Posts

Posted on

Crazy cat lady action figure

You may be aware of the phenomenon of animal hoarding. Teresa Nielsen Hayden has written about it:

Basically, hoarders accumulate an impossible number of animals–more than they can care or provide for, and far too many for the available space. Their quarters rapidly become a stew of filth, misery, and suffering animals.

It’s an odd, disturbing, and pitiable pattern of behaviour. But as the Singing Branson proved, nothing is too off-beat for the tacky gift shops of Piedmont Avenue. Here is the “Crazy Cat Lady Action Figure (How many cats do you have?)”, on display in a shop window just down the street from the purveyor of fine Bransons:

Crazy Cat Lady Action Figure

Half funny, half offensive…all tasteless.

Posted on

Too many Andersons

When I was younger, I used to have a mental block on the words porpoise, tortoise, and turquoise. They were just similar enough that my brain filed all three words in a single slot, and I found it inordinately hard to distinguish between them.

Then, a couple of years ago, I developed a similar block on three people: Peter Morville (information architecture guy, co-author of the polar bear book), Peter Merholtz (user experience guy, co-founder of Adaptive Path), and Peter Morwood (SF and Fantasy guy, husband of Diane Duane). I just couldn’t tell the difference between them without a quick net search to jog my brain.

Now, I’ve got the same thing going on with three movie directors: Wes Anderson (Rushmore, The Royal Tenenbaums), Paul W.S. Anderson (Event Horizon, Resident Evil), and Paul Thomas Anderson (Boogie Nights, Magnolia).

The block is annoying, but it has got me wondering what kind of film these directors would make if they really were one person. It would probably be a multi-threaded ensemble piece, darkly humorous, with tragi-comic elements, about a dysfunctional family with at least one child genius…fighting off a zombie invasion from outer space.

It might not suck, you know.

Posted on

Time keeps on slipping

It’s 11 o’clock. We’re all packed and backed up. Only four and a half hours until we have to get up, get dressed, and head out the door to catch our plane. It would be foolish of me to get in a quick half hour of Halo 2, wouldn’t it?

On the other hand, I’m going to be sleep-deprived anyway. And what with Ratchet & Clank 3 arriving on Friday, me being sick over the weekend, and all of the busying around we’ve had to do this week, I haven’t actually played H2 at all since my first session last Thursday…and I’m not going to get another chance for another two weeks…

Yeah, foolish.

Um.