- logging coolness from 127.0.0.1, daily.
Just a quick pre-birthday update (on the 29th, send me good tidings and/or chocolate) with a couple of fun things. Firstly, if you read the webpage version of this weblog, you'll notice the new ffwd linklog at the side of the page, using neato SSI-integrated MT templates. You should probably read it embedded in ffwd, but it also has its own standalone site, and, more importantly, its own RSS feed. It's an attempt to transmit fun, random cool links which don't otherwise fit in with the Slashdot Games or any other professional agenda. Impetus? It's very much following in the footsteps of people like Oblomovka and, especially, Andy Baio of Waxy.org, who prodded me into setting it up when I IM-ed him yet another random link (though he was happy to get them, he quite rightly suggested that other people might want to see them too!)
Also, my latest Gamasutra feature interview, called 'Escaping The Garage:
GarageGames' Jay Moore Speaks Out About The Plight Of Indies', is available now (no-register version), and a few random commenters seem to dig it. It's interesting to speculate about how independent gaming can survive in the era of the $10 million development cycle, and GarageGames seem to genuinely care about giving the little guy a chance, with an inexpensive 3D engine and as much publicity as they can muster - kudos to them.
Other than that, Holly cut my hair all short, so I mean business. Watch out, world! Oh, and if you have BBC America, watch Little Britain often, and repeatedly, already - yesbutno butyesbutno but... yes. Can't wait for Series 2 - is it too much to hope that Walliams and Lucas' 'Rock Profiles' would ever make it Stateside? Probably. :(
It's got to the air-conditioning time of the year in San Jose, again - but luckily, we do seem to have some of that. So I'm trying a laptop in the artificial chill.
So, work continues apace on my multiple projects. Looks like we'll finally give games a hub-page on Archive.org soon, but another sneak peek - this time from the videogame preview movies collection, with >2000 in-game movies from 1993-2003, many not available online before - check out the John Romero mullet action in the Doom 2 ad, for one. I dunno, if we organize it well enough and keep it well-categorized, it feels important to preserve for the future.
Otherwise, been enjoying some more good-quality Ovation TV documentaries on middle-of-nowhere digital cable, all nicked from the UK, including artfully constructed pieces on Blur, as well as Creation Records (which has Alan McGee unfortunately highlighting One Lady Owner as 'the next big thing' at the end of it.) Oh, and I'm currently watching The Hound of the Baskervilles, the Peter Cook and Dudley Moore version, which is dashed odd.
Elsewhere, some bargain bin hunting at EB showed up super-2D shooter Gekioh for PS1 and the super-Japgeek PS2 boardgame vs. CCG Culdcept, and some catching-up on UK-purchased reading with Bill Bryson's excellent and super-readable 'how science works' tome A Short History Of Nearly Everything. And I'm out.
So, another trip to Vegas successfully accomplished, with no broken bones and only a few buffet-induced pounds piled on. Among the important lessons Holly and myself learned during this particular jaunt:
- there just aren't enough geek-themed slot machines, with the exception of Dilbert's WheelBert, Young Frankenstein, and an odd Alien-themed slot, complete with animating Jones the cat. Not, of course, that the geek are necessarily a big Vegas market.
- being driven down Las Vegas Blvd in a trolley car with the driver's seat lock broken (and the driver sliding backwards and forwards as she accelerates and decelerates) is scarier than most Vegas coasters.
- the arcade version of Tux Racer (infamous Linux-mascot themed shareware title) has some neat flipper controls (hey, wait, they changed it to a steering wheel in later versions!) and a fun light-up cabinet, but since it's strictly for the kiddies, there's no actual way to lose. Oh, and why are the coin slots always broken on the two arcade machines I actually want to play (this means you, Irritating Maze)?
- the new-ish Borg Encounter 4D ride at the Las Vegas Hilton is pretty neat, even for the non-Trekkie, since it features real-life Borg out to get you in Federation-approved corridors, and then a really fun 3D motion-sim-eque ride with some evil surprises (if you've been to the Bug's Life 3D ride at Disneyland California Adventure, you'll know what I mean.) Resisting assimilation has never been so fun.
Holy crap, it's going to be good to get away to Las Vegas with Holly this weekend - things are still hectic, as per normal, so a little (very amateurish) gambling and air-conditioned splendor is in order - they do have air conditioning at the Westward Ho!, right? [The Mandalay Bay is our favorite hotel choice, but cheap package deals rawk our sawks awff.]
In the meantime, our awful cable provider has gone out of business, and our new provider gets two more obscure digital channels I've wanted for ages, Trio and Ovation. Trio is a great, cultish network which has been running 'Flops' month, including such craziness as My Mother The Car and Pink Lady And Jeff, and also has some great, offbeat programming such as vintage David Letterman shows. Ovation is a music-specific channel that runs some neat live concerts, and some great UK-imported documentaries on fascinating classical composer John Tavener, Blondie, Dusty Springfield, and others - much better than those VH-1 talking heads.
Other than that, bits and pieces float to the surface - the playing of Bombastic (those devilish dice!), and the reading of Cryptonomicon (has anyone compared this to Clive Cussler before? Do I get in trouble for doing so?) and The No.1 Ladies' Detective Agency (any African detective novel series with jacket kudos from Flea of the Red Hot Chili Peppers is good with me.) Enough already.