R.I.P Robert Jordan

Robert Jordan died today. He had been struggling with a chronic illness for many years. My father in-law is a huge fan of his Wheel of Time series. Unfortunately it will go unfinished now.

Read more.

Original Content: Postcards from Invisible, Utah

A piece that I wrote in collaboration with the amazingly talented musician and artist Mark Mothersbaugh just went live. Mark contributed all of the art and I wrote a piece based on a series of his infamous postcard art.

It is under the name Zeus Jones, which is a collective persona that my work colleagues and I use for various online activities that have a connection to the business. In fact, there is another piece up on the Art of Office site that was done by a colleague who used PowerPoint to bring the famous Flat Land story to life.

Mr. Bubbles

This is an image I shot using Photobooth on my Mac of the amazing metal statue of Mr. Bubbles (aka Big Daddy, aka Mr. B) from the amazingly cool new PC/360 game Bioshock.

Bioshock is set in a steampunk dystopian 40's society that has been constructed underwater away from the prying eyes of the U.S. Government and the rise of Communism. You, as the game's protagonist, accidentally discover the society when your plane crashes over the ocean. After descending from an oil rig-like structure in a bathysphere, you discover an art decco wonderland of nightmarishly bio-altered beings and steam-driven robots.

I'm not quite far enough into the game to understand the full story, but I am far enough in to highly recommend this game. It's superbly fun, and often scary. The art direction is jaw-dropping, and the storyline is surprisingly good.

I can also recommend the deluxe edition of the game available from Gamespot, which gets you your own kick-ass statue of Mr. Bubbles, the soundtrack for the game, and a making of DVD.

One in Four Americans Didn't Read a Book Last Year

This is a big problem. It's likely to only get worse.

I keep almost all my books, mostly because I think I'll read them again at some point, but also so I can lend them to others. I've personally turned several non-readers into avid readers in the last year, mostly by introducing them to really great books and writers.

If each of us can do the same, maybe we can begin to make these stats look a little less bleak.

The Perfect Non-Lethal Shot

This is amazing.

She's Not Stopping With Watered-Down Fantasy

J.K. Rowling is now turning her "talents" toward Mystery.

"Ammunition" by Ken Bruen: A review

No one would accuse Ken Bruen of being a master plotter. It's not his style. He's more Chandler than Hammet, in fact, the plots of his novels are often refreshingly free of twists and turns. Regularly, the protagonists figure out who is really out to get them around 3/4 a way into the story. From there on out, its about who gets who first.

Some people may find this unsatisfying, but I find it refreshing and real. Bruen focuses less on plot, and more on creating compelling characters, that inspite of being bad people, are often still likeable.

It's Bruen's characters that keep you coming back for more. Ammunition is the latest in the Inspector Brant series, and it's equally as satisfying as all the titles that have come before it. In this one we find Brant and his colleagues even more messed up and vulnerable as possible. If you are familiar with the series you might be asking, "Is that possible?" It is. The novel opens with a life-altering event for Brant, and the past begins to catch up with Falls and McDonald in a way that makes both their lives very uncomfortable.

Ammunition doesn't break any new ground either in the Brant series or for Bruen. Do I care? Not really. I loved it anyhow. Will I buy the next Ken Bruen novel that comes out? Will I fuck.

The Definitive Dark Knight

If you're like me and you like your heroes good and dark, you'll definitely want to check out the Absolute Dark Knight by Frank Miller, a hardcover graphic novel that collects both his Dark Knight series, along with some extras.

Now might be a good time to pick this up, before the upcoming Dark Knight movie potentially ruins our image of Batman forever.

Modern Day In Cold Blood

It doesn't get more gruesome than this.

Besides maybe inviting someone into your house to have them operate on sensitive parts of your body, only to awake in a pool of blood to find them having stolen said body parts.

John Woo Brings His Signature Action to a Video Game

John Woo has teamed up with game developers to bring his "balletic" action to a video game.

Midway is smart to have a promotional machinima contest to launch the game...get players to do your marketing for you by showing off all the cool two-pistol choreography.

You can read and article and watch videos on Wired.

What, Wired, you couldn't pony up for the Flip4Mac license on the 2nd video?