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When I originally set up my Xbox Live account, I couldn't get my first choice gamertag. Someone had already claimed "aniki" as their own at some point during the original Xbox's lifespan, but as far as I can tell they've not used it on the newer machine. I could have added a string of numbers, and in fact ended up with "aniki2121", but that seemed ( Read more... )

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I started playing Alpha Protocol last night, but haven't got very far yet. I've just finished the training section (although the achievement didn't drop, now that I think about it).

The conversation "stance" mechanic is a pretty good idea -- probably the game's best -- but a bit off-putting. The fact that each NPC builds an opinion of you, that ( Read more... )

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The cartoon I was talking about in the last post was called Skywhales, and it's on YouTube:

Click to view

It's a little bit different than I remember, and rewatching it hasn't really gotten rid of that weird feeling I get when I think about it. It's just so alien; in how it looks and how it sounds - the "language" that the hunters use, and that ( Read more... )

Something, I'm not sure what, just reminded me of a cartoon I saw years ago that's always stuck in my head.

It was on Channel 4 in the late '80s; probably '88 or '89, 1990 at a stretch. It had a very minimalist art style and, as far as I remember, no dialogue - just music. It was a one-off animated short, not more than ten minutes long.

Here's ( Read more... )

Yesterday was the PAL Dreamcast's eleventh birthday, which made me feel old. How must guys who remember the Spectrum feel?

To celebrate the occasion, I dug out my old machine to indulge in some nostalgia, which is becoming a bit of a tradition by now*. The Dreamcast was the first console I ever bought with my own money, and only the second games ( Read more... )

This is Hunter S. Thompson's cover letter for a job application to the Vancouver Sun, written in 1958, before he was famous.

It's worth reading in its entirety, so I've not cut anything down.
Vancouver Sun
TO JACK SCOTT, VANCOUVER SUN

October 1, 1958 57 Perry Street New York City

Sir,

I got a hell of a kick reading the piece Time magazine did ( Read more... )

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