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December 18th, 2007
09:44 am - A Spooky Yuletide
I've been sort of AWOL on this journal. Apologies. In partial reparation, I offer a choice few oddball tidbits. First off, those of you who still want to send out Christmas cards may want to take a look at some of the cards that Edward Gorey drew whilst he was still alive. A few years ago, I sent out one of his more understated cards, which was a sorrowful-looking man staring at "NOEL," which was written in the surf on the beach.
For those looking for even more speculative horror this holiday season, I recommend looking at the H. P. Lovecraft Historical Society's A Very Scary Solstice, which are various carols sung with alternate lyrics (such as "It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Fish-Men").
Somewhat less holiday-related, save that Dr. Who is still on my mind, I point you to a very real photo of Brits during WWII, which recalls a very particular ninth Doctor episode. Alternatively, those who don't want to click links to elsewhere can simply ( click behind the lj-cut )
That's it for me for now. Happy holidays!
EDIT: I forgot to also link to the significantly less-spooky but significantly more holiday-themed pictures for an ice hotel in Sweden that I found while browsing the web about a month ago. Kind of real-life meets Die Another Day sort of getaway.
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January 16th, 2007
09:45 pm - Life Update
Progress with the car repairs is, apparently, going at least passing well. I received a check from my insurance agency in the mail today, so I suppose that I'm going to be required to write a rather grotesquely large check myself in the near future. That, I suppose, is good, as such things go.
Meanwhile, I've embarked on running what may be the most narcissistic game I have ever conceived. Blessedly, it is a very short-run game, and I shall speak no more of it here.
I have also embarked on Project Get Fit (also known as Project Make Kyle's Gut Less Obtrusive Before The Wedding) by getting a gym membership and being at least reasonably dedicated about going there. Hopefully, I'll be able to maintain my regimen.
Otherwise, I spent far too much time today watching videos of Hugh Laurie and Stephen Fry on Youtube. I suppose there are many worse things one could have done. It does, however, make me want to track down some Jeeves and Wooster ... or at least the first season of House, which I've seen none of.
I've also been re-reading parts of Daniel Robinson's An Intellectual History of Psychology, which I'd originally borrowed from ![[info]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) jeregenest several years ago as - yes - gaming background research. I had forgotten how good it was. Highly recommended to those who might want to follow the thread of theories of the mind through (Western) intellectual history.
I'll try to post something more interesting in the near future; I appear to have found some sort of work ethic-like thing, though today's release of The Burning Crusade may destroy that shortly. Speaking of which, I have two 10-day guest passes for World of Warcraft (as does everyone who bought TBC today), which I'll happily send to people interested in the game. Of course, you could get the same, plus a DVD of the media at Best Buy for two dollars, but....
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December 30th, 2006
04:02 pm - Trials, Tribulations, and Triscuts
Haven't posted in a bit, so here's the summary of life at present:- Dallas was quite enjoyable, even if I didn't get to spend quite as much time "off" for Christmas as I'd otherwise like.
- Kingdom Hearts is a seriously addictive game that I really shouldn't have purchased, as it has eaten quite a bit of time.
- The flip side is that my primary email account has been offline for a little while now, for reasons that would take far too long to explain. Most of the work I would have been doing in lieu of playing Kingdom Hearts involved email, so I suppose that the universe just wanted me in from of the PS/2.
- I appear to have contracted a reasonably mild gastro-intestinal bug of some sort, which I am treating with all due respect (plenty of fluids, things to replace electrolytes, etc.). This has already disrupted my weekend / New Years plans to a limited degree (making me miss the Dr. Who-a-thon at kitsune_zen's), and I am hoping that it will fade rapidly, so as not to disrupt them further.
- I have managed to finally finish another knitting project, which I'll probably post pictures of soon. I really need to graduate from scarves and move on to something more complex, though that would probably require circular needles.
- My new car is still awesome.
- My primary resolution for this year-end is to join a gym and get more regular exercise.
That's about it for now. A mixed bag, but certainly not overwhelmingly negative.
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June 29th, 2006
12:23 pm - R.I.P. Len Maxwell
telepresence just indicated that voice actor Len Maxwell has passed away. While he's not done much recently apart from some guest appearances on Family Guy, some of you might know him as the voice of Timer, who "hanker[ed] for a hunka cheese" during Saturday morning cartoons.
In other news, I am still alive, and I'm intending to actually post some vaguely interesting stuff soon.
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May 18th, 2006
08:35 am - Still Alive
I am still here. I'm just sort of lurking, for the most part.
Via jwz, I was made aware of a parody of the Sony Bravia advertisement. If you haven't seen the original, do so now. They dropped over 250,000 superballs down the streets of San Francisco.
Well, it appears that this advertisement made such an impact that it was parodied in Europe by another commercial.
The music, by the by, is an acoustic cover of "Heartbeats" by Swedish-Argentinean singer-songwriter José González; it was originally done by the Swedish electropop duo The Knife.
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April 19th, 2006
02:37 pm - Favorite Underrepresented Muppet?
I'm sort of in an odd mood, so here's an odd sort of question.
Everyone thinks of a particular muppet when they think of Jim Henson. Generally, it's someone like Kermit, Miss Piggy, Oscar the Grouch, or Bert (or Ernie). ...but most of us who grew up with them have a particular oddball favorite. Perhaps it's the Honkers from Sesame Street. Perhaps it's one of the Skekses from Dark Crystal. Perhaps it's Zoot. Perhaps a particular Fraggle.
In your personal opinion, which muppet has historically gotten less love than s/he should have gotten, and why?
Edit: Check out The Kermitage Character Guide or the Muppet Wiki for some inspiration, if you're blanking. (Thanks to dr_whom for the wiki link.)
( I'll go first.... )
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February 2nd, 2006
12:34 pm - It Reminds Me That I've Seen Too Little of the IMDB Bottom 100....
A nostalgia-filled post over at telepresence's journal on the UHF canon. It really has me wondering why swan_tower and I haven't bought more of these on DVD.
I mean, Remo Williams: The Adventure Begins! Why don't I have that? Ditto Excaliber.
Damn. I need to spend money I don't really have.
Plus, I have to get moving on the IMDB Bottom 100. I just checked, and since I last ran the numbers, I've dropped from having seen around 30 of the Bottom 100 to having seen only 15. The main problem, I feel, is that the ratings are weighted toward the films that people have seen recently. They really don't know how bad it used to be.
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December 19th, 2005
08:37 pm - Snack Attack, Mother-f***er!
If you haven't seen this SNL skit, then you have missed something amazing. Simply amazing. [Thanks to Chase and Matt for the link.]
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October 18th, 2005
10:57 am - Potporri
I saw The Colbert Report (pronounced "The Colbear Repore") last night, and it was pretty good. It does, however, seem to be leaning rather more heavily on Colbert's personna than on current events and the guest of the day. Thus, it's sort of a SNL "Weekend Report" meets Letterman. One could argue that nightly variety shows like Letterman and The Tonight Show have worked well with this combination for decades, but I'm not sure that Colbert has found a balance that is sustainable. It obviously needed to establish itself in contrast to The Daily Show, and it was damn funny in its first episode, but I'm not sure that entertainment value can be sustained.
Speaking of the Daily Show, thanks to bryant for pointing me to Lisa Rein's video archive thereof. It's not complete, but if you want a Jon Stewart fix and you don't want to wait until that evening, it's nifty.
Via jlundberg, an interview with Ben Rosenbaum, who is a very talented writer who has some great rationale for why he writes speculative fiction, and what he'd do in a zombie attack.
Via Golden Fiddle, I learned today that Tom Waits is likely the progenitor of the phrase, "I'd rather have a bottle in front of me than a frontal lobotomy," although he apparently claimed it was from a bathroom wall.
Via Slashdot, it looks as if transparent aluminum is a reality. Who'd have thought that Scotty was right?
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August 5th, 2005
12:32 pm - Cor! DM!
Why didn't anyone tell me that this was out?
I picked it up at Best Buy, and now I can't wait to go home and watch it. I mean, Cosgrove Hall! Rock!
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August 3rd, 2005
05:27 pm - For all you Whedon nuts out there
An interview for you at In Focus. A quote:"To blow your mind – by putting the camera through a keyhole and into the ass of a fly and through the stars." Go!
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June 29th, 2005
03:37 pm - Time Travel Suggestions
So, as you all know, I'm running the Bes Din time-travel convention Changeling game in July down here in Bloomington. What I would like from folks are suggestions of books, TV shows, movies, and the like which have to do with time travel which I haven't thought of already. You can be as specific or as general as you want, but I'm looking for stuff which is either relatively mainstream, pretty damn good, or both. Note that what follows is not neccessarily either. :)
( Saving the F-list, one cut at a time.... )
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February 18th, 2005
11:01 am - Where "The WB" Breaks Me
Be weeeery weeeery quiet. I'm hunting Nielsen. (Thanks to telepresence for the link).
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January 25th, 2005
05:00 pm - I love me some Google Video
So, for those who don't know, Google has started searching subtitles of TV programs. Some of the results aren't so amazing, and they are relatively limited, since they only started searching recently, but you should really try it yourself.
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January 24th, 2005
12:41 am - R.I.P. Johnny Carson
Johnny Carson died Sunday morning.
Quite startling, actually. I remember the end of his tenure at the helm of The Tonight Show fairly clearly, and of the celebrities of my youth, he always seemed to have the most welcoming combination of dignity, humor, and style. He had Doc (and his amazing band) and Ed. He had legions of faithful viewers. ...and when he retired, he stepped completely out of the limelight.
You're missed, Johnny.
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January 21st, 2005
03:46 pm - You Know You're In Indiana When....
...your coworker sends you an email with the subject line "Good Hee Haw song snippets."
I'm afraid. I'm very afraid.
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