Cool Words of the Month
I like to open the dictionary to a random page and note down cool words, once a month. It’s a good writing exercise, and it introduces me to new words. I also rediscover words that just look neat or sound beautiful. This month’s cool words: Faro – a card game used for gambling, its name […]
Polymeme – Unusual News
Polymeme is a website devoted to “intelligent content that lies beyond the usual echo chambers of tech news, celebrity gossip or American politics.” This doesn’t mean off-beat stories; Polymeme specializes in articles about subjects we care about, but from perspectives we don’t normally see. For example: From The Independent — Solar panels ‘take 100 years to pay back installation costs’ From IdeaBlob — Designing […]
Record Your Family’s Stories With Famento
Genealogy‘s a big hobby. Today’s site lies on the lighter end of that hobby, for those who just want to keep track of their close and extended family. If you sign up at Famento, you can create pages for members of your family, upload photos, and write biographies for each of them. There’s also a […]
Ela: Legend of Light!
Just stumbled across a very odd video called Ela: Legend of Light. It’s a combination live-action/CGI short film, made in Argentina, that very much evokes 1980’s American cartoons. One of its directors describes it as “a weird mix between She-Ra, Tron, and Flash Gordon,” a fairly accurate description. Besides the He-Man/She-Ra feel, I noticed what […]
Uncle Morty’s Dub Shack
Imagine a bunch of twenty-somethings getting their hands on a dubbing rig and a bunch of old, cheesy kung fu films. Now imagine that they threw out the old audio tracks and completely redubbed scenes from the films. That’s Uncle Morty’s Dub Shack, currently airing on ImaginAsian TV. Here are a few YouTube clips to give you an idea of their humor (despite the titles, they’re all clean): Exploding Apples Red […]
Brent Gets Blasted with High-Powered Soda
I enjoy making homemade soda. It’s usually delicious, and I have no problems. Except with ginger ale. For some reason, ginger ale gets incredibly carbonated. Explosively carbonated. So, when I found an old bottle of it in the back of the fridge, I figured I’d do a Diet-Coke-and-Mentos sort of video. I took it outside […]
What is Gunwave?
I’m developing Gunwave, a tabletop RPG for playing war with giant robots. You get to play the pilot of a giant robot in the midst of a big war. If you’re not familiar with tabletop RPGs: Imagine a game of “Let’s pretend,” but with defined rules. The hero you play has this much strength and […]
I Love W.H. Auden’s Poetry
Been reading some W.H. Auden lately. Breathtaking. I don’t read enough poetry. September 1, 1939 by W.H.Auden I sit in one of the dives On Fifty-second Street Uncertain and afraid As the clever hopes expire Of a low dishonest decade: Waves of anger and fear Circulate over the bright And darkened lands of the earth, […]
The Amazing Tekkon Kinkreet
I just watched the anime film Tekkon Kinkreet. I’m not going to review it. Instead, I’m going to talk about its history. It was originally a somewhat sketchy manga, picked up by an expatriate American freshly dropped in Japan ten years ago. It hit him. Hard. Right between the eyes. He’d just closed down his […]
My Depression Lifts…Time To Rock
And sure enough, my depression has lifted. I spent last night at my parents’ house, talking over my finances, and I’ve decided on a course of action. Context: I have about 2 months of expenses left in my checking account. While I’ve made some money from web development, it’s a quarter of what I’d need […]