Year: 2010

Categories
Gaming Television & Movies

Vworp speed ahead

I’ve decided to go ahead and nail down an initial release date for the first edition of VWORP!, and it’s a pretty unlikely date indeed. This is subject to change, of course, but as I’ve already put quite a bit of work in on it, I’m aiming to have the book out in time for OVGE on October 23rd of this year.

Wait, OVGE? What? Here’s my thought process. The only science fiction convention I’d have a shot at hitting from this particular location is Tulsa Trek Expo, which is this weekend. (The book will not be ready this weekend.) There’s also OKC’s SoonerCon, which has already happened this year – and which I had never heard of until after it had happened this year.

OVGE isn’t exactly a science fiction con, but it is an event that I have been a long-standing exhibitor at (it started in 2003 and I’ve only missed one year of it), and let’s face it: with a retro-skewing video game convention, there’s a pretty good chance that you’re going to have some spill-over into other areas of geek magnificence, such as science fiction. OVGE’s probably a pretty safe bet, actually. 😆 … Read more

Categories
Critters Funny Stuff Home Base

The amazing true (cotton)tail of Rabbit Stu (and family)

So, Xena has given up on her career of chasing bunnies out of our yard. She used to keep us awake all hours with her quest of vengeance to keep dastardly bunnies away from the house, but evidently our guard-dog has moved into semi-retirement. Or she’s got union-guaranteed bark breaks or something. Whatever. The point is: we suddenly have a healthy population of big brown bunnies roaming our yard.

It started with one particular big (and I mean big) brown bunny, who I named Stu after I noticed he wasn’t going anywhere. That way, he was Rabbit Stu, or at least he would be when Xena got back to the business of chasing and, occasionally, catching and dismantling big-eared yard intruders.

Obviously, it didn’t happen. Soon Rabbit Stu was joined by his friend, Flufferella and Little Johnny (sort of a miniature version of Rabbit Stu – I’m sure you can work out what’s going on here). I wouldn’t be surprised if Flufferella is expecting little Buffy sometime soon. The point is: there are now as many bunnies, and I mean regular recurring cast members, as there are cats. And mom and dad are as big or bigger than any of the cats. There are many copies. And they have a plan.

Xena, what gives? Do we need to find you a trainee dog? Did these little cotton-tailed bastards chase off Todd the Possum and Mystery Cat? Do we need to make like Aussies and build a rabbit-proof fence? Please let us know. Soon. Before Buffy is followed by little Ignacio.… Read more

Categories
Funny Stuff

The kind of things I think about, part 372

You might think that it takes a team of expert mountaineers with world-class climbing gear to conquer the Matterhorn, but I got to thinking about it and there’s a simpler way to conquer the Matterhorn… just crash the Antimatterhorn into it. Problem solved.

I’m not the kind of guy who needs a flashy sports car that can transform into a giant killer robot. I drive a station wagon that, on certain very rare occasions when the electrical wiring is up for it, transforms into an economy-sized, fuel-efficient robot. (If the wiring isn’t up for it, it just stalls.) Anything more than that would be showing off.

That’s it for today. Obviously I need more sleep. If you’d like to contribute to my caffiene replenishment fund, you know where to find me.… Read more

Categories
...And Little E Makes 3

The Test

Bless his little heart, Evan let me sleep in this morning, kinda sorta; the payoff was that he wanted to get under the covers and snooze with me for a little bit. The rest of the morning was pretty routine – scrambled eggs and two whole oranges (!) for breakfast. We got to daycare, and that’s when Evan passed the test. … Read more

Categories
Television & Movies

An open letter to the makers of Lost

Okay, guys, I’m just gonna get right down to it without any formalities. We’re about 17 hours away from the beginning of the final episode of Lost. I’m going to be “on the board” for this show, probably the biggest TV draw of May sweeps if not the entire frakkin’ year, so please allow me to implore you to do the following:

Don’t f@$% it up. Seriously. If it turns out to be a St. Elsewhere ending that makes people pick up pitchforks and torches and storm their local ABC stations, it’s my ass they’re after, right? So, seriously, don’t get me killed. Please. It’ll look really bad on the paperwork afterward.

Purely as a fan, let me add the following request:

Don’t f@$% it up. You might just be able to top the audience figure for the finale of M*A*S*H here. Personally, I kinda doubt that’ll happen, but hell, stranger stuff has happened recently – look at what we now consider the #1 movie of all time to be. (I still think that ranking is the result of “cooked books” by way of inflated 3-D ticket prices, but what do I know?)

But more to the point, you have an opportunity to make this a finale that people are talking about years – or decades – later. J.J. Abrams himself once said that one of his chief inspirations for what he turned Lost into after he took over the show from its rather simplistic “Castaway on TV” pilot pitch was The Prisoner – as in the original show from the 1960s, not the miserable mash-up from earlier this year. People are still talking about The Prisoner’s final episode, 42 years later. Some folks claim to know what the message is. Other folks claim we’re still peeling back the layers (of an hour of TV shown – let me say it again – 42 years ago) and still aren’t close to the message. Others simply assume that there is no message, and that those involved must surely have been high on a stash of LSD covering roughly the same acreage as The Village itself.

Can the finale of Lost get us talking – for years afterward – like The Prisoner did? Or will it turn into something where people are merely grumbling about it for years afterward (see also: Roseanne)? I guess we’re about 17 hours away from finding out.

Don’t f@$% it up, guys.… Read more

Categories
Cooking With Code Music

The worst podcast ever…

… has been made by me, and you can enjoy (or, perhaps more appropriately, endure) it here. It’s just me playing some music that I liked from last year. Unfortunately, it’s also me rambling on without a script, “ah”-ing and “um”-ing a lot, and sounding like deep fried crap because my allergies were giving me trouble that day. (The whole thing was recorded several weeks ago, but honestly, I’ve been sitting on it since then and pondering whether or not it would be possible for me to make it suck less. Ultimately I decided the answer was “probably not, this is me we’re talking about here.”) … Read more

Categories
Funny Stuff

In the news

I should really take it easy on the news-reporting industry. After all, I’ve been tangentially connected to it for most of my adult life, so I understand their struggle to make things interesting, right?

Well, yeah. But I also reserve the right to pick on the occasional “WTF?” that pops out of the woodwork too. Attend carefully. … Read more