Off for Labor Day Weekend

I’m not going to the 5th annual PAX this weekend. Instead I’m going to stay home and work on my book and monitor Robo-James’s favorite Simpsons quote thread and possibly hack away at Force Unleashed. If anybody has any information about the care and feeding and killing of bull rancors, hit me.

The Greatest Video Game Ad of the Year

I’m starting to feel like the video game ad is an underrated medium. Yeah, most of them are forgettable. What do you want, they’re ads. But sometimes you see one that just rips off your head and thrusts its awesomeness down your neck. I’m thinking of the “Mad World” spot for Gears of War, for [...]

Wherein I Play Golf with Tiger Woods

A couple of days ago EA Sports released Tiger Woods PGA Tour 09. This would not ordinarily be a major event in my world, except that Tiger Woods did a press tour to promote it. Again: not usually a major event for me. Ordinarily I would let Time’s sports guy, Sean Gregory, handle this — [...]

The Quantum of Racist

It’s common knowledge that Ian Fleming’s James Bond spy thrillers were hardly politically correct. They were packed with outdated, but probably deeply-felt, sexism, racism, and, yes, even homophobia. (Not to mention the relentlessly kick-ass sadism.) Those who haven’t opened the books in a while may assume that Fleming’s old-timey notions lurked in the subtext of [...]

Neal Stephenson Speaks! About Anathem. And Other Stuff

Here’s a video snippet of Neal Stephenson talking about his new book Anathem. It’s a Nerd World exclusive! He talks a bit about how this book relates to his other works (not at all, is the basic answer, except on a philosophical level, which I guess means no Enoch Root cameos), and its connection to [...]

Venture Brothers: The Season Finale: Spoiler Alert

The Venture Brothers season finale dropped last night. It’s here, or at least it was at the time I posted this. I gotta admit, I found it slightly, just slightly, unsatisfying. Maybe Venture Brothers just isn’t a big-episode show, it’s the little in-between bits and pieces that really work. When they go all epic I [...]

No More Yoda Jokes Rant

Venture Brothers Break: The Lightning Cannon Sucks!

If I could blog about the Venture Brothers every day, I would. But I can’t. Apparently you’re supposed to blog about different stuff every day. Whatever. I didn’t blog about TVB yesterday, so I’m all clear. Plus if I post these, then the last 20 minutes I spent watching Venture Brothers clips magically becomes “research.”

Star Wars: The Force Unleashed: I Say Things and They Come True

I knew my words had the ring of prophecy. And not just because I was huffing Delphic vapors at the time. That stuff is strictly recreational for me, you know what I’m saying. I just didn’t believe it would happen so soon. Last week I said that despite the huge shortcomings of Clone Wars, the [...]

Will Wright Says a Cool Thing

G4 is running what I assume is a series of spots called the Will Wright Minute, in which Will Wright says some random cool thing. Obviously this is, deep in its black withered heart, a promo for Spore. But what he says is pretty cool:

Now in Paper-Vision: Does It Matter that McCain is a N00b?

This week in Time I wrote a column about whether it matters that McCain doesn’t really use the Internet. The shocking conclusion: yes and no!