Scary paper sizes

Alan Moore on writing:

When I plotted Big Numbers I plotted the entire projected 12-issue series on one sheet of A1 paper — which was just frightening. A1 is scary — it's the largest size. I divided it along the top into 12 columns and along the side into something like 48 different rows across which had got the names of all the characters, so the whole thing became a grid where I could tell what each of the characters was doing in each issue. It was all filled with tiny biro writing which looked like the work of a mental patient, it was like migraine made visible, it was really scary.

I mainly did it to frighten other writers — Neil Gaiman nearly shat, the colour drained from his face when he saw this towering work of madness.

CUGC: Light Speed, Tahuantinsuyu, Coloretto

Last night’s games: Light Speed, which we haven’t played in a real long time. Y’know what would make a great playing surface for Light Speed? An air hockey table with the motor reversed. (Hey! FunAgain.com now has a category for “Small and Portable Games”!)

Tahuantinsuyu, an Incan-themed crayon railroad game. (OK, walking paths instead of railroad lines, but the principle is the same.) Some neat-looking balancing mechanics that didn’t actually allow anyone to overtake my early lead. I think it’d be a more balanced game with a symmetrical board, but that would lose the theme.

Coloretto, a neat, simple game that rewards a bit of thought. Pretty card art too.

Link, link, link

“Pope Loses Battle With Peace-Symbol Dove”
“Gowan, geddadaheah, ya symbols of peace ya!”
(AP photos, so check ’em out before they go away.)

“I Ate iPod Shuffle”
A poem. Contains much more humor than you’d think was inherent in the premise.

“Williamsburg Doesn’t Need a Space Elevator”
Sez you!

Goldfish Racetrack
Yes, it’s a racetrack for goldfish. Place yer bets!

The Ad Graveyard
Advertisements that never got made. The first dozen or so are really funny, then it drops off.

pshift — The Unix paradigm shift utility
“Normally pshift operates silently; in verbose mode it publishes a 500+ page bestseller entitled ‘Rethinking [input stream] in the [zeitgeist] Age’, and then begins soliciting honoraria until the operator types ctrl-c. On some systems it runs for Congress.”

Unusual Wikipedia articles
Did you know that the Wikipedia has entries on an evil reptilian kitten-eater from another planet, or the anime concept of hammerspace, or on a boy named Brfxxccxxmnpcccclllmmnprxvclmnckssqlbb11116 (pronounced “Alvin”), or a timeline of unfulfilled Christian prophecy, or about the classical Chinese poem “Lion-Eating Poet in the Stone Den” which consists of the word “shi” repeated 92 times with varying tones, or Gene Ray’s Time Cube theory?