End of May Updates!

Howdy howdy, my lil rabble rousers! 

I wanted to start doing end of month updates so I can keep you abreast of whats going on - things like video progress, bonus stuff, general changes. So here's the first of what will hopefully become a monthly thing! 

Next Video Progress:
So the upcoming video on Helen Keller and the ableist conspiracy theory surrounding her is well under way. The script has expanded from the first draft following chats with experts and additional research on my part - but it feels a lot more fleshed out than before. You can expect the expanded script at some point today to read over.

Voice overs are also coming in hot and they've all been great (I have very talented Patrons!). Keep 'em coming in! 

I need to organise a few more voices and pass the expanded script to a second sensitivity reader to make sure appropriate tone and language is being used in the parts that need it. I got FL Studio recently which I'm hoping will be the answer to getting nice and clean audio, and will be looking to record audio stuff next week - then I can start animation and archive footage requesting! Woo!

Bonus Videos:
So originally I had a plan to look at thuderf00t's weird political take on HBO's Chernobyl - but now having rewatched it I'm not too sure if his argument is that HBO's Chernobyl glorifies the Soviet Union, or if they simply took from Soviet sources who were overstating the potential damage Chernobyl could have done - and inadvertantly parroted Soviet propaganda. 

As someone who spent far too long chasing sources, reading accounts, and getting Russian transalted, both of those takes are odd takes. But the first one is a lot dumber than the second one. I wanted to talk about the dumb one, but the editing in his video is ambiguous as to which one he means. As ...idiosyncratic(?) as I find thunderf00t, I don't feel overly comfy misrepresenting his take - even as a Patreon-only video. 

I'll try and find out which it is and how viable that bonus video would be but if not I might just take you on a whistle-stop tour of the weirder deviations HBO's Chernobyl took from what apparently happened
(Mini spoiler for one of the deviations: Legasov expected he'd be given the highest Soviet wartime award, Hero of the Soviet Union, for his work in Chernobyl. And the show states that he'll get that in the last episode. But instead they actually gave him a shittily-made pocket watch. It's suspected that Efim Slavsky, who was still running the Soviet nuclear program and resented Legasov, blocked Legasov from getting the reward. But like imagine thinking you'll be celebrated as a hero of your country only for them to give you a pocket watch that couldn't keep time as a thanks. Mad!)

Also as another bonus video I'm working on a footnote to my first ever video - the one about Mr House. I think it'd be good to do a quasi-retrospective on it since it's almost a year old and I think with the benefit of hindsight and thousands of comments calling me an idiot it'd be worth expanding on some points which I didn't flesh out/need fleshing out. That one will probalby be more of a general release - like an unlisted video footnote on the MC - but let me know which you'd prefer first: a Chernobyl expansion, or a New Vegas expansion

Discord stuff:
I wanna see about getting more games nights going in the Discord because it's bigger now and they're always fun! (I've pinned a post if you're new so go join the Discord)

We have an ongoing civ game which'd be cool to see on a more semi-regular basis (also big thank you to Lemming for actually organising and hosting those. Shower him in Discord's equivalent of reddit karma) but would also be cool to do other games. Dread Hunger was a lot of fun, and I know people have suggested a TF2 Mann vs Machine co-op night which I'd be very down for. Will try and set up events for those so expect more "stuff" on the horizon - but a caveat to that is... 

General Updates:
Things may be going a bit slower because I'm going camping all next week in farmer's country (read: the South West and Wales) and will probably be visiting my folks as well. I'll be back to my regular tomfoolery second week of June!

And finally - thank you all so much for being here. I really appreciate all of you for supporting my first steps into this brave new World. 

That's all for now!  
- Soup.