High Weirdness
High Weirdness in high places… and some not so high.
I am Eliza Dushku’s brother (at least in cartoon form)
Jul 15th
If you're not watching Torchwood: Miracle Day, you're missing out. It's everything you'd expect from the Russell T. Davies, the genius behind the best years of Doctor Who.
I've been a fan of Russell's for years, and lucky enough to call him a friend from the day Tom Tomorrow noticed that Russell's book about Doctor Who contained a completely unexpected bit of praise for my Prisoner of Trebekistan, of all things. I contacted Russell to say thanks, he emailed back in about ten seconds, because he's that cool and gracious, and it's been hooray ever since.
The animated webseries that goes with Miracle Day, Torchwood: Web of Lies is also pretty damn good. And I'm happy to say I have a tiny, tiny part in it — playing Eliza Dushku's brother. Although in cartoon form, I look like this:
I gotta lay off the caffeine.
Ladies and gentlemen, I give you… the Fish Pedicure
Feb 23rd
Had a long layover in the Singapore airport on my way to Cambodia to do some interviews for the book. What to do? Why, visit the Fish Spa, of course, where you can allow hundreds of ravenous doctor fish to feast on your dead skin cells while you watch and try not to freak out.
I've only had one human-hands pedicure to compare this to, but this was every bit as efficient. And way, way ookier.
Get a Big Box of Electricity Here
Jan 20th
Another pic from the Africa trip — this sign was all over Kigali, and it always made me smile:
The way they're electrifying the country now is, well, electrifying. But the way the sign is phrased, I couldn't help but imagine they had these big tubs of the stuff sitting around on shelves.
You come in, maybe carrying a cardboard box or a plastic bag, and they pour you a bunch, with lots of little sparks dripping down the sides, and you go on your way.
Jeopardy! Man v. IBM Computer Matches: Simply a Matter of Time
Jan 16th
Thanks to my own 13 games of Jeopardy! and the book about it and all, lots of people (including the New York Times) have asked for my opinion about the whole IBM computer vs. Ken Jennings vs. Brad Rutter cage match.
I'll say here what I've said all along: when you're playing at million-dollar tournament level, all of the players know (or can rapidly figure out) nearly all of the correct responses, no matter how arcane. Trust me, I've been there.
IBM wouldn't unveil their computer unless they were sure it would function similarly.
Ultimately, the difference between winning or losing usually comes down just to the ability to time the milliseconds between the time Alex finishes the clue and one of the producers activates the signaling devices.
Since a computer can obviously react more rapidly and consistently than a human can, it will probably win unless it is programmed to have a human-like random delay of a few milliseconds before hitting the buzzer.
Judging from news reports about the warm-up game, the computer has no such delay, and can buzz in instantly.
So that's the computer's advantage: not knowledge, not processing speed, not math or game strategy… just reflexes. And so unless the buzzer-response is programmed differently in the games that count, I think the computer is likely to win.
Brad and Ken will both be still a heck of a lot more fun to hang out with after the game, though.
(Full disclosure: Brad and Ken are both friends of mine, so I have some emotional interest in seeing them do well against the cyborg. Also, I was invited to play the computer in its last warm-up round, but I couldn't make it since I was still getting over the typhoid I picked up in Tanzania. Y'know, as always, my life is so boring…)
Australia Floods: Blow-up Sex Toys are “Not Recognized Flotation Devices’’
Jan 16th
And this is why I love Australia.
Blackbirds falling from the sky and fish washing ashore in four states can only mean one thing
Jan 4th
M. Night Shyamalan has started directing our entire lives.
And we're only on page 3.
Well, dang.
Next, watch for aliens, ghosts, demons, alien ghost demons, and exposition shots of Philadelphia.
In four months, there will be a surprise twist that is not remotely surprising.
It will either be (a) our environmental regulations are too lax, or (b) we all actually died during the Bush administration, and the last two years have been a collective hallucination inside Mel Gibson's head.
Sometimes, watching the news, it all feels way too much like (b) anyway.
Mmm… creamy, delicious wall paint
Jan 1st
Delightful strangeness, noticed while walking around Kigali:
Dude, do you really want me to taste your wall paint?
If not, why are you advertising it to look like lemon custard?
Happy New Year! Here’s to a fantastic 1997!
Dec 31st
Everybody else can welcome 2012. But I say, why gamble on the unknown?
Besides, 1997 was awesome, at least when it was still the future. In sci-fi, 1997 was when HAL 9000 was activated, the Jupiter II launched, Skynet blew up mankind, V began his Vendetta, and Snake Plissken escaped from New York. All in the same year.
How did I not notice all that? I must have been busy doing my radio stuff the whole time. Man, that was a great year. Except for the complete destruction of mankind.
In Dubai, “pork” is just one letter different from “porn”
Dec 29th
I've got 100s of travel pics I've never posted, and it's about time I start… in the back of a Dubai grocery, here's the dark, shameful, forbidden pork booth.
On the other side of this secreted nook, porcivorous heathens creep around in the darkness, lusting after taboo bits of flesh, while the righteous avert their eyes.
Change just one letter, and it's oddly like the back of magazine shops before the internet.
(Btw, the red-white-and-blue color scheme made it feel weirdly like an Arabian Kroger.)
Who Needs an Exit Door? Just Cut Here in Emergency
Dec 28th
Seen over the wing of my Kenya Airways flight from Nairobi to Kigali:
Because, y'know, an actual door would be so much less exciting.
I hoped that inside there would be a big pull-tab, like on a can of Spam, but no luck.
Female millionaire, 84, engaged to 24-year-old guy: a headline you’ll never see
Dec 27th
A lot of folks are weirded out by Hugh Hefner's engagement to a 24-year-old Playmate — and, yes, ewww — but can you imagine the total freak-out if the genders were reversed?
There's the obvious point about men being able to reproduce in their 80s (albeit with frayed sperm and a whole gallon jug of little blue pills) while woman can't. But if marriage were defined by how likely you are to have functional offspring, the British royal family would have been strapped with chastity belts long ago.
So this really is a magnificent double standard.
I think Hefner is only marrying her because he's still waiting for his dream girl to be born.
Latin American Telenovelas are big… in Kenya!
Oct 2nd
Two big shows here, according to the Nairobi papers: Olvidarte Jamas ("I'll Never Forget You") and La Tormenta ("The Storm").
Cool!
I wonder if any of my episodes of El Pantera will make it to Africa… el mundo es siempre más interesante de que puedo imaginar.
Air Arabia Not So Exotic
Oct 1st
When the in-flight entertainment over the Rub al-Khali is “Pinky and the Brain.”
Note the Arabic on the seatbacks. Truly small planet we live on.
Del Close, 1986
Sep 30th
This awesome interview with America’s greatest comedy guru just surfaced — and it was made during the period I studied with him in Chicago, on the very stage where he taught so many people (including me, to my great fortune) how to play together.
One heck of a time capsule. Hat tip to BoingBoing.net.
Comic-Con’s genius slogan
Jul 24th
“Celebrating the popular arts.”
Finally — somebody is standing up for things that everyone already likes.
So desperately needed.
