XLIX. Duke Nukem Never

An icon from my childhood has bitten the dust.

3D Realms Shuts Down

How sad.

(P.S. Actually, it seems that the rights to the infamous Duke Nukem Forever have been claimed, so there may be hope yet for a release!)

(P.P.S. Don't hold your breath.)

XLVIII. Scaling the Wall

Writer's block sucks.

Not in the little, nagging way you'd feel if, say, you realized you were suddenly out of a delicious snack you'd just been munching on. No--this is a despair much like the feeling one gets when he knows he has disappointed someone important. In this case, the important someone is indeed the writer himself.

You see, the act of writing serves as an outlet--transferring one's ideas to external media. The writer's pen is a spigot. When the ideas aren't flowing an unbearable pressure builds up, frustrating and tormenting him.

It seems the only way to get over this is to force oneself to get started. My own approach will be to regard any blank sheets of paper I see as a dire emergency--an imminent threat requiring my immediate attention to quash. Just fill 'em up, and let god sort 'em out.

I'll see how that goes.

XLVII. The New Caveman

Am I becoming a Luddite?

I don't own a Blackberry, I don't spill my every inane thought on Twitter, and I don't relish the idea of telling everybody on the planet know what I'm doing every five seconds.

Oh, well. I'm not jumping on the bandwagon. I'll stick with my e-mail and my halfhearted social networking and blogging.

(For now, anyway.)

XLVI. Duck and Cover!

If you get all your information from the mainstream American media, you are probably aware that we are now gripped by a pestilence not seen since the days of oh, say the dreaded bird flu.

Seriously, to anyone who might be thinking that this is the beginning of the Apocalypse, might I point you to the words of the late, great George Carlin
(check out the beginning of part 2 as well):


Just be sure to stay away from the Chinese chicken...

XLV. Confick-you! (Or not, if you're smart)

Well, the computing world's latest gift from losers with too much time on their hands is called Conficker, and it's scheduled to go off just minutes from now--threatening to wreak havoc on Windows boxes worldwide.

While this irritates me to no end, and it is my opinion that spreading computer bugs should be one of the very few offenses worthy of capital punishment (all right, a slight exaggeration--but the sentiment comes across) the best we can do at this point is keep our own asses covered.

Don't get f-ed over by Conficker