Author: Chuck
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Towards a More Specific America
The worst thing about you liberals (if I have to pick just one) is the way you’re commandeering our language. With your political correctness, you appropriate words to suit your own political purpose, instead of just saying what they really mean. What happened to using words as they’re supposed to be used, instead of trying…
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Back off, man. I’m a scientist.
Previously on Spectre Collie, I made the claim that action-oriented games like shooters and platformers and “action/adventures” haven’t yet lived up to their promise of rendering traditional adventure games obsolete. Conventional wisdom says that adventure games are great stories on top of lousy, illogical, frustrating, and boring gameplay, and therefore Myth 8: If you could…
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The Wasillian Candidate
According to a report from Reuters (bolding mine): “There is a time when it’s necessary to take the gloves off and that time is right now,” Palin told thousands of supporters at a rally in a sports arena in Carson, California. Earlier at a fundraiser in Englewood, Colorado, she departed from her usual speech to…
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St. Louis Vice, or MONSTER NO HAVE BEAUTY MONSTER KILL BEAUTY!
I had to watch the repeat of the Vice-Presidential debate tonight, which means I got to see all the people a-twittering about it first. Based on what I was reading, I expected something very different from what I saw. But then, I’m about as politically ignorant as you can get. (Without using the word “repug”…
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And the preamble goes like this
Since I’ve been confronted with my age (thirty-seven) a lot lately, I’ve been wondering: 1) If you’re around my age (thirty-seven), can you recite the Preamble to the US Constitution? If so, can you do it without singing it? 2) If you’re significantly below my age, can you recite the Preamble to the US Constitution?…
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Windows: No doing, no thinking
Microsoft’s ads with Bill Gates and Jerry Seinfeld generated a lot of “controversy” and media attention, for some reason; I thought they were over-long and unfocused, but ultimately harmless. They managed to make a subtle, self-deprecating acknowledgement that Microsoft is perceived as being out of touch, and spun that into a positive: hey look, Windows…
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Okay, what ELSE you got?
A few years ago, my friend Alex recommended I read Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace. I filed away the suggestion but never acted on it, for any one of a dozen stupid reasons. I wouldn’t have the attention span to read a 1000-page book I liked, much less one without spaceships. I wasn’t that…
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The Spy Who Didn’t Have Enough Sense to Come In From the Cold
Burn After Reading and the Coen Brothers’ populism
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Wakarimasen
Earlier I mentioned being a big fan of the Japanese game show “Nounai Este IQ Supplement” (that link is to a Japanese-language website). Above is my favorite puzzle from the show, because it’s the only one I’ve been able to figure out before hearing or seeing the answer. (Since they insist on talking in Japanese…
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Literacy 2008: Exhibition Round 2: Yokai Attack!
There’s no way I’m going to finish my resolution to read 26 books by the end of 2008, but even out of desperation I can’t in good conscience include this book to pad out the list. But it’s still neat enough to be worth an exhibition round. Book Yokai Attack!: The Japanese Monster Survival Guide…