propelled!

I’m working like crazy to get this Angel One review finished today so I can get started on some other (awesome) stuff that’s been bouncing around in my brains.

Until I have something new and interesting of my own to talk about, I’d like to share some really cool links I’ve found while Propelling in the last 24 hours:

Gordon Freeman crank calls Coast to Coast AM

Video Games – A theoretical physicist named "Gordon" called up the conspiracy wonks at Coast to Coast AM to tell ’em all about a mysterious government agent — a "G-Man" if you will — that he keeps seeing around. Lots of fantastic Half Life and Portal jokes for those who can read between the lines, here.

Marching band’s classic video game themed halftime show

Popular Videos – In this video, the UC Berkeley marching band performs a video-game-themed halftime show, playing the beloved themes from such old friends as Tetris, Zelda, Mario Brothers and others, all the while marching in animated formation and reenacting scenes from the
game. Bravo! [via boingboing]

The History of ‘It’ Girls (And Their Predictable Downfalls)

Celebrities – History has no dearth of young women who, once thrust into the limelight, manage to screw things up in astounding, stupefying ways. From extremely public and scandalous affairs to drug addiction to homelessness, It girls through the ages have been there, done that, and few have lived to tell the tale.

Now, it’s back to Angel One, where — contrary to what you’ve read in travel guides — they’re not as into the snu-snu as they once were.

Cloverfield

I saw Cloverfield yesterday afternoon, early enough so I could avoid a theater filled with douchebags. I understand that this was a good thing, because people I know who saw it at night with the aforementioned douchebags were so annoyed by them, and so pulled out of the movie by them, it seriously fucked with their ability to enjoy the film.

If you haven’t seen it, I recommend it. I gave it 3 out of 5, but only because the first-person shaky camera stuff made me violently seasick, causing me to look away from the screen more frequently than I did with Blair Witch (a movie, by the way, that I enjoyed as much as "meh" can be enjoyed, and which doesn’t deserve to be compared to Cloverfield, IMHO.) On story and effectiveness, I give it a 4.6 out of 5but the camera stuff really messed with me, and I suspect it will mess with other viewers, as well.

Assume there will be spoilers in comments, because I’m starting the comments off with my extended commentary on the film, which you should not read if you haven’t seen it yet.

The Bad Astronomer (who I owned in a Techonobabbloff yesterday) has some nitpicks and a review that I agreed with pretty much all the way, too.

announcement 5 of 4 (math is hard!)

According to Eventful, 84 people have joined a demand for me to come to San Diego. I usually come down for Comic-con, but with the eleventy billion people down there every year, it’s not exactly the most intimate environment for a reading and signing. So I’ve been looking for a more reasonable venue, where I won’t have to compete for attention with half-naked cosplaying MILFs.

So I talked to the Awesome Patrol at my favorite indie bookstore in San Diego, and I’m coming to Mysterious Galaxy Books on May 3 for a reading, signing, and geekfest.

I had a whole bunch of fun the last time I came to Mysterious Galaxy with Just a Geek. There was a great crowd, and it’s a fantastic store. I’m really looking forward to doing this, and I think it’s appropriate that Mysterious Galaxy will be the first official in-store signing on Wil Wheaton’s Happiest Tour of My Life, which I’ve just decided to launch and may cancel due to lack of interest at future date.

Mysterious Galaxy has a page with details and book ordering information, and I’ve also created an event page at Eventful that doesn’t have ordering information, but does have a spiffy picture of me, Wil Wheaton.

Library of Congress puts thousands of photos on Flickr

File this under Coolest Damn Thing I’ve Seen All Day: The Library of Congress put over 3100 pictures on Flickr:

Library of Congress staff often make digital versions of our popular
image collections available online as quickly as possible by relying
primarily on the identifying information that came with the original
photos. That text can be incomplete and is even inaccurate at times. We
welcome your contribution of names, descriptions, locations, tags, and
also your general reactions.

It’s divided into two different sets:

1930s-40s in Color:

These vivid color photos from the Great
Depression and World War II capture an
era generally seen only in
black-and-white. Photographers working
for the United States Farm Security
Administration (FSA) and later the
Office of War Information (OWI) created
the images between 1939 and 1944.

News events in the 1910s:

Welcome to the daily news scene from
almost a hundred years ago, as
photographed by the Bain News Service in
about 1910-1912. We invite your tags and
comments! Also, lots more identification
information. (Most of these old photos
came to the Library of Congress with
very little description.)

This selected set of 1,500 photographs
is from a large collection of almost
40,000 glass negatives. The entire
collection spans 1900-1920 and richly
documents sports events, theater,
celebrities, crime, strikes, disasters,
and political activities, with a special
emphasis on life in New York City.

I’ve only looked at a few dozen of these pictures, but they’re just astonishingly beautiful. Many of them have a haunting quality, as well, and would make great Ficlet inspiration.

I Propelled this link the instant I saw it, if any propeller heads wish to vote for it.