Richard Dansky's Blog, page 70

Want to See A Bear Riding A Unicycle?

During a recent attack of housecleaning, Melinda and I uncovered a Best Buy gift card of uncertain provenance. While there was nothing we particularly wanted at Best Buy, we did end up stopping in at one that happened to be on our route to something else, and spent a few minutes strolling the DVD selections in vague hopes of finding something we'd actually want to take home. The pickings were slim; we have most of the movies we want, most of the ones we don't have aren't out yet for whatever rea

Tried to Watch Merlin Tonight...

...or as we were calling it by the first commercial break, "Ye Small Olde Camelotville". It's exactly the same setup as Smallville - aw-shucks black-haired stranger wanders into town with powers he doesn't understand, local rich kid (Arthur) with powerful father (Uther) is his frenemy, there's a Smokin' Hawt ChickTM they're going to fight over (Morgan) and a sassy, not-quite-as-hot female best friend character (Guinivere) to make all the folks who are a little too involved go "But he should be w

Out Goes The History

If you work in a nerd industry, you trace your professional path by marking milestones with free t-shirts. You get t-shirts for projects. You get t-shirts for conferences. You get t-shirts for working for  a particular company, or publishing a particular book, or what have you. And because all of these t-shirts are wearable memorabilia, you end up with an overstuffed t-shirt drawer, or two, or six.

Because throwing out an old t-shirt isn't just throwing out an old t-shirt or cutting it up for ra

Drag Me To Hell

Or, "Sam Raimi's Casting The Runes"

Enjoyable, silly, and home to the usual impressive Raimi camera acrobatics. I doubt, however, that M.R. James would have approved of all of the goo.

Weird Dreams

For some reason, the last four nights running I've had dreams about walking the streets of Madison. They're flashbacks to a short business trip I took up there a while ago for a project that didn't work out, and I have no idea why my subconscious is pulling this, of all things, out to bludgeon me with right now.

And the worst part is, the dreams entirely skip the part where I went to the ice cream parlor.

Omens

Today started with a turkey buzzard in the middle of the road as I headed off to work. Said buzzard decided he wasn't budging until he was good and ready, and gave all sorts of carrion-eating attitude as he eventually waddled off.

Really, where does your day go from there?

For RTP-area folks

My scarily talented sister is currently looking for employment. If you know of anyone who could use someone capable of running anything from a 500-volunteer organization spread across 9 states to a religious school to a weekend-long event centered around a sitting Supreme Court Justice, I'd appreciate it if you'd pass the info along.

Thanks in advance!

Writing About Games

A couple of years back, the workgroup I was in at Project Horseshoe pondered the notion of "artistic legitimacy" for video games. One of the things we kicked around was the notion that there needed to be discussion of games in all corners, not just the gaming press, so that the discourse on gaming could, by its vibrant existence, lend weight and thought and heft to gaming as a whole. After all, if Tim Shafer creates art in a forest and nobody from the New York Times is there to play it, does it

Shirts of Awesomeness

Author, Unplugged Storyteller and generally cool guy David Niall Wilson is selling t-shirts to help with the pre-production costs of the film adaption of his script, KILLER GREEN.  Check 'em out here - the shirts, not the costs.

And tell the heavy metal cockatoo I sent you.

Lessons in Automotive Maintenance

When the nice man at the auto detailing place asks, "What fragrance do you want?" the appropriate response is "none." It is not "Whatever you want," which is what I chose.

As a result, my car now smells like Raggedy Andy threw up in the back seat after a night of pounding pina coladas and Jimmy Buffet singalongs. I have no one to blame, though, but myself.