ffwd: Linklog

GameSetWatch: 'Pity The Pixelated Fool' (Darn cool, but it's the flyers I really wanna buy.)

Cryptomundo: Top cryptozoology stories of 2005 (Mm, woodpeckers, squid and Bigfoot! Via FT.)

Gamasutra: 'With A Cherry On Top: Namco Networks On Mobile Strategies' ('So many people [at Digital Life] were playing Pac-Man with their index finger, and not their thumb!')

Book recommendation: Robert J. Sawyer's 'Mindscan' (A stupendously thought-provoking SF book about humans, neural replicas, and the soul.)

DVD recommendation: Ben Folds & WASO - 'Live In Perth' (With full orchestral accompaniment, filmed at Ben's recent Australian shows - gorgeous.)

Gamasutra: 'Game Of The Year Picks: Gamasutra's Frank Cifaldi' (Another Gama colleague picks weird games, haw.)

DoCopenhagen: Top 50 Music Videos Of 2005 (With links to watch - much goodness - via lotsapeople.)

GameSetWatch: 'Late Greetings From Ubi, Katamari' (Mmm, Katamari Damacy Xmas card alert.)

LegalTorrents adds Tryad's 'Public Domain' CC-licensed album (Here's the actual .torrent - politically charged triphop, even.)

Gamasutra: 'Game Of The Year Picks: Brandon Sheffield, Game Developer Magazine' (Quirky devil, of course - mm, Rumblefish Deux!)

E&P: Dave Barry continues to be a dilettante (But redeems himself with: "I do feel that, if we're going to be throwing journalists in jail, there is no excuse not to at least make an effort to get Geraldo." Via RW.)

Regret The Error on the NYT's Alessandra Stanley (Some pretty painful stuff in here.)

Rediff: The ten worst Bollywood movies of 2005 (They all look great! The year-end special also has the best 10 - via Kaiju Shakedown.)

Wal-Mart: Lots of good TV show DVDs for $19.99 (In case you don't have 'em - Firefly, Arrested Development, The Shield, etc... via JossLove.)

Gamasutra: 'Infinium Announces Lapboard, Reveals Financial Problems' (Some SEC filings show some uncomfortable truths for the Phantom wannabe-makers.)

GameSetWatch: 'PopCap Games Are A Lifesaver' (Insane quote of the year award, awarded.)

Stay Free! Daily: 'One more reason to hate cheerleaders' (Cheerleading and pharmaceutical sales map well, apparently.)

Odd Books: 'Rambling Into Romantic Candy Antiquity' (Wow, candy overload, on a v.fun weird books site - via Improb Research.)

The Smoking Gun's Top 15 random mugshots of the year (Paging K-Mart trainee Bambi!)

Accoutrements: Li'l Composers and Authors (Oo, Lil Edgar web comic - Accoutrements' Top 25 products is rockin', too - Crazy Cat Lady action figure!)

Gamasutra: 'Game Of The Year Picks: Gamasutra's Simon Carless' (Hey, that's me!)

Gelf Magazine interviews the Consumerist's Joel Johnson ('By "consumers' frustrations" they meant "Things That Bug Nick Denton."')

GameSetWatch: 'Cedric And The Revolution' (Here's the GSW RSS, for those playing along at home.)

Chortle: Victoria Wood says the UK sitcom is dead ('I think it died when The Royle Family and The Office came on with their ironic, self-aware comedy.')

Paid Content interviews UBM's David Levin (The CEO of the parent company of my employers.)

E&P: 'Pundits Find Freedom, and Audiences Through Blogs' (Good article on cartoonists and their blogs - via CB.)

Progressive Sounds interviews Kirsty Hawkshaw (She recorded my favorite album of all-time, and is much-heard as a guest vocalist.)

Malcovision: The incomparable Dame Edna savages Terry Bradshaw on Jay Leno [.WMV] (God, Barry Humphries is so majestic - ta to Malcovision.)

MI6: Latest part of Charlie Higson interview about 'Young Bond' books (Higson is a great comedic actor/writer, of course - which makes it more interesting.)

CNN/Reuters: 'Poker's hot streak fading' (Notable to me because the poker game market is overcrowded, and Stacked with Daniel Negreanu is shipping in Feb - maybe two strikes out of two for the Carl Icahn-funded Myelin Media, an interesting funding approach? If so, doh.)

GameSetWatch: 'ChaosReins On The Jaguar' (Mm, Tempest 2000 rotary controller. It's teh hardcore.)

YME Recommendation: Goldie Lookin' Chain's 'Straight Outta Newport' (Click if you subscribe to YME, try samples if not - my favorite Welsh hiphop scamps.)

Red Hat Magazine: 'Music to make code by' (Someone mentions Sense's Monotonik releases, yay.)

Roger Dean's 'Floating Islands' CG movie page (Oo, fantastical! Apart from Dean's progrock heritage, his game work includes original Psygnosis logo and the recent Tetris logo. Via Arcangel.)

GameSetWatch: 'Welcome To The World Of Sand' (On a neato Japanese software toy.)

Justin 'WinAmp' Frankel releases Reaper Windows recording software (Looks neat, low footprint - via Brad Sucks.)

Video Watchdog crew's best DVDs of 2005 (Lots of neat obscurity here, plus Dr. Who - via Savant.)

The Lonely Island's 'Awesometown Dudes' Cut' [MP4] (The rejected pilot from the SNL-hired guys of Chronic(les) Of Narnia 'fame'. Yes, I'm slow, shh, but Jack Black is George Washington in it.)

GameSetWatch: 'Introversion Goes To Defcon Three' (Initial info on new game from the Darwinia chaps - yay!)

Yahoo! Blogs: 'Mojo Filter vs. Yahoo! Music Unlimited, October, 2005' (More comparisons on what gets in Yahoo! Music Engine, from a staff member.)

Andore Jr: 'Christine's Wander and the Colossus fanfixtion [PART 1 OF 2]' (Not linking this on GameSetWatch, because it's v.v.textually NSFW. But great.)

Yahoo! News: 'Racing Lens' Eric Carriere grimaces as he heads the ball' (Also funny because 'grimaces' and 'heads the ball' are a tad... off.)

Epitaph: DangerDoom 'ATHF' video (Dangermouse, MF Doom, Adult Swim, music video, ker-ching.)

Reality Blurred: 'The Top Reality Whores of 2005' ('Competition, as always, was fierce; your list would likely vary.')

Raleigh News Observer gets stick for orangutan/Santa smooch ('This is really over the top. This is in poor taste. You look at it and say, 'gee, I think I'm going to throw my cheerios up.'' Via Romanesko.)

Washington Post: 'On Capitol Hill: Blame Games' (Not sure I actually recall saying the first half of that quote, but the second half I wholeheartedly agree with.)

Newsweek: Awesome Santa/Cruise Mike Luckovich cartoon (Did I mention how much I love Luckovich's editorial cartoons? Genius.)

GameSetWatch: '3DO Blogging Is So... Now?' (Wow, retro weblog alert.)

Sharper Image: Dobby The House-Elf figurine for 80% off (Only $99! Really ugly! Via The Leaky Cauldron.)

Yahoo! Movies trailer for 'Date Movie' ('From 2 of the 6 writers of Scary Movie'. Enough said.)

Gamasutra: 'Media Consumption: The Behemoth's Tom Fulp' (Alien Hominid/Newgrounds chap expounds on his likes.)

Gamasutra: 'The Art Of LucasArts - Michael Rubin On Droidmaker' (A brief interview with the author - and, oddly, Petroglyph co-founder.)

Reality Blurred: Kathy Griffin: My Life on the D-List renewed (Griffin actually clever/funny - worth checking out.)

GameSetWatch: 'Ornament Grow For Xmas' (Neat holiday Flash puzzle fun.)

Mark Evanier on new game show 'Deal Or No Deal' (I caught a bit of this last night, it's tippety-top high concept hilarity.)

Luxo on the Pixar MoMA Artscape Zoetrope (Darn, that looks nice.)

Gamasutra: 'The Esoteric Beat: Hand-Chosen Awards and the End of the World' (Murakami references and esoteric game choices.)

GameSetWatch: 'Have A Very Merry Lucas Xmas' (V. cool Xmas card alert.)

Eurogamer: 'State of Independence #4' (Gillen on the IGF, and darned informative, too!)

USA Today's PopCandy interviews Fatlip (What's up with Fatlip.)

Apple.com: Trailer for 'American Dreamz' (Arabs plotting to explode the President as he guest judges an American Idol spoof with Hugh Grant as Simon Cowell. What. The. Heck?)

Gamasutra: 'Playing Catch-Up: Thief's Randy Smith' (I like it when Gama presents human stories.)

GameSetWatch: 'YMCK + .S = 8-bit Music Goodness' (Mmm, obscure Japanese merchandise goodness.)

Mark 'Blog Maverick' Cuban talks about the NYT, HD, and the future of movies (Blog post more readable than the NYT article, indeed.)

Gamasutra: 'Event Wrap Up: Gaming, Learning and Libraries Symposium' (The video game and the library - a powerful combination.)

Monotonik: Transient - 'Work/Play EP' [mtk157] (Latest on my net.label, some smart U.S. idm with vocoders and beguiling melodies.)

WWMnA on the Toshio Iwai co-designed 'Morphovision' ('A system that distorts/modifies what you see with your naked eyes.' Trippy.)

LJ Ohnotheydidnt: For Your Consideration print ads for the Oscars from Variety (image heavy) (Fun to see who the studios are pitching and how.)

YouTube: SNL's 'Chronic(les) Of Narnia' rap (Endearingly random - via endekks.)

GameSetWatch: 'Gamer's Quarter Goes Fourth' (The 'Metal Gear Crossing' cartoon really _is_ neat.)

Jeansnow points to 'Stamkey' QR code makers (Here's more info on QR codes, which are 'big in Japan'.)

GameSetWatch: 'MIT Gets A Mario Hack' (The high scores are esp. cute.)

DVD Savant's 2005 Favored Disc Roundup ('In the last 12 months I've written just under 400 reviews, averaging more than one a day.' The man's a machine!)

Regret The Error: Interview with 'typo of the year' winner ('Most mistakes, while embarrassing, are pretty benign.' True. I did once almost typo 'ethnic slurs' as 'ethnic sluts' on Gamasutra, though. That would have been on the tragic side.)

Filmforce: Studio Ghibli's next movie based on Ursula Le Guin's Earthsea series (Really interesting pick - might be even more Western-friendly?)

Empire: 'Hot Fuzz', Edgar Wright/Simon Pegg's next movie, greenlit (Woo, great news! Via TwitchFilm.)

Yahoo!/AP: 'Watchdog Criticizes Kazakhstan Over Ali G' (They shut down his domain? Rude bwoys!)

TV Recommendation: 'Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band' @ Sundance Channel (Notoriously terrible disco Beatles movie is fun to watch, I claim.)

GameSetWatch: 'Enter The Magic Of Barry Hatter' (Haw. Sorry linklog is slow recently, btw - Gama + GSW means it's difficult to keep this going too, doh.)

GameSetWatch: 'Edge's Scores, Preserved For Posterity' (Lots of fun to page through these. )

Gamasutra: 'Rated and Willing: Where Game Rating Boards Differ' (Paul Hyman on game ratings, v.good.)

GameSetWatch: 'The A-Z Of Cool [Brit] Computer Games' (Some notes on a randomly interesting game book I grabbed.)

Gamasutra: 'Playing Catch-Up: Bill 'The Game Doctor' Kunkel Lets Loose' (Mm, totally great retrospective of an original game journalist.)

GameSetWatch: 'On Olle Hemmendorff's Zombiegrinder 60000' (Great name, wacky game.)

GameSetWatch: 'My My Katamari Fashion!' (Wow, Keita Takahashi-designed T-shirts, mini-interview with tee-makers. Rock.)

Gamasutra: 'Worlds Are Colliding!: The Convergence of Film and Games' (Eric-Jon on LucasArts and ILM sharing assets, probably Dooku-related.)

Microdisko's chipmusic awards honor Aleksi Eeben, Goto80 (Eeben is a Monotonik releaser, as is Goto80 - also congrats to 8BP and Vorc.)

Reality Blurred has the Winter 2005/2006 reality show schedule (Hurrah, 'Skating with Celebrities'!)

Wikicities: The Muppet Wiki (Started by the guys who did great Muppet fansite ToughPigs - yay, information.)

Gamasutra: 'Playing Catch-Up: Bill 'The Game Doctor' Kunkel Lets Loose' (Catching up with the original game journalist - great stuff.)

Legaltorrents adds Dimitris - 'Collages Rhythmos' album (More CC-licensed electronic goodness - here's the .torrent.)

Thomas Hawk on Starbucks using 'coffee cup on car roof' gag for marketing (Apparently you're meant to get a gift certificate. Jeez.)

Gamasutra: '2006 Independent Games Festival Announces Finalists' (Congrats to all finalists - this is going to be a great IGF.)

MP3 'O The Day: Alexei Sayle - 'Ullo John - Got A New Motor?' (A propos of nothing - Wikipedia has more on Sayle.)

MoviesOnline has a trailer for the 'House Of The Dead 2' movie (Notably not directed by Uwe Boll, woothoot. Via Twitchfilm.)

DVD Savant's enthusiastic non-spoiler review of King Kong (A billion dollars, easy, baby.)

Joystiq gets all 'sass' 'cos Slashdot Games (yay!) and Kotaku share best gaming blog (...at the Spike TV Awards. Congrats, Zonk! There's a good write-up of the award show at Netjak.)

Mojave Airport Weblog: 'New and Old Saabs' (Filming car commercials with cool fighter jets.)

GameSetWatch: 'Gizmondo - A Little Hit And Myth?' (Still some interesting Gizmondo software hanging around, oddly.)

SF's Prelinger Library has an ephemera sorting party tomorrow! (Rick/Megan Prelinger's amazing collections open to the public, sorting help wanted.)

Frappr maps 8-bit bleep music concerts (Welcome to the 'chipparty'!)

TV Squad's 5 favorite Space Ghost episodes (I love 'Flip Mode', too.)

GameSetWatch: 'Pontifexicating About The Best Bridges' (Thinking real hard about crazy bridge building demos.)

UCSB: 'The Agrippa Files' (Documenting the William Gibson co-created art-code-book-thing - via GTA.)

Stylus Magazine's Top 50 singles of the year (Nice to see the end of year rankings turning up - via Kottke.)

Mike Jozic interviews Buffy/Angel's David Fury (Lots of good stuff on the final seasons of Angel.)

GameSetWatch: 'Game Magazines A-Go Go!' (Checking out Video-Fenky's amazing game mag collection.)

Gamasutra: 'Question of the Week Responses: Xbox 360 Launch?' (Well, people seem to think there aren't enough hardware units released. Shocker.)

Archive.org: 'Liquid Stranger - Dead Or Alive' (Totally kickass eclectic idm from the Candymind folks.)

Gamasutra: 'Rag Doll Development: An Interview With Rag Doll Kung Fu's Mark Healey' (Oops, forgot to link, interesting stuff from dayjob.)

Pandora - streaming radio recommendation engine (Yes, yes, everyone and their neighbor spotted this, but it's still great.)

PVRBlog interviews TiVo logo/mascot designer Michael Cronan (Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm, TiVo.)

Ananova: 'World's first musical sandwich' (Via Warren Ellis, who comments: "Human Race Officially Over". But yummy!)

GameSetWatch: 'Brady Bunch... Kung Fu?' (Pretty much defines how random the mobile game biz is, right now.)

Gamasutra: 'Designer Suits: Incorporating Marketing into Game Development' (On how game developers should pick a target market and, uhh, target it.)

GameSetWatch: 'Metal Gear Ac!d 2 To Make Card Strategists Turgid' (Kojima Productions and even-handed female depiction not closely related.)

Musc Filter: 'Rock Collectors Bidding Market Up' (How much for the mini-Spinal Tap Stonehenge? [Sidenote - MSN blog URLs make me vomit.])

WFMU: 'Work Song From Postal Employees in Ghana' (Catchy stuff - stamp, stamp, woot!)

Virgin.net: Anton Corbijn-directed video for Coldplay's 'Talk' (Contains Kraftwerk samples, so robots and 3D glasses abound - v.neat.)

Yahoo!/AP: 'Professor Loses Weight With No-Diet Diet' (Take that, Mr. Atkins' dessicated body! Via McButter.)

GameSetWatch: 'Taking Minerva To Task, HL2-Style' (On a rather neat Half-Life 2 art-mod.)

Fawlty Towers Revisited on the 'lost 13th episode' (The concept, however made-up, makes my mind glow - via BB. Bloody Wilson!)

Image: 'Gaming Hacks' reviewed in this month's Edge Magazine (Part of the Xmas issue book round-up - does 'ubiquitously talented' mean 'suction-cupped to the Internet'? I think Stormy wrote the mullet quote they dig, btw, but I can take the indirect praise, dammit.)

LA Magazine's great profile of Defamer.com and Mark Lisanti (I'm not sassy enough for Nick Denton, oh no - see Consumerist, which is more tart, tart flavorings. Via Romanesko.)

USGS Hawaiian Volcano Observatory: pictures of new lava falls (Pretty impressive stuff - CNN recently reported on the same - via FT.)

GameSetWatch: 'Build 'Em Up, Duke 'Em Down' (The Build 3D engine gets love - also, Tony 'Clickable Culture' Walsh signs up for GameSetWatch, yay.)

Gamasutra: 'How BioWare Makes Game Communities Work' (Forgot to mention this from late last week - interesting talk on gaming community.)

Royksopp - 'What Else Is There?' music video [.WMV] (How much more Scandinavian could this be? Yum. Via EW PopWatch, which has more singer info.)

Entertainment Earth has the just-launched Cthulhu plush slippers (Other newish Lovecraft merchandise includes the adorable Miskatonic grad Cthulhu.)

Cheepnis: Unofficial DVD of Joel Hodgson's post-MST3K projects (Here's a review of the sadly failed projects - always wanted to see these, and there are insane rarities on the rest of the site.)

GameSetWatch: 'Alien Hominid Co-Creator Goes Train Robbin' (Bouncy bouncy bouncy Flash fun.)

Yahoo! Photos: slideshow from two recent European ice sculpture exhibits (The ice shark is particularly scary, woo.)

Mojave Airport Weblog on rocket-powered EZRocket plane (Lots of great pictures, too.)

'Pirates Of The Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest' movie trailer (I admit a fondness for the utter randomness of Johnny Depp in the first movie. Via Twitch, an excellent film site I just stumbled upon.)

TV Shows On DVD: 'Odyssey 5' coming to DVD (Interesting - an obscure, allegedly interesting Showtime sci-fi show that Loonyboi dug.)

GameSetWatch: 'Game Schools 'Destructive Nonsense', Nintendo 'Subversive'?' (Not slamming just the game industry, but game education too, hurrah.)

Keyboard Magazine interviews Depeche Mode on geeky synth stuff (Happened to check this out since the mag is also owned by my employer - fun interview.)

BobAndDavid.com: David Cross' open letter to Larry The Cable Guy (Written after Larry's book bizarrely suggests David is 'politically correct'. Via MeFi.)

Leaky Cauldron: Really cool 'Harry Potter & The Goblet Of Fire' Japanese prop exhibition (Here's the store's page with more info.)

Music Thing: 'The Music Thing Xmas Gift Guide' (I want all of it. Now.)

Psychology Today on people waking up before their alarms go off ('Levels of the central stress hormone adrenocorticotropin' do it, apparently - I totally do this. Via Kottke.)

GameSetWatch: 'Ryu Ga Gotoku (Adult Situations, Adult Language, Violence)' (Neat GeekOnStun-typed post about Sega's moody Shen Mue successor.)

Gamasutra: 'GameSetWatch: FFXII Drink, Indie Modding, PopTop/PopCap' (Trying not to get too self-referential here, but highlights of the game blog are cross-posted on Gama every day, for the lazy.)

Animation writer Anne D. Bernstein's 'Odd Books Online' store (Wow, some serious eclecticism here - please support! Via Cartoon Brew.)

AmbientZone.com: FlirtFM's Monotonik radio show podcast (Here's the playlist, lots of good old/new Monotonik stuff here.)

Internet Archive opens Hurricanes Katrina & Rita Web Archive (With text search, too, which isn't available with other web archives - excellent.)

'Eye Level': the Smithsonian American Art Museum's blog (Good cultured blogging alert - via Jark.)

Gamasutra: 'Game Developer December Issue Carves Up Pac-Man' (Latest issue of GD released - check out the super-cool cover by Derek Yu, closer up.)

Clive Thompson on Mount Belinda's Antarctic eruption (Oo, volcanos and ice, we need to make it into a video game, quick!)

Not-so-real, v. funny Cthulhu Lego commercial [.MOV] (Miskatonic University is so beautiful in the winter - via RW.)

Outpost Gallifrey: Dr. Who coming to U.S. DVD in Feb. 2006 (I think I'm getting the UK version for Xmas anyhow, but yay - via aderack.)

Gamasutra: Our new game weblog, GameSetWatch, announced! (Where my game links are going, with help from other game weblog luminaries - go check it out and bookmark/spread the word, right now. Or.. something!)