It's really uncanny how the entire work week can go by with day after day of glorious sunny weather, then suddenly the weekend hits and it's dark and cold and gloomy out. And today at least it's really killing my motivation to do anything resembling any of the creativesque activities that I for some reason believe myself to be capable of whilst I sit at work designing spam emails or AJAX applications or whatever it is that I do. So, instead of writing or drawing or playing the guitar (I should note that my utter lack of talent in any of these things further dissuades me from them) I decided to, yes, you guessed it, update my sidebar.

Mostly I needed to get rid of the links to the internet radio stations that each seem not have to existed for quite some time now. Also took off Blue's News since PC gaming has stopped being interesting to me lately, while more and more cool stuff is coming out on the consoles. What can I say, I just don't find the prospect of shelling out hundreds of dollars every year or two on video cards and processors and memory just so I can play the latest FPS - now darker, grittier, and extra blood-drenched! - such an appealing concept. So in their place I've added dublab, another internet radio station that I enjoy quite a bit, and my two favorite comics blogs that aren't Tim's.

Under the friends section Jonathan has been taken off since I don't think his blog exists anymore, and Lynnea's myspace has taken his place. Now the interesting thing about Lynnea's myspace, is that she did not tell me that it existed, which it has for a couple months now at least, until a few days ago. Which initially caused me some amount of consternation. I guess she thought I would make fun of her because its myspace and all, and true I would have, but still, that was kinda awkward.

Anyway, that's all that's been going on around this place. That and I'm working my way steadily through Castlevania: Harmony of Dissonance. Which reminds me, the Wikipedia entry on Castlevania refers to Dracula as often being a "load bearing boss" which is possibly the greatest video game term I have ever heard. Huh, it's gone from gloomy outside to raining heavily. Neat.

Matt on 04.20.07 @ 02:22 PM PST [link] 

Water: 7 gallons mystery tap water
Grain:

• 1lb. British Dark Crystal
• 1lb. Black Patent
• 1/4lb. Carapils
• 1/4lb Special Roast

Extract: 11lbs. liquid pilsner extract
Yeast: 1 vial WLP004 - Irish Ale
Hops:

• 2oz. 4.5%AA Fuggle @ 60min
• 1oz. 4.5% Fuggle @ 15min

Etc:

• 10oz jar of raw oysters in brine @ 15min
• 1tsp. Irish Moss @ 15min

OG: 1.083

90 minute boil as usual, etc. I've been wanting to do this beer for awhile now. When I tasted the wort, the oysters hadn't really contributed to the flavour significantly but what I'm hoping for is a nice bit of oceanyness in the finish. At any rate, based on the wort I think that if the yeast doesn't have too many problems with the high gravity, this stuff is gonna be dyn-o-mite.

Matt on 04.15.07 @ 08:45 PM PST [link] 

*cough*
So... you guys like, um... stuff?

It's amazing how a couple... um... how 3 or 4 months can just slip right by a person, y'know? Especially as odd as the last month or so has been. Not that I have a lot to say about that, it's just been one of those times where the equilibrium has been punctured and not all things are as they once were, at least with regards to some of our friends.

But that's not why I'm blogging. Or at least that's not the impetus that actually pushed me over from the thinking-about-blogging-but-not-actually-doing-it state into the actual blogging state. The thing that has pushed me over that particular precipice is a shiny little gem of abomination from 1934 called "Fétiche" or, as it was called on the version I just saw, "The Mascot".

We had just finished innocently watching the early cinema classic Vampyr when all of a sudden something... unexpected... came on the dvd. Fétiche: the... ahem... heartchill warming story of a little toy dog who um... well, he was trying to get an orange for a little girl, basically.

And ok, it has its charms... kind of. But it's stop motion animation done with... stop and think about this for a second... 1930s era toys and puppets. I can't be the only one who finds toys from the 1930s like, some of the most disturbing objects ever to claw their way from the psyche of mankind. You know you see those eBay auctions from time to time and it's this hideous mouldering grinning death-mask monkey-thing or something and you're just like kind of horrified and sickened? And part of you thinks, well, you know, maybe that thing just didn't hold up well and it was actually cute back then. No. It wasn't. I think they had totally different sense of aesthetics back in those days. A sense of aesthetics culled from some blasphemous realm of outer darkness where sits the idiot Chaos, grinning in darkness listening to the aphonic piping of mad flute players. And those hideous mouldering things were animated and dancing and cavorting. And there was some sort of strange Walpurgisnacht-esque party going on with the devil (who was actually the least frightening puppet out of all of them, oddly) and a monkey and this really creepy hoodlum-with-a-knife puppet and... man. This thing was like... ok, on MST3k they used to often refer to things as "good old-fashioned nightmare fuel"... well, Fétiche is the nightmare equivalent of jet fuel. I mean, here I am watching this perfectly innocent 1932 vampire movie and then this comes in out of the blue? They ought to put a warning label on that thing. What if a child put that on? And yeah, I realize it was probably originally intended for children, but that doesn't prove much... I mean, have you seen the 20th century?

Anyway, I've gotta go play video games or drink or do something to get that thing out of my head cause... damn. Of course, on the other hand, the part of me that isn't reeling in terror can't help but think, "Man, that was awesome."

Matt on 04.10.07 @ 12:35 AM PST [link]