Words for the wise from the mouth of a fool.
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Saturday, December 07, 2002
Bookslut links to Savant's analysis of Marvel Comics and says "It's not like a whole bunch of people will miss them" if they go away.
Well, I'll certainly admit that Marvel has been doing some asinine things over the last few years (above and beyond standard levels), but count me among those who would miss them if they just went away. I'm no Marvel Zombie, but I do buy two or three Marvel books a month, and I'd miss reading those. I'd rather they just wised up and stopped doing things like this to quality titles.
Friday, December 06, 2002
Remember Science Groove? Today defective yeti pointed me to a whole list of such bands. Check them out at your own risk.
In today's TIA-influenced culture, Radio Shack makes a surprisingly wise decision: "Policy Change Expected to be Popular with Customers". Damn straight it will be.
Thursday, December 05, 2002
Remember when I said there would be some great corrections in the NYTimes? Turns out there are some great ones in the Austin Chronicle, too.
I've been watching Comedy Central's rebroadcasts of Friar's Club roasts this week, and they're funy, funny stuff. One of the comics at all of the roasts was Jeffery Ross, and he's a great roaster. Of course, were I setting up a "book me at corporate events website", I might not brag about being at the roast of Steven Segal*, even if Buddy and Uncle Milty were there. But that's just me.
* And how exactly is it that Segal is a member of the Friar's Club anyway?
Earlier today Cap'n Bitterfish and I were talking about a test we took in high school, the ASVAB. Well, a quick Google search turned up the Army's page on the test--including sample questions you can take in the comfort of your own home. But be careful--do well and you can expect recruiters to start calling...
My rant from a year or so ago about the coffee mug I received from Ford still gets a couple hits a week--which only makes sense, I suppose, given that it's the only personal page that comes up in the first set of Google hits on the subject. Other people online have commented on the letter as I did, and some on the idea of the gift itself. At the time, I agreed with both groups--that the letter was stupid, but that it was nice of Ford to keep a customer in mind after they left the lot.
But now, given the perspective of passing time, the letter is still idiotic and I haven't seen anything from Ford since except bills. And I still don't drink coffee. The mug just sits here on my desk at work, reminding me that no matter how much you love a brand, the only thing the brand will give you in return is cheap, meaningless gifts.
I'd seen WireImage as a back-end supplier of content to Yahoo and the IMDB, but only after a MeFi post linked to their 2002 in review page did I think to poke around their own site. There's an awful lot of celebrity photos, handy if you're looking for Photoshop fodder of, say, Tony Danza, but I found the News section much more interesting--especially the photos of last week's spacewalk.
Sadly, they want ten bucks to see anything more than the thumbnails on their site. Understandable from a business standpoint, but useless to Net freeloaders like me.
Wednesday, December 04, 2002
I heard the bad news yesterday from Dr. Chris, but found the link to share today: Delaney's Surplus burned down Monday afternoon.
Math comes to Sunnydale, as an ecologist theoretically determines the size of its vampire population.
Tuesday, December 03, 2002
Via boingboing I learned of Harry Potter fans banding together to bid in a Sotherby's auction next week. What do they hope to win? A card with 93 random words from the next installment in the series by J.K. Rowling.
Let me repeat that for Slow Joe in the back row: 93 random words.
I'm sure this idea will be all over the web by noon (GMT, even), so I'd better get to the point quick. Without further ado, I'd like to give you 93 random words. Given the potential that any (or all!) of them may appear in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, I would be perfectly willing to accept any (and all!) money you'd like to send me via Paypal. Okay. The words. Here we go:
fiscal, inculcate, obdurate, trounce, velour, the, a, Potter, Harold, wand-a-pa-zola, zippy, burning, rash, bookmark, sorcery, tower, protuberance, quotation, I, you, he, she, it, calendar, trapeze, explain, definitions, of, krugspiel, eupeptic, diakinesis, luculent, pangolin, and, fart, blanket, London, Yangtze, impatient, bloody, fans, chalkboard, elderly, dextroamphetamine, Order, Phoenix, palpitation, chewy, chewier, chewiest, haX0r, truth, justice, melodramatic, way, videotape, chowder, remedial, Phys. Ed., spoon, table, trundle, breakbeat, jolly, underwear, zipper, donuts, doughnuts, prank, sprained, barrister, arraignment, penalty, slippers, Chubbo, balaclava, Valmont, marimba, antidestablishmentarianism, flagstones, class, window, merchandising, by, through, toward, open, closed, tragedy, over, under, about, zombie, drunken
I would also like to challenge J.K. Rowling to create a similar list for my next novel, and we can compare lists to see who got more right. Ten percent of the loser's advance goes to the winner's favorite charity*.
* Sorry CBLDF, but I'm afraid that ten dollars might be going in the mail to England.
FINALLY!
After six months of trying, I finally got a bronze medal on Skater Island in THPS3. I say this with all humility and respect, but now I better understand those kids in high school who were just happy to get C's.
Couldn't update this morning due to Blogger outage, but now that I'm back (and have a few minutes in the middle of an inordinately long meeting) I have a couple things to share:
- An excellent list of UFO-related Freedom of Information Act requests.
- The info page for A Hundred Monkeys, a California branding company, is actually interesting reading. I appreciate both their no-bullshit approach and the quote that closes the page:
Why does one chess player play better than another? The answer is not that the one plays better or makes fewer mistakes. The one who plays better makes more mistakes, by which I mean more imaginative mistakes. He sees more ridiculous alternatives. The mark of a great player is exactly that he thinks of something which by all known norms of the game is an error. -- Jacob Bronowski, The Origin of Knowledge and Imagination
Monday, December 02, 2002
Hey, you know that thing you've been avoiding doing? Howsabout you do that thing. Because you don't want Andy Richter punching you out, do you? DO YOU?
In a conversation tonight, JP has coined a new genre-label for games like Tetris: SKF Games--Shit Keeps Falling. It seems amusingly apt.
For burgeoning students of ludology, I provide material to fuel your debates: the lecture notes from a class on graphics programming for games. Of course, the only one I really understood was the lecture on story. (via robotwisdom)
Sunday, December 01, 2002
"She takes the blue ribbon at the Betty Crocker Skank-Off every time."
Thanksgiving on the Fametracker. Hilarity ensues.
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