I'm not sure they've got the right idea. That doesn't count for much anyway, what they are doing seems to be done very well and when it comes down to it, that's what counts in entertainment.

I'm not going to bother using spoiler markup.

I'd like to say that Saw is a great (series of) film(s). While watching, I've had a constant sense that the real merit here is that someone has devised a means of convincing me to spend an hour and a half at a time watching gruesome gory horrifying stuff without the use of coercion. It feels like a joke where I'm the punchline. I need to laugh but I can't because it would change from funny to sad as I do.

I have some doubts about the upcoming game, though. These aren't the usual doubts about games licensed from other media.

A next metal gear is . . . an anagram?

If so, I vote genital stare exam. Anyway, it's probably not an anagram.

Those gaming essays? In addition to scouring the internet at large (and whatever other media applies), I'm going to try to harvest the enlightened residents of HuSi.

So if you have an opinion, or can even think of one, I'd like to hear it. I'm starting general. These will get more specific in the future.

The Question: Games as art, Y/N? - and why?

Ubisoft has rescued its income lately by making a lot of casual games. Most of it is utter shovelware, but I like to think that the language learning titles are supposed to be something more.

Watching The Daily Show tonight, I noticed that John Oliver's bit was much better than usual. Normally he gives me the impression that he's been trying too hard, which is really just a polite way of saying wasting his efforts. But I always wanted him to do well--I knew he had something good to show us.

Anyway, he did a street interview mashup bit that really worked. He seems to have achieved his Te. Stewart sounded proud when crediting him at the end of it.

Some vidya games related junk inside, told with the aid of VG Cats.

At this very moment, I'm eating (quite by accident) an approximation of an Acadian dish. I forget the name of the dish, but mine has potatoes, butter, turkey, gravy, spices and is composed of leftovers. The real dish is far greasier.

Bah, diaries should default to iGrrrl-style timestamps or something for titles, I might be more inclined to write about minutae if I'm not faced with trying to return on the investment of coming up with a title.

Anyway, I'll do my best to be personal and current, yet trivial.

So I got some random curry-related things, including 3 different bottles of masala. None were what I was hoping to find (an oily but otherwise dry masala) since they're all quite wet. This is what I get for being too lazy to whip up my own.

Despite this, it's good to have a variety of spicy things, to which end I've also gotten some thai chili sauce (I'd have gotten the chilis themselves but I couldn't find any) cayenne powder, etc. So given rice/noodles and meat, I can do just about anything I want to them.

Ok, first off DoomRL -- the doom roguelike. Available for Windows and Linux. It's like it was my birthday on some epic plane of existence.

Korg DS-10 stuff and personal injuries inside. Probably some other garbage too. Maybe even a poll, you decide.