Don't mind me. I've just wanted to see this particular genre mashup for a while now. All it's missing is Dr. Cuddy as the romantic foil.

It’s so hard to be mad at them! They’re so friendly and well-mannered! Note to Valve: get on the production bandwagon, ASAP. I’d happily buy at least three of these to, uh, protect the apartment.

So, I’ve fired up a Minecraft server and have started excavating and building, hiding from creepers and playing with adorably blocky wolves. Send help.

I’ve been watching Doctor Who in its various incarnations — from grainy black-and-white TV reruns and rented betamax tapes in the depths of my childhood, to the last few years of the current set of series — and time and time again it strikes me how absolutely terrifying this show can be.

I mean, take the Daleks; nowadays, not as scary as they used to be, but as a child, seeing a robotic, murderous pepper-shaker with a ray gun and a synthesized voice that could make your heartstrings vibrate with fright, they’re absolutely the most ghastly thing imaginable. And the series is filled with blank-faced policemen, monstrous daffodils, hideous crawling shadows, homicidal statuary, and now, well…. spoilers.

I’d still recommend this show to kids. My niece loves it, though I warn her it’s best to watch it in the daytime — mostly because I’d rather not field angry calls from my cousins about her inability to sleep. But hey, it’s character building, and it’s good preparation in case some mad man in a blue box comes and offers them the adventure of a lifetime.

with apologies to you Johnny Cash lovers.

This beauty comes courtesy of Pack Rat Studios, and it’s currently on sale on eBay. I love the attention to detail on this figure, from the brass and iron rivets, to the steam pistons on the forearms, to the flickering coal-fire light in the chest (check out the site for those pictures). The best touch, I think, is the awesome handlebar ‘stache on Victorian Anthony Stark.

Custom toys have always tickled my collector impulse, largely because they’re unique, and because they’re an expression of previously unknown and unfulfilled desire. It’s always nice to see artisanal work being done in the field of pop-cultural toys, especially on woefully under-represented Western properties. I mean, aside from Jonathan Kuriscak (head honcho of Pack Rat Studios), you’ve got Jin Saotome and a few others; certainly nothing along the lines or numbers of Japanese custom-makers.

Then again, it’s not like there’s a real Western equivalent to Wonder Festival, both in terms of creators and visitors. I mean, just look at a small sampling of the contributions to this past winter’s Wonder Festival…

One of these days, I think I’ll pull out my dremels and resins and give this custom-creation thing a go. I’d really love to make some of Mega Man’s Robot Masters, or even try them steampunk-style.

I am kinda bummed that I missed the Video Games Live concert in Vancouver, as I really like hearing orchestral versions of game music (as the multi-gigabytes of OGC tracks on my iPhone seem to indicate). Though my disappointment is soothed somewhat by knowing that at least, I didn’t miss a Black Mages concert. Seriously, PAX-folks, what would it take for you guys to get Nobuo Uematsu to come down and jam out in Seattle? How you can you deny people this:

I thought I’d skim through my screenshots folder(s), and I found this little gem — back in March of ’06, the server-wide effort to open the Gates of Ahn’Qiraj was about to come to its epic conclusion. I love the ordered ranks of cavalry in this pic; arrays of skeletal mounts, dreadsteeds, paladin’s chargers and nightsabers all in rows. If you look closely near the center of the screen, my little warlock rides upon his fiery demon mount, all bedecked in his Felheart Raiment.

Good god, did I really play at 1280 x 1024? Oh, the days of old, gigantically heavy CRT monitors….

Totally stolen from /toy (thanks raquiel)

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Thanks Gillian! That’s about the cutest thing I’ve heard in ages.

Edited April 19, 2011: Found the original source of the video. It’s Cookie the Penguin from the Cincinnati Zoo; it’s also rather longer than the original video I posted, but I really hate it when people co-opt videos and post it as their own to increase their view number, so thus the proper attribution.