amphichon

Some of you may know that I sometimes lean toward a more liberal interpretation of copyright laws, particularly in the matter of PC games. On the other hand I always do make an effort to reward the folks who are doing really good work; those are the games I buy at least one copy of (sometimes I buy them repeatedly, in fact) and encourage everyone else to buy as well.

So today I’m encouraging everyone to go buy a copy of On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness. You’ve probably heard about this already, it’s the Penny Arcade adventure game, for PC/Mac/Linux/XBox Live Arcade. (Yes Alex, there’s a native Linux port, that’s reason enough for you to buy it right?)

I’ve been playing it off and on for a couple of days now. They’re doing the episodic thing, probably inspired by the Sam & Max adventures, and when I downloaded the demo that’s pretty much what I expected from it, and to some degree that’s pretty much what it is, but – wow. There’s a degree of polish that the PA guys have put into this thing that really blows me away. I didn’t even start playing the demo, I went right to the site and bought a serial code, I wanted to make sure they got paid for this one.

Adventure games are already a dying breed, and they need all the help we can muster to keep them alive and viable. And on top of that – Penny Arcade! C’mon! So if you’ve got a computer or XBox 360 and a few hours to enjoy what’s essentially a huge, shiny, interactive Penny Arcade comic, do yourself (and Gabe and Tycho) a favor and grab a copy of this one.

If you’re still on the fence, check the comments on this post for a minor spoiler (like, first five minutes of gameplay) that will demonstrate the sheer awesomeness that you can expect if you get it.

So I was recently contacted by Kristen over at Grass Roots Advertising. Kristen happened upon the site and wanted to know if I’d be interested in adding some ads on certain pages, pretty much just text with links. I was a little intrigued and we discussed it back and forth a bit; in the end I decided it wasn’t the best fit for the site. I do kind of like the idea though – contacting bloggers directly to place targeted ads on relevant pages is really not a bad idea, and I wish the folks at Grass Roots the best of luck. (See Kristen, there you go, this one’s on the house.)

In other news – wow. Things change, but life just keeps on going, mostly, until it doesn’t anymore. Mine is still going, despite the cobwebs you see around here. I’ve had a few other projects in the works that have been pulling my attention away from amphichon (and unfortunately I can’t link to them from here for privacy reasons) but don’t worry, I think there’ll always be a place for amphichon in the big picture and I’ll try to update a bit more often.

Charlie Rose on technology.

“The world breaks everyone and afterward many are strong in the broken places. But those that will not break it kills. It kills the very good and the very gentle and the very brave impartially. If you are none of these you can be sure it will kill you too but there will be no special hurry.” – Ernest Hemingway, A Farewell to Arms

it holds quite a lot of interest with your face down on it.

I recently broke down and got a pro account at Flickr so I could start hosting more of my images online. This one is from a trip to the coast last year with friends Alex, D and R. Feel free to poke around over there; many more pictures are on the way.

and he takes

On the retirement of Castro:

“Eventually this transition ought to lead to free and fair elections, and I mean free and I mean fair, not these kind of staged elections that the Castro brothers try to foist off as being true democracy” – George W. Bush, brother of Jeb

How will you spend your five minutes?

Angry?
No
Angry?
No
Angry?
...

Did someone whisper
I’m really not so sure
I could’ve been asleep
Is everyone this frightened?
Are there more like me? There’s just got to be.