If you're in the area, please come to Halloween Horror Nights at Universal Studios Hollywood ( http://www.halloweenhorrornights.com/hollywood/2011/ )! I'm working the maze for "The Thing" there, and I can testify firsthand that the creature effects hold up even under bright light, even though there's atmospheric low-light conditions in the walkthrough. They actually did pull molds off of the movie's practical effects sculptures for this event, so that's just one more element that makes the venue special.

Randall Munroe's XKCD said it best: "The most powerful gaming systems in the world still can't match the addictiveness of tiny in-browser Flash games." [ http://xkcd.com/484/ ] It's true, and what ties this together with the topic of the depiction of video games of the future is the realization that the most simplistic of games are the ones that feel the most futuristic. There's an Estonian Flash Game maker whose website is http://www.tonypa.pri.ee/start.html , and this features simple, elegant games that are about as addictive as Suckdisk is portrayed to be. Of particular note is "ShoOot 2: Revenge of Square" [ http://www.tonypa.pri.ee/shooot2.html ], because it feels exactly like a 80's movie depiction of a console game on an ennui-besotted starship, all primary-colored vectors bouncing around a blank arena. Go ahead: you won't be able to control when and where you shoot in this game, but it hits all the pleasure centers of the amygdala. You won't even look at the clock again 'til 3am, because you know you can make it to Level 19 this time. Like I did. Once. After I hallucinated that I was late for making my rounds to check for hull breaches before we enter Neue Regel's orbit.

Forgive the commercial intrusion, but I am compelled to take this opportunity to pimp some fezzes. Fez-O-Rama [ http://fez-o-rama.com/ ] crafts handmade fezzes that are, if not exclusively nerdcentric, at least comfortably nerd-compatible. Proof: some of the available designs feature Cthulhu, a Police Call Box, and the TWiT logo.

If a potential player of Gamma World wants a taste of the tenor of a GW First Edition session in all its van-art glory, please take a look at a recap of a game GM'd by the person who runs the blog Cyclopeatron: http://cyclopeatron.blogspot.com/2010/08/heavy-metalpocalypse-in-gamma-world.html .

Hush, you. Everyone here knows for a fact that you'd be shortlisted for the role if they ever decide to do a Half-Life movie, just from the crossover fanbase alone. ...Or is your response there just you superstitiously trying not to jinx it? Mentally prepare by carrying a crowbar everywhere you go, to, uh, get into character. I guarantee that after about a week, your first reaction to anything insectoid would be to smash decisively. By the way, I am absolutely in awe at the sheer sense of ...discovery that your delivery of the word "Motherfucker!" expresses that I am convinced that that inflection cannot be reproduced by anyone else ever. It's no "Eureka!" but I have the feeling it'll be just as memorable thousands of years later. Thanks again for The Guild link consolidation, and to everyone involved with its production!

[sigh] ...Wil, Wil, Wil. Is that how Dr. Gordon Freeman would react to a headcrab? Do you need to get a WWDGFD bracelet?

It is astounding how photographs from others can trigger tangents of memories, unwarranted ephemera, and actual nostalgia, from the viewers with which we share them. For instance, I am noticing you are wearing a Shah Safari brand shirt. This observation cascades into personal recollections of Chess King at the mall in order to buy the new year's school clothes to the locations of my lockers throughout high school to all its integral aspirations and failures that laid the foundations to my mindset today. All from noticing a piece of cloth on a scan of somebody else's one-hour photo developed a generation ago. Twitchy things, neurons.

Wow. Seriously, is this par for every author out there or just the Goldberg Brothers in particular? Furthermore, are you sure this isn't an elaborate prolonged actor's studio exercise for your benefit/at your expense? P.S. From your blog, we all now know Wendy is brilliant. Pass that on, get sex in return.

I do need you all to know what a class act Forry is. For decades, Forrest J Ackerman opened his private home every week for public tours of his literally overwhelming collection of sci-fi and horror memorabilia. He had a practiced patter and plenty of horrid puns worthy of the founding editor of Famous Monsters Magazine. A few years ago, Mr. Ackerman was hospitalized in serious condition. I had recently lost an inspirational college professor who I didn't even know was hospitalized, so I made a point of traveling to see Forrest to deliver a rocketship-featuring get-well card. He looked bad. Really bad. He had spinal blocks in following a surgical procedure, a scar on his scalp, his partial dental bridge was out, his skin was ghastly pale, his hair was sickgreased, and his medically paralyzed body was arranged at odd angles within the tucked-in blanket. He literally looked like the bag of bones he was. And he was smiling at his visitors. He was telling his trademark corny jokes. He insisted I take a complementary copy of Cult Movies magazine, an issue for which he recently wrote a column. He was a gracious host even on what looked to be his deathbed. That amount of grace in a person is stunning to experience. You become very conscious of the air you walk through after such an encounter. He gave me proof of the possibility and ability of Human Grace firsthand. That's the kind of good man he is. I am glad that in the subsequent years, and the last few weeks, he's had additional opportunity to receive well-wishers and tributes to him personally as well as his legacy to the fandom that Wil wrote about in the previous post. I'm saddened he's gone, but I'm glad he existed, as Ray Bradbury said of our purpose, "to witness and to celebrate." RIP, 4sJ.

I would like to call everyone's attention to THE scene that made me a fan of the TV show "Action" starring Jay Mohr. It's from the pre-credits sequence of the fourth episode, I believe, and perfectly crystalizes the arguments and vitriol when media violence gets politicized. These particular scene really gets rolling about halfway through when Peter is asked about his daughter, and then just accelerates from there. http://youtube.com/watch?v=NL0SILzGs4g Keep in mind: this clip is from *1999*.