Author: Chuck

  • Gaijin Story: A Cautionary Tale


    Although San Francisco has somehow become my home city, I haven’t been taking advantage of it as much as I could be. This place is supposedly known for its great restaurants, but when I got asked to name five of my favorites, I couldn’t name more than three. A few weeks ago, I resolved to…

  • House of Cat Litter and Fog


    Today I said goodbye for the last time to Burbank and Glendale, as well as my shirtless-and-red-shorts-wearing slavedriver*. I got on the plane in perfect, sunny but cool weather and after a short, uneventful ride, got dumped out into a cold, sharp wind and an impenetrable wall of fog and traffic. And it made me…

  • Spoiled


    Update: Yeah, ignore this post. At least, the bitchin’, if not the speculatin’. See comment 12. One of the consequences of working at home is that it can turn your standard garden-variety internet addiction into a full-blown compulsion. I’ve had more days than I’d like to admit where I’ve reached the end of the internet…

  • Wish You Weren’t Here


    I’m in the middle of another week-long stay in the glorious Burbank/Glendale area. It’s made slightly more pleasant by the fact that it’s almost certainly going to be my last. Barring any unforseen catastrophe, of course, and assuming that I’m not seriously mistaken in my belief that Hell is a concept and not an actual…

  • Best News Headline of the Week


    From the My Yahoo! page: “Uh hello I am not an amputee I prefer to be called a Stump American thank you very much. And I don’t see why you gotta be making fun of my cancer and shit. Bad enough I gotta be drinking all this water without you talkin’ shit about my stump.”

  • Is there anybody going to listen to my story?


    There’s been quite a bit written on the internets lately about writing and storytelling in videogames, and frankly, I’m relieved. I was starting to get concerned that everybody had just given up. People have been bitching for years about how the writing in videogames sucks. Long cut-scenes suck. And nobody cares about that stuff anyway,…

  • The startled gasp of a beautiful woman


    It occurred to me I never did go on enough about how much I love this Sam & Max short, written by Steve Purcell: The list of things Max loves is the best thing I’ve heard in a long time. God bless you, Sam & Max. I’ll never forget all you’ve done here today.

  • The Hits Just Keep On Coming


    The whole Rifftrax thing has been accreting coolness like an asteroid belt; eventually I’m just going to have to be redirecting this site to that one. What’s cool now is they finally got Mary Jo Pehl to do one. She played Mrs. Forrester on “Mystery Science Theater” (and also Jan in the pan from The…

  • Best news quote of the day


    A somewhat gruesome story about a pair of Long Islanders keeping two women as “slaves” still managed to yield this totally awesome quote: Authorities uncovered the alleged abuse after one of the women was found by police wandering outside a doughnut shop Sunday morning wearing only pants and a towel. It’s awesome on two levels:…

  • At least my name isn’t Earl, I suppose.


    Now I know how the Geico Caveman feels. One of my friends has been complaining that a Korean R&B singer has stolen her identity. I don’t know if one Korean singer is better or worse than an entire new series (warning: that link plays video). The series, which I decree shall never again be mentioned…

  • I just want a decent copy of this video!


    My favorite commercial ever, back from when Cartoon Network was still cool, has been impossible to find for years. Once again, YouTube saves the day: I would’ve been willing to move back to Atlanta and work for Cartoon Network all based on that one ad. And the one where Jinx the Cat is riding a…

  • Thieves just like flies


    I don’t know when it was decided that comic book movie blockbusters were required to have multiple villains in them; I’m guessing it was during pre-production of Batman Returns when someone realized that more people would pay to see Michelle Pfeiffer in a leather catsuit than would be willing to see Danny DeVito dressed like…