Exploding kittens and goats

So perhaps you have heard of a certain card game Kickstarter that has gone balistic.

I have enjoyed reading this crowd-funding-that-could story from a marketing and fundraising viewpoint. The people involved (two designers and a famous comic artist) were very smart to focus on very few but very clear perks (donate $20 bux to make this card game, and you get a copy of this card game.) They may have set their initial sights too low ($10,000) and didn't plan out enough "stretch goals" (in case, like it did, the campaign surpassed it's goal.)

• Apparently, they reached their initial goal in 8 minutes. 
• Then, over 120,000 donors broke a Kickstarter record. 
• And they have now made over $5M.

I have also enjoyed watching from a goat supporter's standpoint. Goats have been in it to win it from the beginning, with an all-seeing Goat wizard able to help you, and later, the release of a goat butt that lets you see into the future.

(Granted, that is a mountain goat, not a true goat, but who's counting.)


The group was taking suggestions for other cards on Facebook recently, and I added a few caprine ideas. Who wants to bet if there will be more goaty magic to come?

Super-GOAT-Bowl!

Goats take over the Superbowl.

First off, in the Alternative Offering of Puppybowl, five goats served as the cheerleaders.

From Puppybowl Facebook

According to this article, "...four of the baby goats; Charlie, Murphy, Speckles and Sammy, were born and raised at Molasses Hill Farm here (in New Jersey). The other baby goat, Cookie, was born at the Guenther Farm, also in Clinton Township."

Then, the main reason people watch the actual game, as most people know, is for the commercials, and goats were to be had there as well:

Also, T Mobile's subteranian petting zoo:

 Anyone see any other goat sightings? Share them!

Game of Thrones as sung by goats

Thanks to all who pointed me towards this! P.S. Please excuse the few sheep thrown in.

As an aside, has anyone else noticed an influx of goats lately? Goats online, goats in cartoons, goats in commercials. The goats are coming, people. Be ready.

UPDATE! Goat Simulator Arrives April 1!

In my last post, I noted that a video game created during a creative jam may or may not become available for public consumption....

GUESS WHAT?

"You Did It, Internet. Goat Simulator Is A Real Thing That You Can Buy." - via Kotaku




Now I will admit, and fully realize, this is not a PR coup.  It does not tell a very truthful story about Capra hircus. For instance:

- Goats do not survive when hit by cars. Do not, in real life, hit goats with cars.
- Goats do not survive long falls, even onto trampolines. Do not drop goats in real life, even onto trampolines.
- Goats do not  have tongues that stick to things like axes. Do not try to get your goat to lick an ax and carry it around.

So I guess as far as defeating goat stereotypes, this video game isn't going to score many points (I will say I didn't see the goat in the game eating any garbage.)

But then again, Jam City Rollergirls didn't depict roller derby with complete accuracy either.

And just look at how much fun this will be! People are really looking forward to it. At least, the Goatmaiden is!

Goat Video Game Becomes Reality??

Thanks to a tip, and Kotaku.com I am now aware of a goat simulation video game that may or may not be in production. Coffee Stain Studio posted to their Facebook timeline on 1/20/14 a game jam example video of "Goat Simulator" (warning: scenes of goat getting hit by car--don't worry, he's OK!) and asked people to share if they wanted to see it turned into a real game. Then recently they released this youtube video, echoing the preliminary images with even more goat goodness:


So check them out, and please share if you want Goat Simulator! (P.S. gotta work on his climbing skills.)

From http://www.lonelyplanet.com/

Most Metal Goat

I thought I had seen the best combo of goat+metal band possible with the Metallica Packer Goat. However, life has proven me wrong by introducing me to Biquette.

More from Metal Insider:

Grindcore fan that happened to be a goat passes away 

We see a lot of things come across our desks, but the goat in the front row of a Wormrot show that’s been kicking around the internet for a few years is one of the best images in metal. Now, thanks to the team over at Noisey, we not only know that the goat had a name, Biquette, but sadly, that Biquette is no longer with us, having passed away last month.

Raad the rest here:
http://www.metalinsider.net/in-memoriam/grindcore-fan-that-happened-to-be-a-goat-passes-away

Photo from Biquette's Facebook Page

A happy little tune for your Thursday!

According to Wikipedia, George Formby (5/26/1904-3/6/1961) was once Britain's top-paid entertainer. He usually played tunes on ukulele both on the stage and in film.

Vote For Doritos Commercial: Goat 4 Sale!

There is a real chance to be a part of bringing a NEW GOAT COMMERCIAL to air during the Superbowl! Just go to https://apps.facebook.com/crashthesuperbowl/ (you have to be on Face Book to vote). You can vote once per day online and on your mobile.

One of the issues with bringing animals into pop culture is the inevitable mistakes that will be made by those who don't know or those that don't care, about accuracy. I (of course) do not want to support animal abuse, or people treating animals unkindly. Goats, I am sure, would eat Doritos (and McDonalds formerly-happy meals). But if they were allowed to eat them a lot, I'll bet they would get sick. So don't feed your goat food that goats aren't built to eat (mainly brush like tree branches, leaves, hay, grain etc.)

One of the reasons for the myth "Goats will eat anything" is because they will pretty much put anything in their mouths.  It's one of the ways they explore their surroundings.

https://apps.facebook.com/crashthesuperbowl/

A Man in Goat's Clothing?

There are reports that a man dressed as a mountain goat has been spotted in Utah. The authorities seem to be concerned that he may be injured by goats, or that a hunter may mistake him for a goat. This is going in the "creepy" file for now.

By they way, mountain goats are not true goats (capra genus), nor are they sheep. They are in the same subfamily as goats and sheep, but have their own genus (Oreamnos). I consider them to be closer to goats than sheep since they are called mountain goats. They have very square heads and remind me of Snowy from Tintin.

 

UPDATE:

'Goat man' in Utah mountains identified as hunter (7/24/2012)

Goats love to surf

Goatee has a protoge - Pismo!

Read more here.

Retail Theory

“There are as many women as there are men who pursue odd ways of earning money, one class of which would be designated as ‘goats,’ for it is their business to be ‘discharged’ from the department stores in which they are ‘employed’ a number of times each day. When a grouchy or haughty customer makes complaint of discourteous treatment against a clerk, one of the ‘goats’ is summoned to the office as the person in charge of that particular department. There she is given a good talking to in front of the angry customer and summarily ‘dismissed,’ and the complainant goes away rejoicing.”

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=50-100-150-may-12

Goatee the Surfing Goat

The story is one told again and again. Surfing soccer-loving boy gets goat as a way to clear brush from his land. Boy, who used to live in Africa and has ties to http://www.flosoccerministry.com/ , planned to eat "Goatee" after she finished her duties, but, like many bitten buy the goat-bug (ew) found that the creature had such personality he couldn't help but fall in love. Well, not that kind of love (although the section of the video above does have a scene of them swinging tandem on a swing set, I am sure it's just platonic love).

Boy then, on his 33rd birthday, took the goat surfing and thought she did a good job. A video of him and Goatee appeared on a local tv station and soon went viral, being picked up all over the world.

Goatee is the mascot of Flo (forever loving others) Soccer Ministry, which spreads the love of Jesus through soccer. Something about soccer, and surfing, and goats... and Jesus I guess...they all inspire passionate embrace and soulful support that seems to go beyond the single entity. At least that's what I think. Think what you like - it's still cool to see a goat surf.

Goats hang with the cool kids

From a study in England, as reported on GeekoSystem:

Goats Form Accents Based on the Hip Goats They Hang Around

"... the next time you happen to be hanging around some goats, you’d do well to mimic them if you want them to think you’re cool."

So I got tipped off to this by the They Might Be Giants Facebook page. They also had a video of a goat massage (work safe!). And later, they lamented not seeing any fainting goats.

I love TMBG.

My MinkCar. Click to understand (or be confused.)

Goats in Pop Culture:Local Colour

As mentioned in my previous post, I am endeavoring to create more structure here at Goatmaiden.com while moving forward with certain plans and directions for the Museum and Hall of Fame. To that effect I am instigating a more prepared quality to my posts, as well as threads or themes I think will provide interesting content to the site. These will include Goat News, Goat Reviews (of goaty products), and posts based on themes such as Pop Culture, Farming, Competition, Veterinary etc.

Goats in Pop Culture:Local Colour




































Photo from Surreycomet.co.uk


The Goat Boy of Seething Wells in the Surbiton area of London was seen leading the Seething Festival Parade, held in his honor, on Sunday February 26, 2011. The legend was created it seems in 2010 and, as the story goes, a giant named Thamas Deeton was defeted by the goat boy Lefi Ganderson who freed his village from the tyrant. You can read the story or buy the book here: http://resourcehome.org/The_Legend_of_Lefi.html

Goat News: Well not really the post I wanted to start out with, but an escaped herd of 200-600 goats caused havoc and mayhem on an interstate highway on Saturday, February 26, 2011. Over 40 goats were killed, and at least one driver was hurt on I-5 in California near the Twin Cities Road exit ramp, according to a report in the Daily Mail. The goats appear to be brush or meat goats and aparently escaped from their farm Galt, Sacramento County through a broken fence.

How To Avoid a Goat

Pearls Before Swine

A famous Goat shares time with me every Sunday as I read the comic "Pearls Before Swine." He goes by Goat, but Wikipedia says his real name is Paris. I feel a special kinship with this goat, since it also states in the same entry that Rat makes fun of him for having a blog no one reads. Ha!

Iowa County Supports Goats!

Goats have more fun. I have proof. You will see no sheep in these pictures, except to cheer on the goats.





































The Iowa County Fair in Mineral Point Wisconsin finished off its yearly run today, with a 1p.m. Goat Costume Class and Agility Contest. The La Mancha you see above was being driven by the reigning champion at the goat agility contest. He ended up finishing third this year. Two young ladies bested him.

The goats had to put at least two feet into the ball pit (you should have seen how some of them flew through the air when the balls startled them!), then up and down the teeter-totter (the course lady watched to make sure they had a gentle time of it), then through the weaving sticks, over a small hurdle, and up and down one last ramp. That last ramp was where I started to get annoyed at the course judge, who took to pushing the goats up and down from behind. If you were a goat being attacked by a mountain lion, wouldn't you freak if someone grabbed your hindquartes? I know I would! There was also a little joshing about one girl "cheating" by resorting to using positive reinforcement (in the form of grain) to lure her goat through the course. Hey. It worked.



















This little goat - a miniature I believe, was the best at the course as a whole and ran it twice with two different handlers.

Finally, there was the Costume Class! This was just a few of the contestants. I felt the girl with the ladybug outfit and her bee goat should have gotten a prize - they were the first ones dressed, and her goat kept his deelie-boppers on the whole time. The winners were a boy dressed as a bee with his goat dressed as a field of flowers, a boy dressed as Merlin riding his goat (you can see him in the background - as far as I was concerned, he should not have won since his goat wasn't wearing anything - except a rider!) and the little Knight in the front with the green dragon goat who, I admit, was the cutest.

The Daily Goat

Ok sorry if this is a repost, but this is a parody news blog that has been around for a while.

Vend-a-Goat

Goat Mascot for Store-brand Push Pops

Awesome to see someone at the brainstorming department at Food Club knows of the marketing power of goats. Yep. One of the main reasons I bought this pack was because of the crazy galoshes-wearing goat on the package. Doesn't hurt that push-pops are a great nostalgic summer treat. It was mainly the goat tho. Wonder if he has a name?