As I wait here for the clock to run out....

Go to this website: Basic Red D&D.

Right the f*ck NOW. READ IT. ALL OF IT. Let it seep into your bones and transform you. Don't worry about the D&D parts. That is not important. I want you to witness probably the most creative, most imaginative, most balls-out insane and awesome person I have the pleasure of knowing in real life.

He writes reviews for RPGs and fantasy novels that never existed. He created 5th edition backgrounds for players who want to be cake, a goat, or Jason Statham (not A Jason Statham character, ALL Jason Statham characters, which really just means Jason Statham). He has created a cowboy D&D game with mutation charts. He has a "1d20 ways to kill you table" where if you roll a 20, you have to roll seven more times.

There are only three reasons for you not to go to that site:
1) You have fun, life, adventure, and just really everything. You need help.
2) You can demonstrably write this good, even while drunk (which HE HAS, there is a reason "Drunken Dungeon" is a label).
3) I lied, there is no third reason. Go read it.

Go. Read. Comment. Let him know. Because he is a friend, an inspiration, and a goddamn nuisance. His writing makes me excited, envious, and ashamed of my own pitiful attempts. AND HE REFUSES TO ACKNOWLEDGE IT. He has the temerity to be HUMBLE about it. That is some bullsh*t I will NOT STAND FOR. So go there, be amazed, and let him know how amazeballs he is.

I'm Not Saying, I'm Just Saying...

 & 

Even beloved cartoons are not safe from the hordes...

Bet she's wishing for some rubber masks now.

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Hotties in my Book: Paget Brewster

Another return to form, as I focus on another target of obsession. (Forgive the video heavy post, but she is even better in action)


I can't believe it has taken me this long to put her up on here. I mean come on!

Ms. Brewster is a very talented actress who gained the unfortunate label of a show-killer (which she currently disproving on Criminal Minds). It saddened me really, since I absolutely adore her. She is funny and fresh, with a little hint of quirk.

Plus, she was Birdgirl!

Of course, I fell in love with her during her spots on Conan. Like this one from a recent Tonight Show:

She is also sexy as hell when she wants to be. Or when she doesn't. Hell, women can't seem to keep their hands off her.

She even gets her sapphic mack on in a show as innocuous as Andy Richter Controls The Universe (RIP).

Even Hugh Hefner thought she was hot enough to send her a handwritten offer to pose for Playboy. Seeing as how she has no silicone nor blond hair (aka not his usual type), she must have really made an impression. (She said thanks but no thanks. Damn!)

So what do you think? (Keep in mind any disagreement with her hotness will be met with extreme predjudice)

Big Ball of Awesomeness

Two of my favorite comedians/hosts/funny-ass dudes teamed up on last Friday's The Soup.



Delicious.

Eye of the Beholder

Inspired by brother blogger (and most famous person I know) Chez Pazienza, I decided to pop the ol' Receptacle into Google's Image Search to see what kind of shenanigans came up.

Thinking back on it, I am somewhat surprised, really. I thought I was much more substantive.

Oh well, back to ogling.

Guess what happened over the holidays?

Craig Ferguson got married! AGAIN!!!!!!

Here is the surprise announcement, as only Craig can do it:



Craig goes into a bit more detail after the title sequence:

One of the myriad things I love about Craig is how he welcomes his audience into his personal life, good and bad. He is near-brutal in his honesty (such as when he revealed that his mother passed in early December '08), and it just makes him even more awesome than he already is.

So it is not that surprising that he would wait until he was back on-air before he made his big announcement. Of course, the reveal was still funny as hell.

Congrats and best wishes to the lovely couple.

Also, if he is somehow reading: Craig, your wife is HOT. Way to go, dude!

P.S. Blame CBS for the Katy Perry stuff, not me.

Week....no, GEEKend Links!!!!!

Word of the Week: Nignorance (The Maroon Tiger, my school paper!)

Advice for President-Elect Obama, courtesy of the fictional Presidents. (AMC Blogs)

Wil Wheaton (my patron saint) has a new gig. (CultureGeek) And returns to an old one. (WWdN: In Exile)

Aw hell, might as well: Wil Wheaton has a helpful pie chart. (WWdN: In Exile)

And after the jump, as I promised: Both the original and the redone BatG audition videos.....


....will be shown on Monday. Gotcha!

It's hard out here for a humanoid...

So true. So true.

Weekend Writing Links

For those of you interested (meaning SoD), here is the official forum for my current D&D 4E game. (Myth-Weavers)

As you know, I have gotten into a bit of a writer's kick (TK in particular has suffered through one of my ramblings). Writer Sandra Barret shares her method of worldbuilding: wikis! (Women and Words)

And LJ Cohen shows how he designed a one-page wiki (small enough to be on most USB Flash drives) for his novels, but can be used for any writing. (Once in a Blue Muse)

By the way, I am totally going to do this, and may or may not share the results with you. Depends on interest.

I found these links below during my web travels after looking into minority-authored SF. Some of these are fairly old, but they still merit some discussion.

It shouldn't surprise me as much as it does, but even the seemingly welcoming and diverse world of speculative fiction (where mythical creatures and extraterrestrials are the norm) has its share of bigoted a-holes. (transcriptase via AngryBlackWoman)

And to further stoke the fire, an examination of a message board discussion on the above issue
(Asimov’s forum ickiness at Tobias Buckell Online)

Even such a well-established writer as Ursula K. LeGuin can't avoid getting the Last Samurai and Blood Diamond treatment (Slate)

They even tried to get Neil Gaiman! (Words from the Center)

Oldie but Oh-so-goody...

From one of the probably three reality shows I actually watched comes this clip featuring the Queen of Geeky Hotness (Sorry, Alex, she came first).

Update (thanks for the heads up)

Lisa Loeb Thong Video
by Mentalaceman

Question...

Who watched the the last few episodes of Avatar: The Last Airbender, especially "Sozin's Comet", even if you aren't 12? Discuss.

Addendum: Who also screams "Kill the bitch!" whenever Azula is onscreen, besides me?

Thoughts on The Dark Knight (SPOILERS AHOY)

First off, it was awesome. It truly surpassed the first film by leaps and bounds.

- Maggie did an excellent job as Rachel, as expected. One thing I really liked was that she didn't moon all over Bruce. She laid the situation out completely: she wasn't going to be with him while he was Batman, and she wasn't going to kid herself into thinking he would ever stop. It made total sense that she would choose Harvey over Bruce, but it wasn't an easy choice in the least, and I appreciated that they showed it as such. The fact that Bruce would never know (and thereby lose a key motivation in his war on crime) made it even sadder.

- That said, I still can't believe they blew her up. I mean, intellectually, I can understand it. She had to die in order to push both Batman and Harvey over the edge. But still it was a fucked-up scene. And in the middle of her acceptance of his proposal? Even more fucked up.

- Leave it to Joker to add that nice little ironic twist. Switching up the addresses for Harvey and Rachel, putting the hostages in the clown outfits. I fully expected to see that the detonators on the boats were switched so that whoever chose to blow up the other boat would end up killing themselves.

- Speaking of, the prison boat choice (throwing it out, thereby leaving themselves supposedly to die) was a nice story choice. It would have been easy to have the prisoners riot or what not, but for the prisoner (Tiny Lister, whooooo!) to convince the warden to let them die was a nice counterpoint to Joker's supposed message.

- My only complaint: it seemed a bit too heavy-handed with the whole "we are all just monsters in the end" thing. Some of the reactions didn't make much sense as well. Well it was more like the reactions to the reactions didn't make sense. Why didn't they just say to the panicking crowd "This guy is a psychopath, what makes you think he will keep his word"? I mean, Harvey is quite motivating, I am sure he could have convinced the city to calm down a bit better than "The dawn is coming".

Weekend Links

I did in fact go see TDK today. It was awesome. Here is the Watchmen trailer that was attached. (http://cityrag.blogs.com/main/2008/07/the-watchmen-tr.html)

Oh. Oh my. Here is a question for the ages: by what wonderful twist of fate does it end up that her bikini shots are rarer than her nude scenes? (Popoholic)

Railgun. (Cracked)

Please go and comment so he can stop crying. (Hispanic! At The Disco)

Uh....okay then. Just back away and don't make any sudden moves. (WIMB)

Here is Maggie Gyllenhaal on Thursday's The Daily Show. I don't know who I want to nail more: her, or Jon Stewart for pulling out the M'Kraan Crystal reference.

What...the....F-CK?!?!?!!

My mind is officially blown.

Listen, I have only seen at most two episodes of Grey's Anatomy. It is just not my cup of tea. But that did not stop me from appreciating the talents of Ms. Sara Ramirez as Dr. Callie Torres, the unreasonably-unlucky-in-love surgeon who, despite the blatantly ill-advised marriage to that dorky looking George dude.



This even led me to mention her as one of my favorite Hotties in my Book. Plus, there is the underwear dancing.

So imagine my surprise when, after following a series of links starting at Pajiba and ending up on AfterEllen.com and their Hot 100 List (which is, by the way, loads better than Maxim or FHM and their meathead attempts), and found this little tidbit:

The woman who made perhaps the biggest jump in rank this year is actress Sara Ramirez, who rose from No. 80 in 2007 to No. 9 in 2008, proving that playing gay can be good for your career! (OK, so the voting was closed before her character came out on Grey's, but we lesbians have excellent gaydar, even for fictional TV characters.)

"...wait a sec," I said, heart (as well as other body parts) about to rip though my clothes. "What is this about her playing gay? You mean...CALLIE CAME OUT?!?!?!!?!!" And yes, you could hear the question and exclamation points in my voice at the time.

AfterEllen helpfully linked to their article discussing the Grey's Season finale where this senses-shattering (in my opinion) event happened. Following the article to its logical conclusion, I saw this:

Bisou lesbien Grey's Anatomy
by GayClic

Good God Almighty.

It doesn't hurt that the lucky recipient of Callie's loving is played by Brooke Smith, who I have found quite attractive and intriguing all on her own, since seeing her in Series 7: The Contenders. Hmm, crushing on a woman after seeing her murder several people in cold blood while in advanced pregnancy. I fear I may be a bit weird.

So if you don't hear back from me right away, I'll...be in my bunk. Trust me, you don't want to ponder that any further.

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P.S. We totally need a sequel to Series 7. It would be right up my alley. And possibly some of yours.

P.P.S. Thanks to AfterEllen for finding such a mind-blowing picture of Ms. Ramirez. I hope they don't mind me borrowing it for a little while.

Mini Movie Discussion

Saw Redbelt yesterday. More or less, I have to agree with Brian's assessment on Pajiba. Of coures, I read the review before seeing the film, so my perceptions may be colored.

It was definitely worth the money to see, especially with my own developing interest in the martial and cinematic arts. It is one of the better films released this year so far.

Here is the thing: the only product of David Mamet's I have ever seen in its entirety is The Unit. But the man has a very distinct style that was quite apparent.

It was a hoot seeing Max Martini (aka Mack Gerhardt on The Unit) in the film. And I totally bought he would be the kind of guy who would commit 21st-century seppuku instead of dishonor his school.

Not so much Rebecca Pidgeon. Pretty much played the same character she did on the show. And I didn't like her. No knock on the actress, heck, it is probably a compliment that she managed to rub me so far down the wrong way.

Also, when the HELL did Tim Allen start acting? Like honest to goodness acting? I know he had Galaxy Quest, but that was a fluke right? It can't be that he might actually need a decent project. Because that would make all the bitching people do about him (and myriads of other actors) completely meaningless. I mean, surely The Shaggy Dog was going to be a winner, if only they hadn't cast him. (Then again, I have a soft spot for former addicts that actually TRY to stay sober instead of going to some bullshit 'rehab'.)

Damn, it is a depressing movie, really. Nearly everyone trying to do the right thing in it gets screwed.

One theme I picked up on was the idea of belief and dogmatic thought. Mike Terry was willing to uphold his beliefs, but he never forced them on anybody else. He simply lived and let live, happy to let the other characters play their games, as long as they didn't involve him. He did assume that others shared his beliefs, but he didn't find out for sure until he was challenged. On the other end, everyone (except for a select few) scoffed at these beliefs, and tried their damndest to force him to change. Mike simply wasn't willing to make money for his own sake; he only change his stance in order to help other people, most of whom still screwed him over. Seriously, how hard would it have been to just let the man be on the goddamn film? Was the three stones so damn profitable that you had to utterly devastate him?

Oh before I forget: Emily Mortimer was fantastic. The knife scene was short, but it defined the characters so well, and I doubt anyone else could have done it better.

It was a bit disconcerting how so many characters were concerned about finances and bills, especially the wives of Terry and Officer Joe. It just seemed like it was a bit overemphasized. Take Sondra, Mike wife. Maybe her concern was simply because she hated that her brothers were raking it in, while she had to keep bailing Mike out, but did she have to rat out Officer Joe to do it? The guy killed himself, but no real display of regret or anything from her. I highly doubt that she didn't feel some remorse, and she had to know her actions were partly responsible.

Then there was Officer Joe's wife. Seriously, the man you loved lies dead by his own hand, and the biggest complaint you can bring up is his pension and your bills? Really? The anger is understandable, the target also; it is the execution that was weird. Then again, it was hinted at that there was trouble in their relationship already, so maybe that was supposed to highlight their distance.

Still it is a well-made film, and except for those issues (which were more errors of omission than intentional), I would definitely recommend it.

Verdict: More Mamet awesomeness, as usual.

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Awesome Personified: Metal Wolf Chaos

One day, a couple of years ago, I stumbled onto a little known Japan-only Xbox game titled Metal Wolf Chaos. It first gained notice as one of the few Japanese games with full English dialogue. But that was just the tip of the iceberg. After playing this, the world was never the same again.

The premise of said game in helpful video form, because you would never believe me if I typed it:

Watch it again. Go on. Wrap your head around it.

All I know is, when Bush leaves office, we need to search that place top and bottom. I bet you there is a copy of this game there, and if there is, it will explain the last eight years so much.

Thing is, it is even crazier in execution. You think "all your base" was bad? Check out the gems in this clip.

Suck on my missile punch, indeed.

I say that, based on the compelling video footage, we should add Michael Wilson to the esteemed Hall of Fictional Kick-Ass Presidents, right alongside Palmer, Bartlett, and Harrison Ford from Air Force One. Also, we might want to have a talk with Japan about their perception of us. Just saying.