

We talked about the normal things – Sony being a hot contender for “Most Talked About Topic on Claims of The Normal … Ever!”, but also got around to talking about Twitter buying Tweetdeck, dogs used in warfare as soldiers, Ubisoft making movies – we hope for an Assassin’s Creed movie soon – and scientists being months away from discovering antigravity.

The remainder of the show was all about the Nobel Peace Prize, which we think deserves a new name.

In other news, Quiz Kids saw an upset in more ways than one as the outcome became something quite different than we had grown to expect!

Claims of the Normal 020: 2011-05-05

editor@csicon.org (Breki Tomasson) — Wed, 04 May 2011 23:25:16 +0000

Another Wednesday came and went, and with it another episode of Claims of the Normal!

This week, our main news story on the Woes and Winnings of the World was all about The SOEpocalypse! Non-US credit card details appear to have been kept on an outdated database, and are thus the only ones stolen. Arkenor’s secondary account was affected and he is not best pleased. According to some media sources, the service will be down ‘till Friday, possibly longer (link)

About 12,700 credit or debit card numbers, along with expiration dates, belonging to people outside the United States may have been stolen along with 10,700 direct debit records of customers in Austria, Germany, Netherlands, and Spain.

From The Wired and Wonderful this week, we had this:

Double Entendre Identification gets a scholarly grant. (link)
International Star Wars day sees all movies finally coming on in a Blu-Ray box set with over 40 hours of special features. There are commentaries on each disc plus a host of new documentaries about the films. (link)
Teefury had a competition that auto-sent a twitter-message from your account to @nerdist and @wilw. It was not appreciated by the two of them… Don’t be dicks, Teefury.
Petter has finished Portal 2. What to say without spoiling the crap out of it? Was it good or not? :)

Last, but not least, an exciting general nerd trivia round with questions about Dune, Star Trek, Star Wars and comics saw another exciting result! Listen in and enjoy!

Claims of the Normal 019: 2011-05-01

editor@csicon.org (Breki Tomasson) — Sun, 01 May 2011 22:42:14 +0000

Episode 19 of Claims of the Normal is up and about, ready to put a spring in your step and a smile in your shoe. … Or however that expression goes.

This week, it was all about President Obama releasing his birth certificate in full … Now; did he really have to do that or are we going to far with this persecution? (link and link for more). We also updated you a little on the latest things going on with the PSN network and Sony (link) as well as brought you some news about Squids in space! (Hail to the Squid!) (link) and Superman setting aside his American citizenship! (link)

All in all, a fun episode. Here’s a video of the White House Dinner that we mention so often during the show:

Claims of the Normal 018: 2011-04-28

editor@csicon.org (Breki Tomasson) — Thu, 28 Apr 2011 22:45:32 +0000

Sorry about the delay, folks! We had to record this episode quite late on Wednesday evening, so I didn’t have time to do the post processing until very late on the Thursday instead. Better late than never, though!

This week, we only really talked about three things:

The entire kerfuffle (you might have to look that word up) surrounding Sony and the PSN hack.
The fact that we’re going back to the Moon … and then Mars!
The fact that we’re no longer listening to aliens.

Oh, and we played Quiz Kids, which Arkenor won. Again. 3-0 for him!

Claims of the Normal 017: 2011-04-25

editor@csicon.org (Breki Tomasson) — Mon, 25 Apr 2011 02:27:00 +0000

New episode. Yay. Ugh. Don’t hate us if it’s not as good as you’d hoped; we’ve had computer and health issues this week.

It’s Sunday, so we record a new episode. As Petter was hung over and Arkenor and myself were feeling horribly ill – some stomach bug or food poisoning – this episode was low-key and slightly rambling. I tried to spice things up with a bit of ska music in the background. Let’s see how well that went.

Here’s what we talked about:

Breki’s computer DIES HORRIBLY and stays down. Hence a slightly different podcast. Oh, and we’re horribly ill, too.
Amazon hosting services DIE HORRIBLY and stay down for a long time!
RIAA discovers their ultimate weapon – the line chart. Hilarity ensues
Thursday was judgement day!
Portal 2, Everquest 2, Mortal Kombat 9.

… I’ve got to go lie down for a bit.

Claims of the Normal 016: 2011-04-21

editor@csicon.org (Breki Tomasson) — Thu, 21 Apr 2011 00:11:48 +0000

The Manly Episode is out and about, ready for you to listen to on your iPhone, iPod, iTunes or anything else you’ve got going for you!

… Well, it’s the “Manley” episode, if you want to be strict about it, but it’s a lot funnier when you don’t know how it’s spelled. The manly episode just sounds .. well .. better.

Anyhoo, on with the show!

Wednesday came around – as it does – and we recorded yet another episode of CSICON’s very own podcast, introducing a brand new element to the Wednesday show; Quiz Kids, where Petter and Arkenor square off against each other in a duel to the death. In this first week of the show, Arkenor came out on top, defeating Petter by a whopping nine points to five! Other things we talked about this episode include:

The Weekly Woes and Winnings of the World

Rent the country of Lichtenstein! Only $70k per night, two night minimum! (link)
First ever proper teleportation performed! … Still decades away from Star Trek teleportation, however. (link)

The Wired and Wonderful

Portal 2 releases early! Jim Sterling curses at Metacritic user comments. (link)
River of Soul event in Rift borks up, Trion tries to bribe us. (link)
UK gets a Viagra-laced beer. (link)
iPhone keeps record of everywhere you go – at all times. (link) with Mac App to extract and display info (link)
Reading Shakespeare makes you smarter! (link)

Claims of the Normal 015: 2011-04-18

editor@csicon.org (Breki Tomasson) — Sun, 17 Apr 2011 23:01:36 +0000

With the Guile theme playing in the background, Petter and Arkenor joined up with me and we talked about a whole lot of nonsense.

As the more observant of you have noticed; today is Sunday, and we’re recording an episode! Yes; we’ve caved under the massive popular pressure and have decided to do the show twice a week from now on, but cut down from 60-minute shows to 45-minute shows! Expect us back on Wednesday!

This week, we talked about the following:

The State of the World Today? The Weekly Woes and Winnings of the World?

This Tech Bubble is Different. (link)
Google should just buy the music labels. All of them! (link)
The Awesome Button (link)
Game of Thrones is NOT FOR GIRLS. … or is it? (link)
That Can be my Next Tweet! (link)
Twitter clients in general should add support for Shadyurl.com. (link)

Claims of the Normal 014: 2011-04-13

editor@csicon.org (Breki Tomasson) — Wed, 13 Apr 2011 22:42:12 +0000

Wednesday feels like just a few days ago, but another one came and went, and yet another podcast was recorded!

For the first time (in podcast history!), we decided to try to split the podcast up into two parts, temporarily named “The State of the World Today” and “The Weird and Fantastic”. Please suggest new names for these parts of the show, as we’re quite aware how horrible the names are. Also, while discussing the podcast after recording it, we realized that the “State of the World” portion of the podcast may not feel as interesting to our listeners as we had hoped; so maybe next week we might talk less about politics, economy, finance and the repayment of the Icelandic debt towards Iceland… Because … Well … Yeah. You know.

So here’s what we talked about:

The State of the World Today

Federal agent forgets gun in airport restroom – behind the security check. (link)
Glenn Beck is leaving his show! (link)
Fifty years in space. Aren’t we upset that we haven’t gotten further than a few measly moon landings? (link)
China wants to ban time travel elements in movies, claiming disrespect of history. Maybe, just maybe, it’s because these films show a pre-communist time where people are happy and everything is fine … Or the Chinese have a time machine in the works! (link)
UK and Netherlands to sue Iceland. (link)
Measles outbreak in Salt Lake City. None of the affected children are vaccinated (link). But at least they’re not catching the autism, amirite?!

The Weird and Fantastic

Arkenor getting weird links from Infendo. What on Earth is going on here?
Another Sims 3 expansion coming up, adding more content to the different age groups. Still no pets. Come on. Get on it, EA. We need pets. (link)
Throwable fire extinguishers? Boy, those Japanese are great (link)
First episode of Mortal Kombat Web Series is out! First thoughts and opinions? What did we think about it? (link)

Also, I made the promise that I would be playing the Guile theme in the background of the podcast all of next week. Remember to hold me to it!

Claims of the Normal 013: 2011-04-06

editor@csicon.org (Breki Tomasson) — Wed, 06 Apr 2011 21:33:13 +0000

Wednesday came and went, and another podcast was added to the ever-growing collection!

Here’s what we talked about:

Do you want a dead mouse wearing pants? Who doesn’t want a dead mouse wearing pants?
New ThunderCats trailer
Bret McKenzie will play an elf in The Hobbit.
Dating in Sweden. The terrible truth.
A national survey by the RSPB records a rise in the populations of small birds, including long-tailed tits, goldcrests and coal tits. Arkenor has photographic proof!
A drug that makes you a morally upright citizen?
… and so much more.

Claims of the Normal 012: 2011-04-03

editor@csicon.org (Breki Tomasson) — Sun, 03 Apr 2011 21:36:23 +0000

Petter and I were back from our international business trips, so we decided to record a podcast! Great times were had, of course.

Our good friend Arkenor, often guest on the podcast, is from this podcast on a permanent member. Good fun!

This week, we blabbed on about a multitude of things, like our international trips, GoDaddy’s CEO killing an elephant in Zimbabwe (and causing us to drop them as a sponsor), Charlie Sheen’s show in Detroit bombing and causing him to be booed off stage. Arnold Schwarzenegger is approached with sequels to The Terminator, Predator and The Running Man. A bunch of religious conspiracy theories seem to bind us together, as well, as we learned this episode.

Also, Arkenor lets us know that he was on another podcast in the past, which we can hear here.

Claims of the Normal 011: 2011-03-23

editor@csicon.org (Breki Tomasson) — Wed, 23 Mar 2011 06:58:00 +0000

I called in Petter and Arkenor again, and great podcasting was done!

This week was a good week; we talked about William Shatner’s 80th birthday, Petter’s tattoo, his upcoming trip to Iceland, Breki’s upcoming trip to Botswana, Arkenor’s upcoming trip to the grocery store, Everquest 2, Rift, and an unexpected upcoming challenger to World of Warcraft. On the topic of World of Warcraft, we brought up things coming up in 4.1 and whether or not it’s as exciting as we had hoped. Also, we wondered a bit about Joseph Gordon-Levitt and what the hell may be going on there when it comes to his casting in the upcoming Batman-movie. Also, The Hobbit and the utter failure that is Earthrise.

Claims of the Normal 010: 2011-03-18

editor@csicon.org (Breki Tomasson) — Fri, 18 Mar 2011 00:04:26 +0000

Episode ten! Ultra special mega fantastic extravaganza of amazing specialness!

I joined up with Petter and my girlfriend and had a blast.

Claims of the Normal 009: 2011-03-09

editor@csicon.org (Breki Tomasson) — Wed, 09 Mar 2011 21:48:45 +0000

Arkenor said it best; this week, we mostly talked about Rift and Emilio Estevez.

No, but really, today was a good day, and we talked about all sorts of stuff, ranging from Dragon Age 2, Rift, Emilio Estevez, Charlie Sheen, and a possible Han Solo Origin Story-movie (Starring Nathan Fillion with Harrison Ford’s face digitally overlaid?). Great times were had by all.

For the music video to She Don’t Like Firefly, click here. For a link to Arkenor feeling sorry for the NPCs that he kills, click here.

Claims of the Normal 008: 2011-03-04

editor@csicon.org (Breki Tomasson) — Fri, 04 Mar 2011 19:51:06 +0000

I finally came back from Uzbekistan, and a new episode was recorded!

In the episode, we talk about Rift (surprise, surprise!), Magicka: Vietnam and the iPad 2, as well as a bunch of other things related to it all. Good times were had, of course. Here are a few things that we mentioned along the way!

Arkenor, over at Ark’s Ark, has a blog post about EQ2 Aether Racing, and here it is:

Petter mentioned the video The Terrible Secret of Space, so here it is:

And, of course, my old favorite, Happy in Paraguay, by The Dayjob Orchestra:

Claims of the Normal 007: 2011-02-25

editor@csicon.org (Breki Tomasson) — Fri, 25 Feb 2011 06:12:47 +0000

Breki and Petter join up once again and realize that they need somebody to guest the show with them this week! Their planned guest was ill, so the lot fell to Arkenor, who by now should be considered an honorary co-host or something similar.

Things discussed:

Hesher movie trailer.
Thor movie trailer.
Zelda & Link’s 25th birthday and the funny Zelda song.
Rift, Rift, Rift.

Claims of the Normal 006: 2011-02-16

editor@csicon.org (Breki Tomasson) — Wed, 16 Feb 2011 22:37:22 +0000

Episode six came quickly after episode five, as Breki and Petter decided to start scheduling these things. Expect a new episode every Wednesday evening or Thursday morning from now on!

This week, they were visited by Emmi, an old friend of Breki’s. She had just discovered the podcast, listened through all the back-issues (yes, all five!) and decided to join us. That’s how easy it is to join us, people; just let us know if you want to join in!

This week, we talked about Outcasts, Fringe, Felicia Day’s Dragon Age web series, Earthrise, Rift and the inevitable diversions that led us all over the place.

Claims of the Normal 005: 2011-02-15

editor@csicon.org (Breki Tomasson) — Tue, 15 Feb 2011 19:14:50 +0000

Slightly late – so what else is new? – comes the next episode of Claims of the Normal! In it Breki is visited yet again by Petter and Arkenor, and much fun was had.

It’s hard to summarize these episodes, since most everything that we talk about tends to lead us off on the most bizarre of tangents; but expect stuff about jiggly bits, MMOs of various constellations and … well, anything you didn’t know already about the things that make these people tick.

Claims of the Normal 004: 2011-02-01

editor@csicon.org (Breki Tomasson) — Mon, 31 Jan 2011 23:03:40 +0000

Sorry, we missed last week, but here we are, with yet another episode of senseless inanities and pointless meandering talking about … well … anything, really.

This week, we talked about Cataclysm burnout and what some of the reasons for this could be. We talked about cheating on World of Warcraft and moving – in some cases moving back – to other games, such as Star Trek Online, Mass Effect 2 and Magica.

Breki also decided that this would be a great opportunity to bring up the Creepy Watson-movie, one of the funniest things on the Internet:

Claims of the Normal 003: 2011-01-21

editor@csicon.org (Breki Tomasson) — Thu, 20 Jan 2011 23:57:40 +0000

Breki (Blog, Twitter) and Petter (Blog, Twitter) came back for the third week in a row to record a show! Breki also shows his amazing grasp of calendars and weekdays!

Episode three is their shortest yet, since this week seems to have been the slowest week in recorded history. They did, however, get to talking about World of Warcraft (surprise, surprise) and a couple of the things they’ve been doing there since last time we met. They also had a quick discussion about the recent casting of Anne Hathaway and Tom Hardy in the next Batman movie.

The topic of Iceland came up (as it does), leading to Petter introducing Breki to the fantastic little homepage named Iceland Wants to be Your Friend. If you do nothing else, check out some of the videos on their Vimeo channel.

Claims of the Normal 002: 2011-01-12

editor@csicon.org (Breki Tomasson) — Wed, 12 Jan 2011 22:46:10 +0000

Breki (Blog, Twitter) and Petter (Blog, Twitter) came back another week in a row to record a show! The crowds go crazy!

Episode Two, featuring their views on the best games, movies and television series of 2010 – and plenty of other things as their minds invariably wander – can be found here. There wasn’t really all that much to report about the show, as far as show notes go, but here’s a Halo Reach video they mentioned. It might be a little NSFW for some audiences.

Claims of the Normal 001: 2011-01-06

editor@csicon.org (Breki Tomasson) — Thu, 06 Jan 2011 01:20:59 +0000

Episode 1 of Claims of the Normal is out and about, making the Internet a happier place.

After entirely too long of a hiatus, Breki (Blog, Twitter) brought some people together and made a podcast again. His guests this week are Petter Mårtensson (Blog, Twitter) and Arkenor (Blog, Twitter).

Having three MMO-enthusiasts in one podcast less than a month after the release of World of Warcraft: Cataclysm, much of the the talk this week centered around that topic, but they also managed to cover Rift, discuss the pricing model they’re taking, wonder a little about the sale of in-game items in MMORPGs and talk about Petter’s fondness for ladies with few items of clothing in Korean games. Arkenor worried about his tendency to ooh, aah, eeh and hmm, but he was no worse than anybody else is or has been. You should just hear how Breki and Petter sounded in the first couple of episodes they did last year!

The episode ended with a brief discussion about Emo He-Man, Star Trek, Hawaii Five-0 and the tendency to revamp things from the 80s. Good times were had by all and everybody sincerely hopes to have Arkenor back on the show at some point in the near future!