Phantasmic Links 2.13.05

I've been feeling cooped-up and bored lately, and today was a sunny, clear day with temperatures in the low 40s, warm for this time of year in New York. I took a sketch pad, drove to one of the local nature preserves, made my way through the trails and down some steps to a secluded beach, and dusted off my rusty sketching ability:



Sitting in front of a computer designing commercial art has definitely dulled any progress I made with fine arts back in college. I'll have to get out and do stuff like this more. On the way home, I noticed an “Absolutely No Dogs Allowed” sign at a neighboring park, and decided to go for a walk. Within five minutes I saw a young couple pushing a baby in a stroller and walking two black dogs. The husband knelt down and unhooked the pair from their leashes, and the dogs gleefully chased each other across the verdant expanse, as I turned and made my way to the parking lot slowly, without making any sudden movements, and without showing fear because they can smell fear. All in all, I'm still glad I got out for a bit. And now, here are this week’s PHANTASMIC LINKS:

I can't decide whether I'm more like Geekbot or Sad Robot, but it was pretty cool to rediscover ”We Are Robots” amid my bookmarks and see they had added a few cartoons since I first bookmarked it.

I liked Reflex 1.2 so much that I played through a second time, and got the level codes to share with everyone:
12345, 70760, 38030, 58163, 51799,
46316, 29548, 22870, 22088, 12916
63546, 52790, 73369, 16916, 85978
14610, 92523, 91264, 23144, 79799
56582, 94731, 85592, 46994, 24475
42689, 19211

I may get obsessed with video games, but I don't think I'll ever score 3,333,360 points in Pac-Man—I definitely stop playing any game when I get too hyper about it.

Ego and reality clash in interesting ways, as The Mighty Geek sums up any geek's first few moments of high school.

Can this box really see the future? Some pretty interesting findings and theories...

My morning ritual as a kid used to consist of my dad yelling at me to get up every five minutes, and once I was awake, he'd share the wise observation that I was “tired because [I] don't go to bed at night.” I still have trouble getting up in the morning, and I still stay up longer than I should. Occasionally one of my parents will still tell me, “Go to bed; you have work tomorrow.” which is ALWAYS a cheerful reminder. Perhaps someday I'll have kids as lazy as me. Perhaps my mornings will go something like this.

A comic book store is not a library. At Mile High Comics, I found the next best thing to flipping through books in the store. In some cases, they only preview a few pages like Pop Culture Shock does, but in a few instances I found entire issues online.