I've never smoked but actually enjoy the smell of cigarette smoke, so long as it's not overpowering and everywhere. Reminds me of good parties in college, etc. And I've always done the lurking-downwind thing whenever someone's got a pipe.

Yeah, my biggest complaint was that there was no actual GAME. It was enjoyable enough for me on a basic gambling-psychology type level ("Ooh, my random number generator generated some random numbers I like!") but in the end I got bored by the perpetual grind. I'm hoping they eventually patch it into something that's…

Hellboy's one of the few "real" comics I actually read, and I was pretty underwhelmed by the movie adaptations. I couldn't really put my finger on what didn't work for me, but I'd rather just keep reading the comics.

Ah, interesting, I didn't know that!

Heh, yeah, I'll definitely give you alien-POV thing. Also, the alien FX in Alien 3 were pretty awful. Just something you've gotta accept nowadays if you want to watch it and still enjoy it, I guess. :)

Yeah, I remember my slow realization in the late 90s/early 2000s that many of those extended/director's cuts of movies that I'd been excited about really didn't improve on the movie, in the end. I don't think it's even just Cameron. When the Lord of the Rings movies got released I'd sprung for the extended cuts of…

"Aliens TC" (the Doom mod you mentioned) was amazing at the time. They did a lot of fun things with the engine which made it a pretty genuinely scary experience (or at least when I was that young, I haven't tried it again anytime recently). I don't think I ever finished it, perhaps I should look it up.

I'm an Alien 3 defender as well - I've always thought it was a pretty fantastic addition to the series. Just the sheer bleakness of it all, etc. Of course, I saw it during my sort-of goth phase and was pretty into anything depressing, so that might have had something to do with it.

I'll be upset if this idiot thing actually gets a free pass from society-at-large, when Google Glass got just pounded into nothing due to those recording/privacy fears. I never had a Glass myself, and I'm far more interested in where that tech will be in a number of tech generations from now than what it was…

Got it - makes perfect sense!

Was that call to the Seattle police about the same incident? What city were you in, at the time?

Hm, I actually do end up renting movies occasionally from Google or Amazon, 'cause $3-$5 seems reasonable for that, and it's more convenient than many other options. I couldn't imagine actually BUYING video from any of the current marketplaces, though. If I'm going to lay down money to "own" something, I want a…

Despite being a fan of Weird Al since the 90s, I'd somehow never actually caught a show of his until a few nights ago. It was, of course, fantastic. Quite a long show, too - they obviously take advantage of the costume-change breaks to have a breather, but it was a three-hour show.

Natalie Tran is actually quite great, though of course you're under no obligation to care, or have heard of her. Quite delightful, though!

No no, it's "Oh Klare."

I actually thought the new Ghostbusters was pretty great. Certainly not perfect, but quite a lot better than I'd been fearing, and I liked it enough to go see it a second time with different friends.

Yeah, the terribleness of Quiddich is small beans compared to the terribleness of the REST of the wizarding society that Rowling created. I mean, I still enjoy the Harry Potter books, and even some of the movies, but if there's ever been a fictional dystopia successfully marketed as a happy wonderland, Harry Potter…

Most 'metal' genres don't typically do too much for me (until you start getting into Sunn O))) territory, etc), but that Vektor album is absolutely doing it for me. Thanks for mentioning it!

I realize that the commonly-accepted term for "Windows" has become "PC," but it's always a bit annoying seeing it around, especially when you've got compatibility lists which read "PC, Mac, Linux." What kind of machine are we running those OSes on, if not PCs?

I'm personally sort of perpetually in love with Bandcamp. Everything about their philosophy has been just incredible, IMO. They were at the forefront of having full-album preview streams in decent quality (something most places don't do), downloads in whatever format you want (with the ability to redownload in other…