Redoing the site template, so forgive any missing stuff.

20 games that changed gaming forever. This features all the usual suspects, but it’s still a pretty nice concise list, and I enjoyed the nostalgia. After reading this I am struck with a deep need to pull out the ol’ console and boot up Mario 64. The game was damn near perfect when it came out.

I remember being awestruck over not having to stick to the set path of a platform game. I could run over here! Or over there! Get a couple of stars here, go get a few more there, do some thinking, some jumping.. it had something for everyone. The addition of hidden bonuses and extra stars, I think, helped herald in the current era of game achievements.

And I say all this that despite the fact that the racing penguin is my eternal nemesis. ONE DAY I WILL HAVE THE ADVANTAGE, RACING PENGUIN.
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Earlier this week a friend argued that the red leather jacket from Thriller is the most iconic music-related clothing ever, and I had a tough time coming up with a counter-argument. The closest thing I could think of was MC Hammer’s pants. So I suppose a link to MJ’s fashion legacy is in order. The glove(s) and epaulets industry will never be the same.

Also despite my angry rantings and impatience with the deification of celebrities, it really must be said that Billie Jean is a pretty perfect five minutes of pop music. I’m only human…

… but not human enough, I fear, to avoid linking to ismichaeljacksonazombieyet.com.
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I know this carnivore support group sign is making the rounds across the internets, but that’s because it’s damned funny. (Vegan-curious?!?! Give me a break.)
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Starting to realize that I’m getting old. There is a certain point after which you have to stop saying perkily, “30 is the new 20, you know!”

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Famous people dying makes me irrationally angry. I should say up front that it’s not the fault of the famous person themselves. They didn’t want to die, and it doesn’t matter who you are or what you did.. it’s unfortunate, and the world is slightly less interesting with every person who leaves it.

But as I look at my Twitter, with Michael Jackson news interspersed with snippets from the streets of Iran and news stories of Kim Jong-il talking about bombing Alaska and I just don’t even know what to feel. There’s no Twitter rush to cover someone who dies during protests in another country (unless they’re a pretty girl). People in my office don’t start tearing up and hugging each other because another Somalian died in a turf war, or a Dad in the midwest dropped dead of a heart attack.

CNN didn’t do a bulletin blast when my Mom died. No one cared. And you know what? She was a better person than Michael Jackson. And yes, I feel qualified to say that.

So fuck you CNN. Fuck you Twitter, fuck you fucking western society fuckers. I’m sitting at my desk crying like an idiot, but it’s not for the famous names we lost today. It’s for those people who work and live and love and be good honest wonderful people and die, and no one makes a sound. Someone should cry for them.

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I’m tired and cranky today, so a link dump:

The NYT reports that there is an exodus from blogging because it is not, apparently, making people rich or famous. Imagine that. (I was going to link to the article, but NYT has a stupid free login system thing and they can STUFF IT IN A SACK.) Pith and Vinegar is 10 years old this year — oh my god — and I feel right on track with its development as I am neither rich nor famous. I’m not even internet famous.

I will say that much like one woman stated in the article, a popular weblog can be a bit overwhelming. At its height Pith was getting thousands of visitors, was mentioned in magazines and the radio, and .. it freaked me out. That’s a lot of pressure, real or perceived, to produce content every day, and with a large following it’s easy to start reigning yourself in and try to appeal to the widest audience.

Today I post whenever I want. I write on whatever I want. And no one reads it. It’s truly delightful.
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I’m reading Pride and Prejudice and Zombies right now (poor Charlotte Lucas), but it does not hold a candle in the weird department to The Haunted Vagina. “It’s difficult to love a woman whose vagina is a gateway to the world of the dead…” Really. Of particular note is the outstanding comment that this book “gives me hopes for my own writing career!” Mmmmmmmmmmm, pass!
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Rick’s Custom Squirrels. Wall-mounted squirrels with the GI Joe toy accessories of your choice. I wonder if he’d make one with a kitty wig…
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Really had the urge to properly write something again lately, but every time I sit down and stare at the text editor I just go blank. Maybe I should sojourn in a cabin until the woods fill me with peace and self-understanding and then I will start to write my great novel (or book of dumb personal essays) until one day hillbillies stumble across the cabin and kill me and possibly eat my body. I’m pretty sure that’s how this artistic process works.

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My Geek Chart

This is my Geek Chart, apparently. It shows where I mainly contribute on the web (although it doesn’t show everything). The giant teal quadrant represents Twitter. The tiny orange sliver represents my blog posts, which, in all fairness, just means this site and not my WoW blog. Please notice the disparity between the two pieces of the pie. It’s pretty gross.

As has been said on different sites, those 140 characters in Twitter, combined with other social media sites, often has a soporific effect on blogging. Sure, I could write about the Norwegian zombie movie I saw this weekend, or I could just take 20 seconds and Blip it. I could post cool links and talk about them, or I can just save them to my Delicious profile (if I will want to find it again) or Digg it (if I just think it’s neat) in a matter of seconds.

And Twitter.. oh Twitter, you are worst of all. I used to walk home and space out and think of little things to blog about later. Nothing terribly mind blowing, just “Oh hey, look at that hat. I wonder if there’s a site dedicated to bad hipster hats?”, or seeing an ad for something weird, or daydreaming about hobo street markings. So what do I do now? I think about something for a few minutes, and then if it seems worthy I just whip out the phone and tweet it.

The best part of all this is if I think of something I consider neat a few minutes later, it will probably never see the light of day. I don’t want to be one of those people that spews out 18 million tweets a day, so I tend to just reject most everything after the first one.

There’s little to no research, no crafting paragraphs, no artfully trying to tell a story or even set up a funny punchline. I could carefully convey some amusing things that happened yesterday while hanging out at the park with friends, or I could tweet a couple of lines from a song that will, hopefully, evoke what I wanted to say. And that’s another thing – I find myself being more and more amused by how much I can pack into so little. Chuck out delicious adjectives and pronouns. No avoiding contractions in places for better rhythm. Even my melodramatic over-the-top moments become, “OMG, I hate Mondays, grrr.” I have been reduced to Garfieldian measures of expression.

And yet it’s simple and quick, and there is a built in audience who can quickly comment. I’m not sure I have any conclusions here, unfortunately. Social media has some pretty neat tools that I would be loathe to give up. I suppose I will just have to figure out how to temper that with creating my own true, genuine, paragraphed nonsense.

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An (online) acquaintance pointed out ProBlogger’s 31 Days to Build a Better Blog Challenge, and my intention is to follow along all month and apply the lessons to this blog and my much more popular World of Warcraft website. Today’s tip is to write an elevator pitch for your blog. An elevator pitch should be, obviously, short, descriptive, and intriguing enough to stir up interest.

My WoW blog is easy, as it has a focus and a goal. When I first put up the site I included the bit: “Herding Cats is written by Liore, a stubborn holy priest who has been leading the ragtag guild Machiavellis Cat since May, 2005. She tends to write about healing, priests, raiding, guild leadership, and anything else that strikes her fancy.” (If you don’t play WoW or another MMO, that will mean very little to you so don’t worry about it.) That’s not short enough to be a tagline, but I think it’s elevator-appropriate and it gets across the topics of the blog, a reason why you should read it (4 years leading a guild), and a little bit of my personality.

Pith and Vinegar is obviously a little more esoteric in scope. Plus, it’s a personal site, and one where I fiercely value my independence to write on almost anything I want. And really, it’s not as though I tend to advertise the site anywhere anyway. But having a focus is good, so let’s think. I’ve been quite fond of “Blogging about crap since 1999″, which I used on my previous design and a few before that. It shows longevity and a sassy attitude. (It would be better as “Blogging about shit since 1999″, but I am Canadian and being that blatant about swearing makes me nervous.) Back in the heyday it was “A weblog for the surly and underemployed.” Both are cute and bursting with personality, but neither give any idea of the topics covered.

“Pith and Vinegar: a decade of zombies, pop culture, web stuff, and other crap. Still surly, now slightly more employed.” Hey. That’s not bad.

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Next weekend I am going to Norwescon! Well, actually, I am going to a hotel around Norwescon, although not to the con itself. No, I shall not be joining interesting debates about fantasy fiction writing, or hobnobbing with collectors. Instead I am pretty much solely going to drink and party with my friends in the Merchants of Deva (their website is out of date). Does going to a con just to party make me a nerdjock? I am going to beat myself up for my lunch.

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How to tell if a movie is going to suck: count the number of helicopters in the trailer.

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This Toothpaste for Dinner cartoon hits a little too close to home. Hey, dude, that was my idea first, okay?! Get your own venture capital, Mr. Popular Smooshed-Head Web Cartoonist.

Lately I’ve been re-watching Seinfeld, still in eternal syndication on pretty much any channel higher than 30. It’s been a few years, and I’m once again struck by how clever the show is. Most shows have an A Plot and a B Plot, and never the twain shall meet. In most Seinfeld episodes you have both plots, and they all tie together in a neat little bow at the end.

I think my favorite episode is The Betrayal, or “the backwards one”, although of course the internets has its own varied opinion. (I like this Yahoo Answers page on the topic, but mainly because that dude with the labeled Best Answer protests too much.) Anyway, fellow Seinfeldians will enjoy this poster of 99 Seinfeld References. I was pleased to see muffin stumps represented.

Tracking the historical rise and fall of swear words in The Guardian: “Wank is massively underperforming over the last decade.”

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I met someone yesterday who has a Facebook page for their cat. Apparently their cat only has one friend (what? I had to ask), a “cat down the road that they’ve actually never met”. I feel much better knowing that felines have fake Facebook friends too.

Dermatographia art. Dermatographia is a harmless condition where your skin welts extremely easily in response to light pressure, dramatic temperature changes, and more. I have it, and I used to write my boyfriend’s initials on my leg when I was 14.. but I never thought of creating art! (The last photo in particular is sooo neat.. I almost want to try.)

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A school in the UK is offering a degree in Twitter, Facebook, and other websites for a mere $5000. I also offer certification in social media, but my price is a coffee and a bowl of pho. Also, your certificate will be written on a napkin.

30 simple tricks that make you look smart. I know, I too am kind of stunned to be linking actual practical advice for everyday living. People who know me, however, will be reassured by the fact that I was looking for a way to get gum out of my hair. I am still bereft of adult sensibility.

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So last month I lost fifteen pounds on a diet. Then I went to the US for the weekend, and upon my return I had put on FOUR POUNDS. How is that even possible? That would have to be 6000 calories a day, which even if I was eating like This Is Why You’re Fat (which I wasn’t) would be really difficult to achieve without, you know, dying or throwing up or something. Anyway, clearly my body is making up its own energy conservation theories as it goes along — obey the laws of thermodynamics, dammit!

The hot new social media news is that some celebrities are not actually writing their own Twitters. Shock shock! Celebrities have people to interact with with their fans for them! Although I gotta say if Ashton Kutcher can come up with 140 characters on a regular basis, Britney really has no excuse… y’all.

South Korean school children singing a happy song about Netiquette. This made me smile.

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I was in the US over the weekend, and had the opportunity to take a cab. The fellow at the wheel spent the first half of the trip sharing how much he loved the movie “Taxi Driver”, and the last half talking about all the filth and corruption in the city that needed to be cleaned up.. possibly by an armed vigilante cab driver. Needless to say, I tipped well.

LastFM to start charging international (non-US) users. Grawrrrr! Stupid Canadian licensing laws, it wasn’t enough that you took Pandora out of my life. I’m going to go smash a pile of Nickleback and Tragically Hip CDs in protest. You can’t make me listen to your Cancon crap!

Note that the Cancon link is actually a really good look at the lows and even lowers of Canadian popular music, although he best be steppin off of Stan Rogers because I grew up on that maritime folk music, yo. It’s good for the soul.

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