I haven’t done a “Stuff I Like A Lot” post in a while, but that’s mostly because I’ve been so darned fragmented lately; my head’s been all over the place, and I haven’t been able to focus on one thing long enough to come up with a few hundred words about it.

Instead, I’m just going to hit a few quick things that have made me happy or impressed or laugh or whatever, because this is my web site, and I’ll do whatever the hell I want, got it?

Sorry, that was a little harsh, but I blame that on the looming something I don’t like recently; migraine headaches, and the “hung over without having earned it” feeling afterwards.

So…anyway, in no particular order:

♦ 100 Games Cupcake Game: Great project, great talent, great idea. I have played entirely too many of these games…in the past year.

♦ “A Hunter’s Ode to His Bait” by Carrie Vaughn. Carrie’s one of my favorite authors with an online presence lately, and that’s not just because she responds when I make occasional comments on her blog. Her books are equal parts snark, romance, horror, and GI:JOE references; what’s not to like about that? Anyway, the key item here is a story she had published in RoF a couple of years ago; great fantasty, while at the same time horribly twisted; just the way I like it.

♦ The “Big Gay Battle” that raged on the internet over the holidays. Online mag afterelton ran their “Gay/Bisexual Man of the Decade” poll on their website, and it quickly came down to an all-in-fun trans-oceanic battle between John “Captain Jack” Barrowman and Neil Patrick “Doctor Horrible” Harris, starting out on twitter, but eventually branching into late night television and major metropolitan newspapers. NPH eventually won out (though I personally and arbitrarily cast my ballot for Barrowman – I’m a big fan of both, as well as several other lower-teir candidates), but in the end, really, everybody wins…well, except for homophobia. Now we just need to get these guys in a recording studio together…

♦ Afrika for PS3. You wouldn’t think a game about leisurely wandering around the African bush and taking pictures of yawning hippos would be so damned engaging, but honestly it really is. After a hard day/week of dealing with work, driving several hours on crowded highways, or dealing with arguing kids, a sedate, mellow session of snapping pictures of zebras is exactly what the doctor ordered (except when you’re trying to get a picture of that damned crowned crane) to lower the blood pressure and stress levels. There really ought to be a trophy for crashing the truck; it’s damned hard to do, but I’ve managed it.

♦People of Walmart. This one makes me a horrible, horrible awful person, but at least it’s a fault I can recognize. This is nothing but photographs of interesting characters wandering the aisles at the Big Box. If I’m ever feeling down about my body image or taste in clothing, looking here makes me feel a little better.

♦ Nashville or Bust, Nathan Rabin’s feature series at the av club about the roots of country music. Rabin’s approaching things as an outsider (his background is in urban, hip-hop music), but this perspective allows him to really find something fresh in the music and lives of some of country music’s founding performers. As someone who grew up with this stuff in the background, and having come around to true appreciation for a lot of the roots of this sort of music, it’s terribly interesting writing.

♦ District 9. You know what? Screw Avatar (although I haven’t seen it yet); this movie shows that you don’t need a half a billion dollar budget to create a great story about alien culture clash. Neil Blomkamp did it for 30 million or so, giving us some terribly convincing extraterrestrials, some interesting social commentary (which is what some of the best sci-fi does), and an original and engaging story. One of the best films of the year, in my humble opinion; if you missed this one, definitely give it a spin.

♦ zooborns dot com. Pictures of baby animals born at zoos across the planet. That’s all, but that’s really enough, isn’t it?

…and, I’m spent. Anybody else seen anything interesting lately?