1 Dec

• Andrew Plotkin's Kickstarter is about to end. http://j.mp/95Cf7v (This is the only way to order a PC copy of his next, iOS-targeted game.)
• Spoon organ: http://bit.ly/98C45O -- Now with fork!
• Wikileaks hosting pulled due to political pressure: http://bit.ly/dMRCDl
• "Why I Love WikiLeaks: For restoring distrust in our most important institutions." http://bit.ly/dPDS2m
• Haskell Researchers Announce Discovery of Industry Programmer Who Gives a Shit About Haskell: http://bit.ly/hVstDM
• "We knew that there are precisely 38 people who give a shit about Haskell because every Haskell-related reddit post gets exactly 38 upvotes"
• http://bit.ly/i2GJS1 -- "The Nobel Peace Prize for 2011 should go to Julian Assange (if he lives long enough to receive it)."
• Stress update: man, not stressed at all, wow.

2 Dec

• @relsqui That is an amazing sign :)
• NASA astrobiology announcement: bacteria discovered based on arsenic rather than organic material. http://j.mp/ii2heF
• Did I already link to these? Conlon Nancarrow's studies for player piano, circa 1947: http://bit.ly/23g3an http://bit.ly/3ehqRL
• Enjoying Epic Mickey well enough, but the ethical decisions it presents you with are a little too on-the-nose for me. It *is* for kids.
• (On the other hand, I've no sympathy for those who only liked Warren Spector's ludography because it was about shooting people in the face.)
• To clarify: while some of the decisions you have to make approach interesting, their presentation is too much "tell," not enough "show."
• http://bit.ly/dX0MwD -- "They're called 'slap tubes' but the technical term is End-Struck Plosive Aerophones."
• BART operator to passenger holding the train doors open: "Try getting friends that walk faster."

3 Dec

• "U.S. Copyright Group Sues Attorney Who Published Self-Help Guide For Laypersons Defending Themselves in Copyright Cases" http://j.mp/ekLXeZ
• Liu Bolin, invisible man: http://bit.ly/6gXUTe
• Music, ladies and gentlemen! http://bit.ly/gWXmFG
• Literally translated Argentine idioms: http://j.mp/e7D08h http://j.mp/ehtnu5 "Don't comb your hair, you're not going to be in the picture."
• "'Ese tipo es Bi-norma' - That guy is PAL-N/NTSC compatible (That guy is bi-sexual)"
• In case you ever need a reminder that we're still just apes, here's some shit straight out of the opening of 2001: http://bit.ly/eMpHIE
• Cliff Harris on why your indie game isn't done yet: http://bit.ly/fIV4FP (Mine too.)
• Understanding Pac-Man Ghost Behavior: http://bit.ly/eLUvZX

4 Dec

• @STRd6 Contrasaurus totally crashed Firefox 3.6.12 after I got the flame jaw. Serious particle count performance issues before then, too.
• @STRd6 But that's about where I expect HTML5 apps to be for a while. Thanks for taking the bullet for the community :)
• Just occurred to me: by adding Haggleman Lady to the Haggleman series, Namco may have been making fun of the name Ms. Pac-Man. Mind: blown.

5 Dec

• I guess Blizzard's banking on the unemployed still being able to scrounge up the $15/month after flunking out: http://i.imgur.com/jVSbk.jpg
• I'm still trying to figure out where the "yes to dogjazzling" contingent is.
• @textfiles Jesus, man, go get better. Severe money issues are far more solvable than severe health issues.

6 Dec

• Kinetic Typography: http://bit.ly/gFoWLI -- I didn't expect to see the "500-1000 hours" of labor on the screen, but nope, it's all there.
• A good overall summary of the Wikileaks situation: http://bit.ly/hX56jd
• "Ok, System, let’s see you rediscover Space Invaders after I feed you Breakout as input." http://bit.ly/hkOWYd
• Mark Twain's theory of spelling aptitude: http://bit.ly/eTs7cQ

7 Dec

• Corporate anthropology research opportunity: here's the jargon file from the LaserMaster R&D Department: http://bit.ly/fDlEmv
• "U.S. Celebrates Wikileaks Arrest By Announcing Press Freedom Day" http://bit.ly/gfAtjm
• "In six days every single living cell in the world will die." http://bit.ly/e188oP
• From the RPS comment thread about that game: http://bit.ly/fy9HYi

8 Dec

• Ellsberg: "EVERY attack now made on WikiLeaks was made against me and the release of the Pentagon Papers at the time." http://bit.ly/g7jSdE
• Gamasutra Interview: What Jonathan Blow has been up to since Braid: http://bit.ly/dVsfHb
• On the question of Free Will: http://bit.ly/eRWk3l (You had me at "past -> present -> future.")
• The unintended olfactory consequences of adding cinnamon rolls to your sandwich menu: http://bit.ly/gm1tyT
• I'm totally not playing Cataclysm, and it feels amazing. Just putting that out there.
• NASA's paper on arsenic-based life "should not have been published": http://j.mp/gWoDjH -- "I was outraged at how bad the science was."
• Mining molten sulfur in East Java, Indonesia: http://bit.ly/fd7jhi

9 Dec

• Podcast excerpt: Chris Remo on Metro 2033: http://bit.ly/e8LJld (From Idle Thumbs something something: http://bit.ly/2BjAjn)
• A refreshing take on the Genesis creation myth: http://i.imgur.com/r1XqW.jpg
• @KyleOrl If only Gamasutra color-coded its users by console affiliation, like Giant Bomb.

10 Dec

• Average people doing nothing wrong: http://i.imgur.com/coeUe.jpg
• "Dynamic texture isn't really something that's ever been applied to food before, so there's a lot of potential here." http://bit.ly/hAVq2P
• Best Space Pictures of 2010: http://bit.ly/gUvdEm
• "We are now living in a global state that's been structured for the benefit of non-human entities with non-human goals." http://j.mp/dE38xn
• Incomprehensible Portal speedrun, in 9m25s: http://bit.ly/eTTXKT -- Movie-length commentary video explaining it all: http://bit.ly/fjAdHs
• "Image deblurring using inertial measurement sensors" http://bit.ly/g9E7Ds

12 Dec

• Rare Exports: http://bit.ly/czVEVh -- I couldn't tell you what this movie is about, but it involves exhuming Santa Claus.
• Christmas in Portland: http://bit.ly/hrRDCW
• Chicken-powered steadicam: http://bit.ly/egjx3N
• http://j.mp/gGz81B "If you asked 'how do you relax after a gig,' It'd be *less* embarrassing to say 'I masturbate to hardcore pornography.'"

13 Dec

• All four layers of the nested dream sequence at the climax of Inception, synchronized: http://bit.ly/i4F2BR
• "Good Taste in Times Square? It's Illegal." http://j.mp/aotDNS
• Ace Rimmer fights Nazis while surfing on a crocodile: http://bit.ly/9RbE8y
• "Disalienation: Why Gender is a Text Field on Diaspora" http://bit.ly/eVVUZk
• "This effort to make [Prince] Charles appear taller is a social commitment to the idea that men are taller than women." http://bit.ly/f6DcAv
• Three friends build one-off restaurant-themed arcade game in exchange for a lifetime supply of free waffles: http://bit.ly/dNGjnr
• Total lunar eclipse on Dec 20th and 21st, best visible from West Coast: http://bit.ly/XsqCV Viewing times: http://bit.ly/dEs5nD
• Shigeru Miyamoto profiled in the New Yorker: http://j.mp/fGe5R1 -- Insightful, and to the best of my knowledge, largely accurate.
• The latest on Wikileaks, via cutting-edge CGI: http://bit.ly/fvY6st -- Man, Has anyone absorbed "show, don't tell" better than NMA TV?

14 Dec

• "According to Corrections Corporation of America reports, executives believe immigrant detention is the next big market." http://j.mp/ig6vlB
• This robot's pelvic thrust subroutine is off the chain: http://bit.ly/bLT4yZ
• Philippe Ramette's physics-defying photography: http://bit.ly/PYxIh

15 Dec

• "This is a shooter imagined by the heirs of a resource-scarce culture, and as such a culturally revelatory experience." http://j.mp/ifn7PU
• Fly Geyser in Gerlach, Nv.: http://bit.ly/fIZSaa

17 Dec

• http://j.mp/gDgbZa "Twenty two years of social experience, lost! Thrown aside for a self-righteous devotion to intellectual pursuits!"
• iOS port of QWOP coming: http://j.mp/h5f9Oh -- Looks considerably easier, but possibly more fun, than the Flash original: http://j.mp/giho1j
• In San Diego for the rest of the year.

18 Dec

• I should answer the phone by saying "You have reached Jim's phone. I'm here right now!"
• Now that Elena's cats live with me, the best part about visiting family in San Diego is the refrigerator poetry.
• E.g.: please do not enervate frantic chocolate egg
• New best thing about visiting family in San Diego: I can hear the sea lions barking from mom's apartment.
• If this isn't the augmented reality translation project I alluded to after TIGJam, someone's lunch just got eaten: http://questvisual.com/
• (If you're wondering whether a project like that is even plausible, the one I played with back in October pretty much worked. So, yes.)

19 Dec

• Cat-substitute refrigerator poetry: a thousand insect pariahs almost kiss
• Brenda Brathwaite's board game about conducting trains to Dachau: http://bit.ly/gUBzaR -- "The Mechanic Is The Message."

20 Dec

• Cat-substitute refrigerator poetry: curious -- almost reaching your juice opinion
• If you missed it, Humble Indie Bundle 2 is available. Pay any amount for five indie games: http://bit.ly/htGWyX (This one has Braid in it.)
• @jonbeilin Oh, good to hear!
• @fiskmeshi I guess someone's gotta write the poetry?
• Charles Stross posits that spam/antispam research culminates in "The Spamularity." http://bit.ly/i3pUpD
• "Curious lumps of communicating meat give rise to a meta-sphere of discourse dominated by parasitic viral payloads pretending to be meat."
• Okay, so who do I know who hasn't played Braid or Deus Ex?
• Just a reminder, the eclipse is tonight. Probably not gonna see anything from La Jolla due to cloud cover, but to the rest of GMT-8: enjoy!
• @therealcliffyb But what about when similar suffixes don't quite work? Compare: "squareish jaw" vs. "squarelike jaw." Or "square-esque."
• Real-time, full-body puppeteering with Kinect: http://bit.ly/fFquwC
• The Iiro Rantala New Trio's mind-blowing "Shit Catapult": http://j.mp/Tx7Yv -- They calm down about a minute in, if the intro's too intense.
• Got carded buying these chocolate truffle filled figs. Ready to get wasted?

21 Dec

• Cat-substitute refrigerator poetry: recall my friend / the smell of why / we feel so drunk
• "AM I DOING SOMETHING WRONG? IF YOU ARE A CAT SPECIALIST MEET ME HERE AT 4PM ON WEDNESDAY. BRING YOUR DIPLOMA." http://bit.ly/l29qz

22 Dec

• Man, in the 2nd edition of Betrayal they fixed the misprint where the Underground Lake appears in the attic. A tiny part of me just died!
• Cat-substitute refrigerator poetry: must stand here naked later
• Humble Indie Bundle #2 sweetens the deal by adding the original bundle into the pile, if you beat the average payment: http://j.mp/htGWyX
• If I were out there ringing the Salvation Army bell full time, I'd get to the erratic dubstep patterns within 15 minutes.
• Every single sea lion in La Jolla Cove is like that puppy that couldn't roll over.

23 Dec

• Cat-substitute refrigerator poetry: with sanguine cry let blue shell fly
• Does the biker with the skateboard on his back wear the bike on his back while skating, or does he just skate on his back, holding the bike?

24 Dec

• Cat-substitute refrigerator poetry: share our blood / in delirious whisper / beautiful forever
• About 18 hours left on the Humble Indie Bundle. http://www.humblebundle.com/

25 Dec

• Read the Firefly comics "Float Out" and "The Shepherd's Tale." They were good, but the storytelling felt so *rushed*.
• As if they're trying to tell an episode-scale story in the space of 10 minutes. Maybe the opposite of the problem games have, actually.
• Cat-substitute refrigerator poetry: milk chocolate miscreant / so very sweet

26 Dec

• Prototype disk image of The Legend of Zelda: http://bit.ly/ehpbG4 Differences from released version enumerated: http://bit.ly/e5izJf
• Super Meat Boy not coming to Wiiware because Team Meat has never heard of trackers: http://bit.ly/dGejkP
• Cat-substitute refrigerator poetry: leg it from meat bed
• http://bit.ly/fbn3qr -- "The abridged story of life on earth, as told through the medium of walking fingers."
• 2010 in photos: http://bit.ly/i9pWC0 http://bit.ly/esjauD http://bit.ly/f38WNg
• "In 1969 the falls went quiet as the Niagara river was temporarily diverted." http://bit.ly/ijfU50

27 Dec

• Ebert explains Rare Exports: "An R-rated Santa Claus origin story crossed with 'The Thing.'" http://bit.ly/dTkUDI
• Cat-substitute refrigerator poetry: a smile like summer night sweat / clubs my life / over the self
• Lightning captured on x-ray camera: http://bit.ly/e6TFdG
• 20 hours of snowfall in 40 seconds: http://bit.ly/eJI6R7
• http://j.mp/gKAnG4 -- Yeah, but they still have to call you "doctor," right?

28 Dec

• Cat-substitute refrigerator poetry: investigate salient missive-- the vicissitude of dandelion worship
• Mom was aghast at seeing me buy a package of socks for myself so soon after Christmas.
• Village Voice names anonymous Twitter account music critic of the year: http://j.mp/gCjy9e
• What 16 sample points from around the world eat in a day: http://bit.ly/gyPXem

29 Dec

• Whoever made that "people paid to touch your junk" Venn diagram needs to go back to Venn diagram school: http://bit.ly/dHFjx6
• People started using "Lego" as plural because somebody read the Lego trademark FAQ and found that pluralizing a trademark is a violation.
• Unfortunately, "I built a tiny moustache out of Lego" is a violation too. The proper form is "I built a tiny moustache out of Lego® bricks."
• Which still shows disquieting eagerness to bow to your corporate overlords, but at least follows established English morphology.
• (Other orthographic pet peeve of the day: "Hallowe'en." I donno, it just looks ugly.)
• Rock Band 3 Squier Strat available for pre-order http://bit.ly/gB3lO9 -- Remember, you need the MadCatz MIDI adapter *too*.
• Photos and impressions of Squier Strat from dude who finagled a display unit early: http://bit.ly/fZmpi2

30 Dec

• Cat-substitute refrigerator poetry: ersatz water shadows abscond together / a show of turgid fluff
• Kous Kous has a lit candle in the men's room. I felt compelled to turn off the light and pee by candlelight.
• Aw man, this rubbery fretless bass would've been the perfect accompaniment to pee by candlelight by.

31 Dec

• Notice: please do not gleam the cube.
• Cat-substitute refrigerator poetry: caterwaul always / luscious fusillade
• Especially if you look outside developed nations, the world has become a much better place over the past decade: http://bit.ly/fKcjjs

On Twitter: @mogwai_poet