"Cardenio" recovered

Watched an old episode of "LA Ink" that made me LOL hard. A dirty-haired emo kid got a leg tattoo from Corey of a frog riding a rearing horse, beneath the banner "Ahoy, Butternuts!" He expained it was to commemorate his childhood pet, a Clydesdale (Butternuts) that died of a heart attack - with a smile on its face - after eating pizza out of the trash. The frog supposedly stood for "The Muppet Show", which inspired him to sing. The fact that, under questioning from Pixie, he eventually admitted it was all a joke just made the tatt funnier. Corey gave the frog a holstered sixshooter and a bandolier of bullets.

That wasn't discussed

But this will be: a Kiwi bloke named Indy Magnoli who's a master crafter of replicas. He mainly does items from the Indiana Jones franchise, but also gear found in "The Lord Of The Rings", "The X-Files", "Pirates Of The Caribbean", "The Goonies", etc. Mr M. seems to have a particular fondness for passports. He also gets a tad nutty in the "Christian relics" section, eg. listing details of the Spear Of Destiny as fact. Don't let that stop you zooming in on a few of his awesome works - http://bit.ly/QXUJQ As impressive as the recreated Ark from "Raiders" is, I think my favourite is the "Time Bandits" map. (Thanks to AM for the link.)

Whimsical blog entry is whimsical

Yesterday, because it was Earth Day and unseasonably warm, and because I hadn't done so in Arcturan Mega-Donkeys' years, I decided to get out among the trees, birds and basking lizards by doing a circuit of Centennial Park. Thousands of others had the same idea. There were casual strollers like myself; dog walkers; joggers; proper runners; folk on all manner of bikes, scooters and pedal cars; horse and pony riders; pram pushers; and a lone rollerblader. On the grass, people kicked footies, flew kites, canoodled, played badminton, punched focus mitts held by their personal trainers, threw Frisbees that were rarely caught, took pampered pups to the mobile dog wash, and picnicked. So many picnics - Yogi Bear would've had a field day if he wasn't serving a life sentence on Rikers Island. The coolest thing I saw was a bunch of young fellas preparing for a NERF war (as opposed to a turf war). They were armed to the teeth with oversized, fluoro-coloured weaponry and extra foam ammo. I'm pretty sure one lad even had a sidearm strapped to his leg. It looked like mad fun waiting to happen. In my day, we made do with water pistols and water balloons. Since those don't present much of a physical threat, we'd hold our skirmishes on cold nights when you really didn't want to get soaked. Dressed in dark clothes - tip: a black T-shirt converts into an effective "ninja mask" - we'd hunt and hide across the suburb, paying little heed to fences or the privacy of neighbours, in "capture the flag" scenarios. You had to return to you base camp if you were shot or you wanted to stock up on the water bombs you'd spent the afternoon filling and placing gently in buckets. There was no way to avoid getting wet. If you weren't ambushed while "reloading" at an inviting tap, your crappy spare gun would spring a leak in your pocket. These battles were hilarious but also deadly serious... My bestie, BP, was worried he'd be an easy target 'cos his only sneakers were a pair of shiny white Reeboks. His solution: rubbing them all over with charcoal.

Second verse

"Want You Gone", the end credits song from "Portal 2", is just similar/different enough to part one's amazingly amazing "Still Alive". Nice work, JoCo! Now, can we have a live version with Felicia Day on vocals, please? :-)

Muahahaha! Did you actually think that you could..., etc.

I call dud on "Duel Decks: Knights Vs Dragons". After 20 carefully considered games, where mana screw/flood hands were permitted a free mulligan, the white (splash green) pile was winning more than Charlie Sheen - 16 comfortable victories versus four defeats that tended to be much closer. Now, maybe I'm better at playing warriors than wyrms. Or maybe Knight Exemplar and her cohorts are banging seven-gram rocks to give them tiger blood. But it feels like the mono-red deck, while it contains hella powerful cards (eg. Mordant Dragon), is just too slow for the cheap, synergistic humies and mix of removal/protection pitted against it.

Witness the scores (kniggits on the left): 29 - 0, 7 - -3, 18 - -3, 13 - -3, 14 - 0, -8 - 5, 34 - -2, 30 - 0, 20 - -2, 13 - 0, -5 - 1, -4 - 11, 17 - -4, 20 - -18, 25 - 0.

Buying this standalone release is a waste of money unless it's to bolster your collection because you don't own a lot of the inclusions.

248 RPA

Inspector Morse: "You're an English literature student?"
Angie Hartman: "For my sins."
I/M: "Lucky you. I'd love to spend three years reading."

From "Inspector Morse: Last Bus To Woodstock". I'm rewatching them all on cable channel 13th Street Universal.

Decline and fool

Recently, I had cause to visit the library of the University of NSW and was horrified by how many more computers and how many fewer bookshelves were present than when I'd been there last. Yes, yes, global databases and digital storage. But given the number of terminals that were either free or seemingly being used for non-work purposes, the word "overkill" sprang to mind. Up the ratio of PCs to paper too far and you reduce a library - one of *the* greatest inventions - to a computer room. Then why even go there when you can sit behind a monitor equally well at home? The atmosphere of the building was tangibly lessened, like that of a half-logged old-growth forest, and I felt sorry for all of the students deprived of the chance to delve into a deepwood of books. While a series of database links may lead you to an unexpected text, that experience doesn't compare to the thrill of opening a random volume plucked from an unfamiliar aisle. And there's *nothing* like being surrounded by the embodiment of mankind's accumulated knowledge to imbue one with a sense of potential and a desire to contribute to the canon. Culling tomes in an attempt to stay relevant, the UNSW Library is ironically hastening its own obsolescence by abandoning what makes it special. I want no part of it. In future, I shall be injecting my heroin elsewhere.

Five Go Off A Cliff

As I said to CM... When we flee this ruined planet, Sarah Silverman MUST be the first person onto the Ark Ship. Closely followed by Serenading Unicorn. http://bit.ly/eDJdE5

At Ichi-ban Boshi, an entree that was supposed to be fish strips in seaweed batter was in fact made of memories. Memories of delicious crab sticks from the takeaway stores of my youth. It could only be the magic of seafood extender!

Saw a righteous dude wearing a T-shirt that said: "I'd rather have swine flu than support Man U." It's a sentiment with which I concur, though Chelsea may have more fairweather fans these days.

The madness of King Tom: http://bit.ly/g4Oc0K

If "Blue Tip" and "Sad Song" are any indication, The Cars' return from 24 years in the album-less wilderness, "Move Like This", is gonna be an aural smorgo. Viva clever rock!

Too long to tweet

"It's not uncommon for people to seek out belief systems, whether political or spiritual, that make them feel good about how they already live their lives" - Alyssa Bereznak on Salon.com

Swings & roundabouts

Looking forward to this week:

* "WrestleMania 27" - such a strong line-up of matches. I really hope Jerry Lawler doesn't get screwed over in his "'Mania" debut
* The University Of York vs Magdalen College, Oxford in this season's final of "University Challenge". Magdalen will be hard to beat, AND
* Taking part in my first "Dark Sun" campaign. TC's hosting, SC's moderating and I'll be playing a Thri-Kreen (mantis creature).

Not looking forward to:

* Deadline hell.

Thinking like a Fish

"I was at this computer show in Birmingham in the early '80s and I had Fish out of Marillion at my stand for half an hour trying to convince me, in his impenetrable Scottish accent, to do a game about smuggling cocaine into gigs. Later that show, him and Tony Crowther got into a drinking competition. All Tony remembers is being carried off and Fish still going" - Jeff Minter, "Retro Gamer #87"