Blogge, it is yclept.

As should have been marvellously clear by now, Geoffrey Chaucer has a blog. Nice to see the feller's still going strong.

All manner of shenanigans going on, so postage Intermittent to Not. It's the change in the weather.

I'll take the Llama, Bob...

Them Internets is agog and abuzz (with some justification) at the awesome Big Dog Meckanickal Mule. I like the saddlebags, but I love, deeply love, the gaitered legs. For some reason I'm thinking of Nineteenth Century waiters, or the great Max Wall, who as any fule kno, inspired Python's Ministry of Silly Walks sketch. The ever-excellent Defense Tech has a great comment, comparing the Big Dog unfavourably with, good friend to you and me, the humble Llama. After a brief comparison of payload relative to bodyweight, the commentatore concludes:

I'll take the llama because:

1. It doesn't require gas or batteries.
2. Service life of 15 years+.
3. No maintenance or spare parts required!
4. It's self aware.

You gots to admit, number 4 is a helluva Tech Spec selling point. Dang, I'd put it on the Front of the box. And then I recall a plausible yet slightly unconvincing story of the Israeli military using Llamas for Special Forces missions, which included the magic phrase "found to easily out-perform donkeys", which is of course my name among the Hopi Indians. Anyway, the point of this charivari is the mental click I got when "Llama" was mentioned. For then did I realise that the Big Dog is at last half or perhaps twice a Llama after all, for it is indubitably Doctor Dolittle's Pushmi-pullyu.

Life's Lessons...

The estimable Raph Koster (who wrote the only readable book on game design) has compiled an extensive teleo-log of what we know about the world from games. Per ejemplo:

• You can be the best in the world at your job.
• But so can everyone else.
• And you will all do it exactly the same way.

So far, so office-email. But Koster, rather sweetly, nudges further:

I realize this list may seem like a cutesy joke. But it isn’t. Go back, and re-read it. It’s actually a lament.

Amen. It's not entirely true that people who talk about games for a living insist that games are the full equal of other artforms, while people who actually make them know they're not. But it would suit this blogs purposes for that predicament to obtain, so I shall assume it is indeed the case in all further correspondence.