Fresh, Hot Wastes of Time

You might think one of my children snapped those poor bean plants in two, or maybe even a cat or a dog, but you’d be wrong. I killed them with my bare hands, and I have to explain it to my daughter when she comes home.

Is it possible to distill the definition of Alternate Reality Gaming into one sentence?
Usually when someone asks me what an ARG is, I’ll say, “It’s like a murder mystery dinner theater that takes place over weeks rather than hours, and has components on the internet and in real life.”
There’s all sorts of meta-talk in the [...]

Jamesi has done a beautiful job reworking the ARGN archives. If you’re interested in seeing my articles, you can read them here.

A contact to ARGN earlier today netted me a phone call from a company who’s looking to put together a game. If I can manage to work it out, they asked if I could be a point-of-contact for the whole thing.
What a nice thing to happen on a Monday evening.

I loved Cliff Johnson’s games “The Fool’s Errand” and “3 in Three” with all my heart. They were puzzly, they were clever, and they were well-written. I’ve been anxiously awaiting the release of his next game, “The Fool and His Money.” For a long time.
Here are some quotes about the release date:
“The [...]

Every night our dog Cuervo sits in Jo’s room to keep her company while she goes to sleep. We let him out when we go up to bed. We’ll usually hear a little bit of thumping while he gets comfortable, but nothing serious.
The other night hub fell asleep on the couch and I [...]

Even the puppetmasters at the CIA make mistakes. What was thought to be the correct decrypted text of Kryptos 2 was wrong, not by fault of a decoder’s transcription error but rather that of the person who did the encryption.
Hey guys, I’m available for hire as a proof-reader.

It was inevitable that the moment would come this spring. Nevertheless, I wasn’t looking forward to it. It heralds bad things.
I was heading to fill something from the kitchen faucet when a roach scampered up from the sink to the backsplash. I managed to last 2 whole seconds before the shriek of [...]

- Really cool, short music video. The music reminds me of Radiohead.
- What happens when a skunk invades a coffeehouse?
- It took a lot of balls to make this commercial.
- Don’t you hate it when your leg sneaks up on you? I do.
- Is there anything cuter than a passel of bellylaughing babies? [...]

For years, the slightest hint of cilantro in my meal meant that I’d be going hungry. The foul stuff tasted like soap to me. Even as recently as 2003 I mentioned here about my distaste for the stuff.
Something’s changed.
I don’t know whether I’ve managed to kill off enough taste buds to tolerate the [...]