Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium

I'm a little torn. On one hand, it's really lame to go more than a week without a blog post. On the other hand, isn't it almost as lame to write a quick blog post that just links to a movie trailer?

Oh well. :) This movie looks really cute and kind of Willy-Wonka-meets-Dr.-Seuss. Enjoy until I can manage a meatier blog entry.

WSJ suXX0Rz*

This morning, Ried pointed me toward this Wall Street Journal article about "Leetspeak." WonderBlog has talked about this aspect of language before, once or twice, but I felt I needed to bring it up again because this article ticked me off.

First, there's the very fact that we're still talking about Leetspeak as if it's some brand new, under-the-radar phenomenon. While the actual words and trends have changed, the basic premise is the same.

Secondly, they link to this smaller article, which they have translated into some form of Leet. While I suppose that's fine for demonstration purposes, what irritates me here is that Leet is rarely, if ever, used for entire paragraphs. That's not the intention. Leet is appropriate when gaming, chatting, texting, mocking YouTube videos... that kind of thing, where you have a sentence or two to make a point.

Leet isn't a new way of writing old things (like interviews about Shakespeare)-- it's a way of writing new things. The technologies are new, and so are our ways of discussing them. That seems pretty natural to me. When you look at their huge chunks of letters (and substitutes for letters), of course it looks like intelligible crap. That's what it is. But in small doses it's almost a geek mating call.

The final thing that I want to mention is the very first line: "The Internet is threatening to change the way we speak." I'm awestruck and offended by this line. Of course it is. It's also "threatening" to change to way we pay bills online, and it's "threatening" to change the way we shop, communicate, study, etc. The word "threatening" in that line is inane, and the more we think in terms of "oh gawd, that's happening to our clean little language," the closer we get to moving backwards.

*No one uses suXX0rz anymore.

Super Chick Sisters

Take this one with a grain of salt...


This game is called Super Chick Sisters, and it's a new Flash game by PETA. It's a Super Mario Brothers parody (music and all), and within the couple of minutes that I spent playing the game, I was informed that KFC "de-beaks" chickens and "scalds them alive." Well, that's one way to get your point across, I guess.

But it's actually a cute game, and well programmed. Maybe a little creepy. Check it out. (Via Adrants.)

The Dollar Menunaire

Elaine points us toward this little gem: McDonald's interactive Dollar Menunaire microsite. Click on anything in the room and this guy will talk about it... and the dialogue's really very funny, and it changes from time to time.

Bookswim

There are a ton of book-swap sites out there, but a new online book service is up and running. Bookswim claims to be a Netflix-like service for books-- details here.

I am not the first person, by a long shot, to ask the question "...Can't I just go the library?" I like the convenience of having the books delivered to my doorstep, but this service is more expensive than a Netflix plan (3 at-a-time through the 'Flix: $17ish. 3 at-a-time through Bookswim: $24). So the prices aren't really comparable, on top of the fact that I can watch a movie in 2-3 hours and pop it back in the mail the same day, meaning I get a ton more movies per month that I could possibly receive per month through Bookswim.

Their response to the Bookworm vs Public Library issue is that the library keeps odd hours and you have the inconvenience of driving there. That's a case I could get behind if Bookworm weren't asking $20+/month for their cheapest plan!

They also mention that they have a much better selection, which is probably a valid point, but I have never had a problem finding something to read. That would only come into play for me if I were on the hunt for a specific book, and that happens pretty rarely.

I don't mean to cut on Bookswim-- it probably works for someone, but I can't see the benefit. I'll stick to sites like Bookmooch, where you can swap books you've already read for ones you haven't. ...For free.

Making Up for Lost Time

Well dangit. I was on vacation, and it has been two weeks since I've posted here. Allow me to do a super-quick link roundup of what I missed in the past week or so:

First and foremost, I missed the internet's birthday. Will it ever forgive me?

Wired published a great article on social networking sites such as Facebook and MySpace-- is their private nature slowing down the progress of teh interwebz?

Gmail has a brilliant campaign going on right now, and they've extended their submission deadline. Hurry up and look!

Maybe we ought to spend less time labeling our parental styles and more time actually parenting.

Naturally, I take a week off and suddenly printers don't need ink anymore.

A 17-year-old girl overdosed... on espresso. No one has blamed it on advertising yet, but give 'em some time.

Finally, Charlie points us toward this sigh-inducing article about Second Life-- "Does Virtual Cheating Still Count?"

...Maybe I need another week off. (Thanks for everyone who flooded my inbox with fantastic links, and I apologize if I didn't credit you!) What else did I miss?