Author: Chuck
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Something Dead Back Home
Most of the people who wander into this blog are looking for one thing: pictures of the star of Resident Evil without any clothes on. But the ones who don’t get here via misguided Google searches usually mention the “Lost” recaps. I missed last week’s because I’ve been commuting between Strong Badia and Liberty City.…
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Going through the motions
In the universally-praised game Grand Theft Auto IV, you play as a swarthy immigrant recently arrived in a new country, beating up the locals and fighting gang leaders on a quest to pick up some coin and get a date. I liked this game better when it was called Super Mario 64! Man, that joke…
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He fights and he smites with repulsor rays
Holy crap this movie is awesome! I had zero interest in seeing Iron Man. I’ve always been a DC guy, not Marvel. All I knew about Iron Man was that he was a drunk, and that his cartoon had the best theme song. So I’d be sitting in theaters with my peer group, seeing a…
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Going through the motions
In the universally-praised game Grand Theft Auto IV, you play as a swarthy immigrant with a weird accent, recently arrived in a new country. The game’s much-acclaimed, complex storyline has you fighting the locals, occasionally stealing their vehicles, while you wander around an enormous game world, taking on the local gang leaders who are trying…
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Literacy 2008: Book 7: Salt
Book Salt: A World History by Mark Kurlansky Synopsis The history of “the only rock we eat,” and how finding, producing, and transporting it has shaped economies and governments from pre-history to the modern day. Pros Extremely well-organized, with short chapters presented in chronological order describing how a particular region and a particular group of…
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Experimentation
Anybody who’s been reading this blog for a while knows two things: Every year or so, I try to redesign everything. It always ends up being a ridiculously laborious process and it always ends badly. I guess there’s also 3. I need to get out more. This most recent time, I decided I wanted to…
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Not without my daught… well, okay then.
I’m always hearing people (sometimes it’s me) complaining about a TV or comic series, saying, “They’re making it up as they go along!” Most of the time, I don’t see the big deal about that — they don’t have everything planned out? Cool! It means they’re “nimble,” right? But sometimes it gets awkward. This week’s…
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Marshall, Forgetting Sarah
I’d been looking forward to seeing Forgetting Sarah Marshall, since I’m a fan of “How I Met Your Mother,” and Knocked Up was one of my favorite movies of last year. I wasn’t disappointed; the movie’s hilarious, and I’d recommend it to just about anybody. Anybody who’s not in my immediate family, at least, since…
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Chumpatized
The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters got a ton of attention from videogame sites around its release last year, as well as from the critics. It’s all deserved; it’s just a great movie. Of course, to appreciate it to the fullest, you have to have spent a good bit of the 80s in…
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From the people who made that game “Rabbit Dog and Bunnyman”
I’ve gotten back into the Homestar Runner site lately. It’s pretty cool; y’all should check it out. Especially the new toon they put up today. No, seriously, check it out. That’s about as cool as videogame promos get. This one is good too: As is the teaser, which was released on April Fool’s Day: In…
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“That’s me. I’m his mother. Word to me.”
Where is that from?!? At some point in the distant past, there was a commercial, or a TV show, or music video, or something, where a guy ends saying “Word to your mother,” and then his mom comes on and says “That’s me. I’m his mother. Word to me.” I can’t remember where it’s from,…
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Literacy 2008: Book 6: The Screwtape Letters
Book The Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis Synopsis A collection of letters sent from the demon Screwtape to his nephew Wormwood, advising the younger demon on the best ways to tempt a human soul away from Christianity to become food for Hell. Pros Brilliant concept, with a ton of potential for satire. Has one moment…