Author: Chuck

  • Stop scanning me, Steve!


    I’m not going to the MacWorld this year, which turns out to be okay because I woke up this morning and discovered I was already there! By which I mean: either I’ve become the prime example of the Mac demographic, or the company is aiming its (no doubt slim and flawlessly designed) mind-scanning ray gun…

  • Literacy 2008: Exhibition Round 1: Fox Bunny Funny


    I’m not including comic books in my meager 26-book challenge for the year — not because they’re not art or they’re not as worthy, but simply because I already read 26 comic books a year. But I still like spouting off my opinions about things, so they’ll go into the exhibition rounds. Book Fox Bunny…

  • On Whining


    I’m still wandering around in a bewildered daze, due to leaving work today when it was still light outside. I wandered directionless around San Rafael for a little bit, probably looking like a recently-returned alien abductee. Eventually I made it back home and finally emptied the past two weeks’ worth of trash, washed the mountain…

  • There’s no sun up in the sky


    I usually make fun of the Bay Area for going into a panic whenever there’s a light drizzle outside, but today’s storm shut me up pretty quick. I left for work thinking nothing unusual was going on, and things just got progressively worse. Stoplights were out on Fulton street, but they had crossing guards keeping…

  • Raisins?!?


    Over the past week or so, I’ve seen a bunch of links to “How to Draw a Face” on the comedy site The Sneeze. (Which is a consistently hilarious site, by the way, and not just for “Steve, Don’t Eat It!”) That’s a neat story, yes, but nothing’s made me crack up like giving his…

  • Click in the middle of the Rocking Chair. You’ll thank me later.


    At the end of last month, ABC launched a new viral marketing campaign for the upcoming season of “Lost.” It’s an ad for the series’ fictional airline, with a press release announcing that Oceanic would start flying again after the Flight 815 disaster, and a promo website called FlyOceanicAir.com. And oh no did you see…

  • Literacy 2008: Preliminaries: Lost Horizon


    (I read this book over the Christmas break, so it doesn’t count towards the 26 books I’ve resolved to read in 2008. But I have a corollary resolution to post something on this blog every day this year, no matter how short or irrelevant, so I’m cheating and rolling back the date.) (I’m also cheating…

  • Old News, Everyone!


    My favorite thing on the internet of the moment is this old-school video for “Psyche Rock” by Pierre Henry, the inspiration for the theme song from “Futurama.” Transistors as bombs and spermatozoa: awesome.

  • Unliterate no more


    Since I failed miserably at every single resolution I made last year, I’m going to take it simpler in 2008, and only choose one. Someone on a message board announced he’s challenging himself to read a book a week this year; I read too slowly and am too easily distracted for that, so I’m aiming…

  • Writer’s Block Continues


    Some people have accused me of being wishy-washy, or a push-over. I prefer to think of myself as being like a willow tree: kind of droopy, and my wood isn’t used very often.

  • I’m here all week


    The big headlines on the top of Yahoo!’s news page today: Hello Kitty marketing being retargeted at young males! Japanese people are crazy for pen spinning! Hilary or Oprah: which woman do Americans respect most? Glad to see that the internet is on top of the hard-hitting news, when there’s a country with nuclear weapons…

  • Merry Christmas


    Happy Holidays, everyone! I can tell it’s Christmas Eve, because I sincerely hope that everybody’s having a happy holiday, even the people that annoy me. (Speaking of people that annoy me: I think I finally made one of my shallow epiphanies towards understanding the ongoing War on Tolerance that takes place around this time of…