And We're Back!... again

When I was a little kid, my parents didn't believe in corporal punishment. They believed in psychological torture instead. Whenever I was bad or did something naughty, they would give me this look like I had become the greatest embodiment of human disappointment and then with a heavy sigh they would say, "Brooks, Let me see your hand"... and so I would fearfully put out my hand and they would tap it firmly with their finger and say "Bad Brooks! Bad Bad Bad Brooks!" and then I would weep uncontrollably.

Ah... Childhood memories. Just remember parents, mental scars are the kind that don't heal.

Anyway, I'm returning (we'll see for how long (no promises!)) to blogging. I know I pretty much screwed the pooch for the IF competition, not even getting to half of the entries. (though may I say that I was pretty down with the results) I think I'll put up a post later on talking about how my general reactions, etc.

Why was I away for over a month??? Well let me tell you, my charming and well-endowed readers: It's none of your damned business. But let me just say that I couldn't bring myself to review the next game on my list, "The Bible Retold: The Lost Sheep" because I was an asshole and had signed up to beta-test that particular game and had flaked out on the author. This would be bad enough on its own, if that very same author hadn't beta-tested my own (and only) game and was one of my two best testers! So I'm sorry Ben Pennington! You are awesome!

So I didn't want to write the review, so I just kept putting it off and, well blah, blah, blah. Anyway, we'll see how this current batch of posts does me. I'm actually much busier now than I was in the past month. Work has been crazy, I'm just gearing up for a play I'm in, I'm applying to Grad-school and the holidays will soon be upon us, which, and I think I speak for all of is, means that we'll be getting an extra dose of crazy in the way of dysfunctional friends and relatives. 

But I'm back, and thanks for staying with me, or coming back.

P.S. - For those people who are simultaneously puzzle solvers, Interactive Fiction hobbiests, and Top Chef fanatics, you are going to LOVE this blog. For the rest... you can find pictures of grammatically challenged cats saying adorably stupid things here.

New Title!

Okay, I'm retitling the blog. "Foul Deformity" was a way that I thought I could vaguely describe my asthetic while quoting Shakespeare at the same time! But honestly, I don't think it's going to be a good title for this blog. I was working on a comic (which I'll post tomorrow!) and it occured to me that the types of stuff I'm going to be posting on here (puzzles, comics, reviews, etc.) aren't deformities in any sense, but are instead quiet diversions. They bring to mind opening up the Sunday paper and spending all late morning and afternoon in a quiet entertaining manner. So that's what I'm calling this site: "The Quiet Sunday". I'd like to think of it as a place where people can come and take a small break from the busy week, and replicate the calm and relaxing hedonism of a lazy Sunday afternoon.

Hope the new title is welcome, and as always, let me know what you think!

A New Day, A New Blog

Hello! And welcome all to my new blog: "Foul Deformity", which I think is a pretty concise description of myself and my interests. Among those interests will be interactive fiction, cooking, politics, etc. I'm going to try to post some of my crossword puzzles here too, if I can figure out how to post them interactively. I've published quite a few over here, but I have to wait almost ten days for them to publish my puzzles, so I'm thinking of publishing them here instead.


Also, I'm planning on reviewing the upcoming batch of entries from the IF Comp.This will be of interest to the, oh, maybe fifteen people on the planet who are interested in Interactive Fiction. A third of those people are Italian. Why have an interest in an impossibly obscure and some-might-argue obsolete entertainment? Because Interactive Fiction or "IF" for the savvy/nerdy appeals to that strange subsection of literary minds and puzzle solvers. If James Joyce were alive today, you can bet he'd be writing IF. Lengthy byzantine IF. Impossible to read or play, IF. What I'm saying is that Finnegan's Wake is impossible to read and shouldn't be tried by anyone.


Anyway, on the with the show. I might be back later to see if I can publish a crossword or two. Oh, and if you're interesting in playing some IF written by yours truly, you can do so over here.