Quick update for everyone, let’s see what I have today. First up, from Better Book Titles, “The Colour of Magic” which is the first book of an amazing series:
If you haven’t watched it before, a short TED talk by Frank Warren of PostSecret. Fun fact, whenever the conversation comes to who I could have dinner with if I could with anyone in the world, Warren is always on my list. I saw him speak at Pitt and it was amazing, so check out the talk.
Good Old Games is finally able to offer the Quest for Glory series. All five games! I’m totally excited and going to be losing a lot of time to these (one and five are the best, in my opinion). Such amazing games!
I’m trying to find a link, but the rumor I heard on a podcast is that in the upcoming Spiderman tie in game, if you preorder (I think from Amazon), you unlock the ability to play as Stan Lee in one of the levels. Epic!
More reason that I’m a pacifist. And the fighting on the various websites around the net are even more saddening. From accounts that I’ve seen, the alleged gunman was a strange person, obsessed with individualism and apparently the idea of the 2012 apocalypse. Sad no matter how you look at it, but maybe this will make people calm down and act with civility towards each other.
Sullivan has been live blogging and I’ve been kind of transfixed. Here’s the link, and here’s a quote I’d like to highlight:
I have no expertise in this at all, but my impression of his writings and web presence does indeed suggest to me that some mental illness is probably a key part of this. But this does not exonerate violent or excessive rhetoric from the far right or far left: it’s precisely the disturbed who can seize on those kinds of statements and act on them. The danger of violent rhetoric, especially involving gun violence, is its interaction with the disturbed.
Well, this is my second attempt at this post, everything crashed, and I know I lost two articles, but nothing that we can’t live without, so we’ll just muddle through.
First though, watch this trailer, which is to my favorite book in the series:
Want to go into space? How about just your picture, which comes complete with an official flight certificate. Only two chances left!
And finally, I don’t really trust the guys from the Mysteria Film Group, mostly because they just kind of inserted themselves and made themselves official. I’m sure there is all kind of stuff going on behind the scenes that I don’t understand, but I think it’s when they called the fans “they.” Just rubbed me the wrong way. I wish them the best, I want them to succeed, I’ll be the first in line here in Pittsburgh, but I still don’t have to trust them. Anyway, it’s a great tour of Cyan Worlds’ studio and a fun time with Rand:
You know what will make you feel better after all that depressing news, fun movies about the Arenas! First off, this awesome tribute, set to music from The Chronicles of Narnia:
And now, a time-lapse of the building of the Consol Center:
And also to make you feel better: just remember, you could be at home (or the DLLCC) playing the Furry Card Game. I kid you not. Click over if you dare, and have some mind bleach on hand.
Here’s my first part about Star Wars: Did you know when The Empire Strikes Back was coming out, there was a special 1-800 line you could call to get “hidden” messages from the characters?! And that it was so popular it broke AT&T?! Now you can listen to them, and I suggest you do!
I can’t believe I’m about to write this sentence: but I think I’ve found something that was made worse by the addition of lightsabers! I know, hard to believe, but why mess with what is perfect already:
Have you met Gary and Elaine? They live in a catalog. Go check it out!
Andrew Sullivan links to an awesome quote from tinfoiler:
“When my son Hunter asked me why it was okay for Bristol Palin to have a baby before she was married, I told him that God has special rules for special people. God knew that Bristol could become very rich from having a baby, so He granted her a pregnancy. Since she is the daughter of Sarah Palin, and the name Bristol Palin can be rearranged to spell “Orbit Plans” she is pretty much an angel, at least by the official bible definition. And that pretty much makes her son like a Jesus, technically speaking. This is just more proof that the blessed Palin family has wonderful and holy plans for true Americans. After explaining this to my son, he told me that he wanted to be sex-educated at a public school so that he could have a Jesus baby too. I smacked him in the mouth and told him that sex education is only for liberals and atheists. As good Christians, we should be ashamed of sexuality and our bodies, unless you are chosen by God, like Bristol Palin,”
Woot! was bought by Amazon, and as amazing as that it, it pales in comparison to the letter sent to the Woot! employees, I really think that this actually went out. Knowing Woot! it just seems to fit. Here are some of my favorite quotes:
Other than that, we plan to continue to run Woot the way we have always run Woot – with a wall of ideas and a dartboard. From a practical point of view, it will be as if we are simply adding one person to the organizational hierarchy, except that one person will just happen to be a billion-dollar company that could buy and sell each and every one of you like you were office furniture.
Q: Where can I get one of those vuvuzelas? A: Are you even paying attention?
They’re not looking to have their folks come in and run Woot unless we ask them to, which incidentally you can do by turning off the bathroom lights and saying the word “Kindle” three times; a helpful Amazon employee will appear in the mirror.
Q: Is Snapster leaving? A: Are you kidding? He’s out the door about ten seconds after that check clea- that is to say, Snapster will continue as Woot.com CEO, just like before, and the rest of our staff’s not going anywhere either. Woot and all ourvarious sites will continue to be an independently operated company full of horrible, useless products and an untalented jerkface writing staff, same as it ever was.
And finally today, I would just like to brag a bit. Ginny over at That’s Church asked for a motivational poster, and I happened to have a few free minutes (I was off of work that day), so I quickly threw one together and sent it over. If you don’t read her blog, you really should ,nothing else makes me laugh on such a consistent basis, and she cares so much for Pittsburgh it hurts sometimes (why we love her!). I of course, complain that I wish I had more time, things I would change, but as my friend said, “shush!” Here’s the post, and here’s my work:
We’ll start off this update with an awesome video:
As well as another I told you so moment. Although this one, I think most sane people knew already, it’s fun to see how deep the crazy can go! I’m also thinking that if this ploy hadn’t worked, the next idea would have been cough syrup. Why not?
To everyone that reads That’s Church, you know about Ginny’s hatred of pigeons. Well, a writer in Seattle has the same reaction to crows. Fair warning, it contains foul (fowl) language.
According to Palin, environmentalists caused the oil disaster, by not letting us drill for oil. I can almost, almost grasp her reasoning. But then I remember that I have a brain and am usually grounded in reality.
I think the Student Flush might be the best named event almost ever. At least this month. Good luck to everyone participating!
I don’t think I’ll be able to pull a team together in time, but how much fun would this mini-golf fundraiser through the South Side be? Also, why have I not know that this happens every year?
Here’s an article about online ads, and specifically, why they suck.
I love Fleury, a whole lot. Here’s him and Sid talking about the snow (which I realize is ridiculous on at least three levels, but hey, it’s fun):
Speaking of Fleury and Sid, Olympics! Here’s what Slate suggested you watch if you watch just one thing a day. A really funny read (and I apologize in advance for the tardiness of all the Olympic articles, I got so caught up in the games that I didn’t write about them). And here is their awesome Sap-O-Meter. I’ll give you a hint, NBC is really sappy, and generally, awful at covering the Olympics.
I don’t know what’s going on in this picture, but we are seeing Bob Costas outside of his living room, so it’s got to be a plus. Also, Colbert! Make sure you watch this video that I’m not allowed to embed. Stupid NBC.
Slate also takes a stab at the biathalon. Awesome read, which just helps me galvanize my mindset that it’s a weird sport. I have more respect for it, but it’s weird.
I’m thinking it may not be actually from Verizon, but this is an awesome blend of nostalgia and current technology:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EkWKdJF7Md0
This might be one of my new favorite sites, someone watching season six of Lost, who has never seen it. It’s worth it just for the drawings!
And the healthcare debate rages on, it’s a few days old, but still worth a watch. Rachel Maddow is, of course, amazing:
A gut wrenching blog entry over at PG+, if you’re a subscriber, check out the link. If not, consider signing up! And I know I’ve promised to talk about it over at Metblogs, and I still am planning on doing that, I promise!
A great follow up to the video clips I posted before about the phrase “fucking retard.” As in, “Sarah Palin is a fucking retard.”
I’ve been really, really excited about the return of URU. To help you get into the Myst spirit, check out this awesome online fan project – Myst and Riven books! And in related news, over a million people are now playing D&D online, probably because it’s free (with some premium content). Maybe we’ll see a lot of interest in URU! We can only hope!
The Onion does a great job, and maybe humor is what we need in the discussion, but marriage equality is serious. Don’t believe me? Try filing taxes as a same-sex couple.
What is Wes Anderson directed Spider Man? Oh yes:
Cool ad that was apparently really effective, although the price must be really big, and installation I’m sure was a pain:
