August 2011
1 post
“How long had they been going at it? Snowman wonders now. Had the two of them...”
– Margart Atwood, Oryx and Crake
June 2011
4 posts
May 2011
3 posts
“My doctor says that I have a malformed public-duty gland and a natural...”
– Ford Prefect in Douglas Adams’s Life, The Universe and Everything
I think I’ll start muttering this to myself when playing certain games.
Not Waving But Drowning
Nobody heard him, the dead man, But still he lay moaning: I was much further out than you thought And not waving but drowning.
Poor chap, he always loved larking And now he’s dead It must have been too cold for him his heart gave way, They said.
Oh, no no no, it was too cold always (Still the dead one lay moaning) I was much too far out all my life And not waving but drowning.
...
“Momos äußere Erscheinung war in der Tat ein wenig seltsam und konnte Menschen,...”
– Great description of Momo in the first chapter of Michael Ende’s Momo
April 2011
2 posts
“Everybody does it, but nobody admits to it. If everybody in Congress who’d...”
– Jocelyn Elders in an interview with The Root.
March 2011
2 posts
February 2011
8 posts
1 tag
Internet Dating #1
For quite some time I’ve had it in my head that it might be amusing to recount various online dating encounters I’ve had. Inspired by Leigh Alexander’s post on the matter at Thought Catalog, here is an attempt.
In the summer of 2006 I had just graduated with my BA, and when heading to Chicago had no real plans but to experience life. Initially, Boystown seemed a daunting...
V-Day
Valentine’s Day is a holiday I cannot pretend to understand in any meaningful manner. The one year I had cause to celebrate it, the now-ex and I delayed it a week, and what followed was a messy long-distance breakup. Instead, it is a day that causes me to reflect on my own reactions to falling for people—in my early 20s this led to moaning about ‘Singles’ Awareness...
“Your memory is a monster; you forget—it doesn’t. It simply files...”
– John Irving. A Prayer for Owen Meany. Page 34 of the 1989 Ballantine Edition.
GJAIF: Gamers Deserve Better: Cherrypicking →
As someone who believes strongly in feminism, this post once again shows how much work there is still to do.
gamejournos:
It’s telling that all of the “feminism has nothing to do with game journalism” comments I’ve received so far have been from men. Men, who make up 94% of the industry workforce and who are the bulk of the target audience.
It’s telling that these people believe that feminism...
1 tag
Suparnagalaxy
Leigh: my name is k’lara loshachtii of the reb’nai, welcome to the diplomatic meeting. let’s discuss the weapons detente with the suparna galaxy then let’s have sex [PRESS X TO SKIP THE DIPLOMATIC MEETING]
Kirk: haaaaa *presses X*
Sarah: No no wait! I LOVE the way she says ‘stockpile’.
K: srsly tho tell me more about the suparna galaxy, I am intrigued
L:...
January 2011
9 posts
“Man darf von jeder Tür aus in den literarischen Salon treten, aus der...”
– Michael Ende about his children’s books really being books for all ages. From his Wikipedia article.
2 tags
Half-Life 2 w/ Episodes One & Two
I’ve been digesting this in my head before I wanted to delve into offering my thoughts:
First, the same elements exist as they did in the first Half-Life, though the key difference being they’ve been rearranged. The game also rids itself of the arbitrary bosses it had, which I discussed with a Twitter friend, and which I appreciated (he didn’t). Instead, the game manages to...
1 tag
The Hound of the Baskervilles
In truth, I’d never read any Sherlock Holmes stories before, instead playing adventure games based on his legend. Therefore, it was curious to read it now (after encountering many other characters inspired in some part by him) and finding myself amused how while he’s the man of stature, the entire tale is told from the perspective of Watson.
Looking at it, it’s probably because,...
2 tags
Half-Life
I can’t recall when I picked up Half-Life 2, but it was sometime after college. Perhaps when I went to pre-order BioShock. It is perhaps useful to understand that during late high school and all of college, the FPS was the genre I ignored completely. Therefore, it took me some time to get back into them. I recall trying Half-Life 2 (which I’m currently playing again), and just being...
“Denis, I love you because you bring me to laugh.”
– My brother Dane, early this morning, as I explained that he should wear an eyepatch for his wounded eye, and start making pirate noises. Further proof that language is an amusing thing (if you directly translate the German phrase, it would be bring me to laugh/ter, rather than make me laugh).
“Even in the early days of the movies, they didn’t know how to make movies. They...”
– Francis Ford Coppola, Interviewer: Ariston Anderson, Francis Ford Coppola: On Risk, Money, Craft & Collaboration
3 tags
A Princess of Landover
I figure I’ll use this space to write a little bit about books and games I finish and some thoughts on them.
For this, I reread the entire Landover series. It’s the sixth book in the series, and it’s been many years since I’d read the last, and I only had vague memories of what happened. This time I was a bit reluctant, as I had already decided to try and read the Shannara...
October 2010
2 posts
2 tags
“There will never be a really free and enlightened State until the State comes to...”
– Henry David Thoreau, Civil Disobedience, Kindle edition (Location 361-366)
2 tags
“Under a government which imprisons unjustly, the true place for a just man is...”
– Henry David Thoreau, Civil Disobedience, Kindle edition (Location 173-178)
September 2010
1 post
1 tag
“This bridge was written to make you feel smittener, with my sad picture of...”
– Dresden Dolls’ Coin-Operated Boy
August 2010
1 post
2 tags
“No, my dear, you have a cultivated conscience, a most carefully trained one. Man...”
– Heinlein, Robert. Starship Troopers. New York: Ace, 1987. p.119.
July 2010
2 posts
3 tags
“For every feminist action there is an equal and opposite beauty myth reaction.”
– Wolf, Naomi. The Beauty Myth: How Images of Beauty Are Used Against Women, p. 28.
3 tags
“We are in the midst of a violent backlash against feminism that uses images of...”
– Wolf, Naomi. The Beauty Myth: How Images of Beauty Are Used Against Women, p. 10.
May 2010
2 posts
“The United States strongly condemns the conviction and harsh sentencing of Steven Monjeza and Tiwonge Chimbalanga in Malawi. The criminalization of sexual orientation and gender identity is unconscionable, and this case mars the human rights record of Malawi. We urge Malawi and all countries to stop using sexual orientation or gender identity as the basis for arrest, detention, or...
3 tags
“‘The tale is an invention; the song, a truth,’ declares a Russian...”
– Jakobson, Roman. “On Russian Fairy Tales.” p. 649
Afanas’ev, Aleksandr. Russian Fairy Tales. Trans. Norbert Guterman.
March 2010
5 posts
“And my bat-lightning heart wants to fly away.”
– Bat for Lashes, What’s a Girl to Do?, Fur & Gold
2 tags
“That’s why they can never hope to win. Chaos sneaks in every time. They...”
– Grant Morrison, The Invisibles, Vol. 4: Bloody Hell in America, p. 71, panels 2-4
February 2010
8 posts
2 tags
“He sat down on a grassy bank and looked at the city that surrounded him, and...”
– Neil Gaiman, American Gods, p. 585
1 tag
“‘There was a guy in prison named Jackson,’ said Shadow, as he ate,...”
– Neil Gaiman, American Gods, p. 211
2 tags
1 tag
“[About Strange Little Girls and the concept.]
You cannot come up with this...”
– Tori Amos, “Venus: Creating a Public Self,” Tori Amos: Piece by Piece, p. 286
1 tag
“The only way to transform Guyland is to break the culture of silence that...”
– Michael Kimmel, “Just Guys,” Guyland, The Perilous World Where Boys Become Men: Understanding the Critical Years Between 16-26, pp. 280-1
“I’m always amazed that people take what I say seriously. I don’t even take what...”
– David Bowie (via snakelinksonic)
1 tag
“At the heart of countless American neuroses is the nonsensical, pervasive belief...”
– Brad Perry, “Hooking Up with Healthy Sexuality: The Lessons Boys Learn (and Don’t Learn) About Sexuality, and Why a Sex-Positive Rape Prevention Paradigm Can Benefit Everyone Involved,” Yes Means Yes, p. 200
1 tag
“The trial is unfolding just like a rape trial. The whole defense strategy is to...”
– Thomas Macaulay Millar, This Man Was Raped