2:19 AM  
The most recent version of my full playlist will now appear as a regular feature in the sidebar. I know some folks out there were checking out the old one, so you should update your pointer (the only real change is one letter non-capitalized, but some browsers get all anal and stuff.)

I've noticed that this page is approaching feature creep: I've been so busy tinkering that I'm forgetting to do things like update the cam image. Oh well; I'll try to keep up, but this is all just for fun--it's not like my Social Security account is accruing any benefit from this work or anything...

Karla, you were right about the Pizzicato Five in general and "Good" in particular. I am now downloading a shitload more with a consideration to purchase. Thanks.

Good night, all.

12:52 AM  
Must remember to check out Pravda translated into English when in need of entertainment.

12:25 AM  
Check out post #487 of this PlanetCrap thread where "Narcopolo" atttempts to deduce the project cost for Max Payne. Remedy's Petri Jarvilehto shows up to bat him down just a few posts later (kind of), but it's still fun to watch Howard J. Fann at work.

The same thread provides a link to the HaX0r Translator. It's a shame it doesn't translate HaX0r to English, though.

12:02 AM  
Ever wondered what a Lego skeleton would look like in pants? Want to put a Lego businessman in a loincloth? Go out together a custom Lego fig online. (Thanks to Brian for the link.)

6:51 PM  
Link lifted from Memepool:

I am Mario. I like to jump around, and would lead a fairly serene and aimless existence if it weren't for my friends always getting into trouble. I love to help out, even when it puts me at risk. I seem to make friends with people who just can't stay out of trouble. What Video Game Character Are You?

By the way, the corner images folder now contains more than a hundred images. Collect them all.

6:12 PM  
Tragedy or comedy? You decide.

And because GeekCode just wasn't specific enough, there's now BlogCode:

B1 d+ t k+ s- u f+ i o+ x e+ l c-

4:44 PM  
Follow the time-travelling DeLorean on this Back to the Future fansite.

3:29 PM  
I had heard somewhere that the Orient Express no longer existed, but: it lives.

Someday, I will ride it.

3:06 PM  
Quoth Dr. Seuss:

One of my favorite games is Ring the Gack.
So I keep a large Gack at my house, in the back.
The way that you play is, you throw a large ring,
Then the Gack tries to stick his whole head through the thing.

You must get your ring on the Gack's neck to win,
So it helps if your Gack has a head that is thin.
My Gack is quite good, and he really tries hard
To catch all the rings as they fly 'round the yard

My Gack is so patient he'll sit there all day.
He doesn't care how many times that we play.
He will sit still for weeks, till the games are all through.
I couldn't sit quietly that long. Could you?

Man, I wish I'd paid attention in my college psychology courses so I could understand that. I think it's Freudian or something.

2:18 PM  
Brace yourself, Blogger users--the end of free approaches. I'd probably pay the thirty bucks for a year of responsive service, but I hope that Evan and Blogger are ready for what comes with paying customers--upset paying customers who (to a degree, rightfully) feel you now have an obligation to them.

12:38 PM  
Said by my friend Rob in an online conversation about The Lord of the Rings: "Maybe if Saruman had used the Golden Gun Gandalf wouldn't have escaped..."

BREAK YO'SELF FOOL! GET UP OUT THE CAR!

2:20 AM  
Entry removed because leaving something personal hanging out in public makes me all itchy.

1:36 AM  
Large pile of images dumped into bin. It should take you a while to see them all.

Remember the days when everyone worried about cloned cel phones? Time to start worrying about your ATM card.

11:57 PM  
An article by a former Blogger employee (who was on the cover of an issue of Brill's Content I was showing JP less than twelve hours ago) introduced me to the concept of "lovemarks". Please baby Jesus, keep this concept away from certain minds.

11:03 PM  
Begin Memepool Emulation*
I'm finding some neat online clocks lately.
End Memepool Emulation

* Though no Memepool links were knowingly stolen in this post.(/hubris)

By the way--STATBUILDER is now downloadable. Can you conquer my 46 RBIs and Smack Talking skill of 39? Too late! I have already levelled again! Play now or fall further behind!

6:39 PM  
Random image at top right now seems to be working properly. Spacing issues (links bar padding, why title is shifted to the right) and other issues continue to be worked on.

Currently there are 20 images in the random image bin; that should climb rapidly as time permits (the percentage of comic book material in there is a little high right now, for one thing; that needs to be diluted down by other stuff.) You'll see a new one each time you visit this page, or, if you're impatient, you can just click on the image and it will cycle randomly through the pool. Enjoy.

5:45 PM  
Work on front page in progress. Apologies for any errors or visual strangeness you may encounter.

4:20 PM  
Courtesy of Burger King, I hope to soon be trying out for the Harlem Globetrotters:

If you visit the Globetrotters' homepage, you'll see that they will soon be visiting "high-secure facility". Gosh, I hope I get my Keds and "FREAKY" jersey (number 42, please) in time to go along.

4:17 PM  
I found Google's "Year-End Zeitgeist" Report to be pretty interesting. I'm not certain that it's quite as...authoritative as Google would like it to be, but it's interesting to see what statsistcal data can be drawn out of a year's use of the search engine.

3:10 AM  
Someone needs to explain to me why my Edward Norton bonds aren't making any money on the Hollywood Stock Exchange...

2:30 AM  
At the top of this here white section of the page, way o'er on the right, you see my test of a new feature. It'll probably be moved in the next couple days as I do a slight redesign to the front page, but: thoughts? (F'rinstance, is its usefulness limited by the fact that it doesn't remember which state you choose, forcing those who would like to use the new option presented to restate that choice each time they visit--and, if there's only one link in the day's post, turning a one-click operation into a two-clicker? These are the kind of thoughts you have when you're up too late at night in a week soaked in theoretical arguments.)

3:25 PM  
Why do I still feel paranoid when the government announces a new program with which I agree whole-heartedly?

8:10 PM  
What are you doing reading this? Why aren't you watching tonight's new episode of 24? (In case you missed it, it's rerunning Friday night, you lucky bastard. It even includes a 'Bring You Up to Speed' section at the beginning for those just jumping on board. Check your local listings for the time.)

As I watch, I'm continuing to explore the depth of Blogger-related resources. My latest discovery: Blogdex. (Somewhere along the way I found Robert Goulet's website.)

By the way--where do you fall on here? Because you know you do, right? (Those with an even more morbid self-curiosity will want to look here as well.)

In closing, a paragraph with no parenthetical enclosures. Good night.

3:39 PM  
I love metafiction, and websites designed as if they existed in the world of the fiction are a recent flavor of that (I was lucky enough to help on one such project, the website for Earth: Final Conflict, though it looks like everything I contributed to is gone now.)

I bring it up to direct you to the website of Fineman Films, especially the full list of Morty Fineman's films. Good fun. For the story behind the site, go see The Independent when it plays in your area; it opens in Madison in a couple weeks, and I plan on checking it out--how can you go wrong with a movie starring Jerry Stiller?

2:52 PM  
Opened Blogger's front page and saw this quote on the side of the screen:

"Blogs are teh only way I'd ever keep my site up to date. I couldn't imagine a more complete solution - the folx @ Pyra are wicked awesome!" - Jako

Following the link provided out of sheer morbid curiosity, I discovered that Jako's blog, "blahstuff" looks exactly like I imagined it would.

I've been adding more blogs to the "Read Other Blogs" section of my Links page--that is, the blogs of people I don't know personally. Some of them I've met a couple times (Lampshade, Bruce Sterling), but I don't know them well enough to give you permission to stalk them. Still, feel free to read their words.

2:05 PM  
"My name is Robert and I can't stop thinking about ninjas. These guys are cool; and by cool, I mean totally sweet."

If I may, I'd like to reccommend another CD that I recently purchased: P.S. Mr. Cole by the John Pizzarelli Trio. Big band is where I got into jazz, but jazz trios are where I've really come to hang out, taste-wise, and recently I've really been enjoying some of the Pizzarelli stuff I've downloaded. I picked this CD at random out of the bin, and it's been in my CD player full-time as I've driven around town for the last few days. The Trio's clean, tight sound on Nat King Cole's near-perfect songwriting....you gotta love it. (Okay, you don't gotta, but you should.)

12:14 PM  
"Sorry, publishing is temporarily unavailable."

What the heck is going on with Blogger? I haven't been able to successfully post since seven yesterday evening. When and if they ever go to a pay-based service, they'll have to be more reliable than this to get my money...

2:30 P.M.: Question answered on Blogger's status page--apparently they're switching servers around. An answer doesn't make it any less frustrating...

9:37 PM  
THE TERRIBLE COSMIC DEATH may take forever to download/queue up, but it's worth it. Trust me.

Fifty bucks is pricy, but gosh if a trolley wouldn't be a neat (if useless) thing to have.

Now, to the gym!

9:04 PM  
My favorite thing I heard today: "If bullshit were gold, Slashdot would be Fort Knox."

More funny, though link clickage is required: STATBUILDER. No, I can't download it either.

7:31 PM  
So, you think you're an insomniac? Quick, where was Anderson Cooper before he became host of The Mole? You'd know if you weren't all wussy and sleeping (or watching your fancy cable TV): ABC World News Now. In case you ever wonder where I am in that strange (long) time between GTA3 and sleep, there you go.

3:25 PM  
Perhaps you're part of the Pirate Generation. If so, despite the fact that you have to pass by some porny stuff along the way, you might find an enormous online archive of CD cover art useful.

2:59 PM  
Hey! This is the first I've heard of Vib Ribbon 2. Hopefully it'll actually come out in the U.S....

4:21 PM  
Just in case you ever need to quickly find a pool of hardcore Muppet fans, bookmark ToughPigs.com. You may wonder how I found that page. The answer: I cannot tell you. I know I opened Google to find the lyrics to a Beatles song....and ended up there. Weird. And thanks to ToughPigs, may I present...Sesame Radio (although I think neither of us would argue that it is still brought to you by the letter 'M'.) Enjoy.

In the News, Part 1: I can't decide if this is really neat or incredibly frightening. I suppose only tonight's dreams will tell.

In the News, Part 2: Great. Just great. The kid who crashed a Cessna into a Tampa skyscraper yesterday apparently did it in "support of Bin Laden." Hey, kid--how about writing a letter to the editor or something? In case you're in the Madison area and are considering something similarly dramatic, I would like to provide you with the email address for the editors of the Wisconsin State Journal and the Capital Times; howsabout trying those first?

In the News, Part 3: Enjoy a more amusing photo of a crashed plane in Florida.

In the News, Part 4: As a follow up to my earlier mocking of snow-bound Southerners, I would now like to follow it up with similar guffaws pointed in the direction of balmy Greece and Turkey. Ha-HA!

1:55 AM  
Well, it took the better part of two (or, I guess, looking at the clock, three) days, but I have now conquered the Medal of Honor single-player demo on Hard. 'Twas a pain and a half, but a rewarding one. Based on its indications, I am now comfortable to stand firmly on my declaration that MoH has better single-player play than Return to Castle Wolfenstein, and await the final release of MoH (two weeks?) to see if I am correct in saying that RtCW has the better multiplayer.

In the meantime: Toon Town!

Well, first some sleep and a day away from the office. Then Toon Town. See you on Monday, folks.

12:24 AM  
Paranoid about the plutocracy? Indulge yourself.