Yo Netflix, for real dog.

A crazy thing happened with my Netflix! They emailed me like, YO DUDE WHAT IS UP WE CAN'T PROCESS YOUR CREDIT CARD. And I said uhhhhhhhhh and tried to fix it, but couldn't. Then I tried to change my payment to PayPal, and couldn't. Keep in mind: I'm not supposed to be able to use Netflix in Japan, so I have to use an IP blocker! So I was really sweating it out! I figured I'd have to go on living without Netflix. The jig was up, I thought. 

Then I got a next email from them saying OH HEY NEVER MIND WE FIXED IT OUR BAD. And I thought, yessssss. So I logged right the heck on to continue watching season 1 of Friday Night Lights, which is the only show I've regularly watched since getting Netflix. Friday Night Lights is awesome - probably more awesome than it has any right to be.

So I click on over, and it's like, YUP HERE ON NETFLIX WE HAVE 4 SEASONS OF FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS. I thought, that's weird, there are 5 seasons! What the heck, guy! So I click again and it's like YOU CAN WATCH SEASONS 2-5 OKAY? I said, hell nah. I was on episode 14 of 22 in season 1! What I'm 'posed to do now? 

Then yesterday I was like huuuuh fine I guess I'll start watching a new/different TV show I GUESS. So I click on my instant queue, and there is season 1 of Friday Night Lights, all of a sudden.

Yoooooooooooooo.

When was the last time you saw a nuclear physicist or a world-class geologist on the red carpet? There was a time when it was not such a preposterous notion. In the past, accomplished people from a wide variety of disciplines were central to the culture.

-- Simon Doonan, Where Did All the Accomplished People Go?

He is noting the ostentatious rings on my fingers and the lint on my collar, but he isn’t seeing me, he’s seeing himself and everything he’s afraid he might be.

-- Stu Horvath, Forking Paths

Hi Fez.

For nearly a year, I have been hotly-anticipating a lovely little retro-inspired video game called Fez. From a distance, it appeared to be everything I love in a game: cute and colourful, clever and whimsical, tightly focused but inviting.

It's rare, in life, for anything to meet one's expectations and hopes. Rarer still is a case like Fez, which managed to surpass mine completely. I wrote about the game over at Toronto Thumbs, and I hope you'll check it out, whether you like games or not.

And if you do like games, please try Fez if you're able!

Thank you.

''And maybe that's the point of Andrew W.K., even if he is slightly disingenuous—in order to have a true relationship with culture, you've got to let it consume you.''

-- Drew Millard, On Answers Withheld

''There’s even evidence of skills transference into real-world situations. Surgeons that played videogames for three hours a week made 37% fewer errors and completed operations 27% faster than non-gamers.''

-- Michael Kasumovic, I want to play videogames when I grow up (and so should you)

''Maybe this is all a grand gedankenexperiment, but Young sees no compelling reason why sports games can't be as emotionally, artistically, and even narratively evocative as any other game, and, after talking to him, neither do I.''

-- Tom Bissell, Kickoff: Madden NFL and the Future of Video Game Sports