Things I Hate

Activity

8 November 2011

The haunted house story is a timeless story that is rooted firmly in the economics of its time. One of the persistent lessons of horror is that we are not the masters of our collective domain that we think we are. There are monsters and sharks and mutants that will kill us for our arrogance. [...]

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Scenes from my Morning Commute, October 11, 2011

11 October 2011

1. A used U-Haul truck which has been de-identified. The sides and rear door of the truck featured a crude logo made from what appears to be black electrical tape in an irregular, erratic-looking typeface. It read “The Gutter King”. I understand that The Gutter King probably is just a regular guy who cleans gutters [...]

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It’s A Process

7 September 2011

As I have taken on more and more design work, it seems more and more apparent to me that the clients that I work with all expect me to be a kind of Dumbledore, able to somehow willwork the impossible into possibility when their requests flagrantly fly in the face of common sense. My wand [...]

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Cry for Justice

1 September 2011

Let’s assume that you’re running a comic book publisher.  One of the big ones.  Your market share has slipped, you’re afraid you’re losing relevance and you decide that, from a marketing perspective (and likely from a story perspective, too) you need to execute a balls-crazy Hail Mary play. You decide to rejigger your entire publishing [...]

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Doom Shall Not Countenance This Affront, Richards

25 August 2011

As you know, I listen to talk radio because I hate myself. Maybe, my friends tell me, I do it because I love to be outraged. I don’t think that’s true; I think, instead, that small bursts of outrage give me moments of focus and clarity that I might not otherwise have in a given [...]

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Catherine

22 August 2011

So, Catherine – a quirky mix of dating sim, puzzle action and horror condensed into a bright pink package – is the best-selling game from its publisher, Atlus, to date. Considering that Atlus’s wheelhouse tends to be critically acclaimed niche games that would likely never see the light of day in the USA otherwise, it’s [...]

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Scenes From A Mall

11 August 2011

Malls are like pitcher plants – traps designed to attract and kill. Nothing crushes the human spirit more than a mall. Nothing except thoughtful contemplation of the people who choose to go to a mall as a sort of social event. I went to a mall earlier this week. I needed to buy a birthday [...]

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Goals

5 August 2011

Sometimes I think about blogging as a medium and I feel like I am not cut out for it. This blog is a record of my life and, really, my life is not entertaining at all.  Seriously not at all, you guys. If I’m going to keep this up, I need to establish goals. Or [...]

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Revenge of Revenge of the Fallen Shot in 3D

5 July 2011

There is a moment that comes, maybe 2/3 of the way through Transformers: Dark of the Moon, when the audience can really and truly see the ethos of not just DotM, but the entire Michael Bay-helmed Transformers saga, with riveting clarity.  As a giant robot knocks over a skyscraper, a special forces soldier tumbles out [...]

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A Renumbering, At Least

15 June 2011

If you’ve been up in the air about how exactly you should feel about the DC Comics relaunch looming in September, I think the best signal to pay attention to is Marvel’s most recent news announcement. DC: We’re restarting everything at #1.* Marvel: New Spider-Man book. Sick. Burn. It’s almost a parody of the DC [...]

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