• The Reagan Myth: finally demolished – Some people keep going on about how popular Ronald Reagan was and how he reduced government spending and taxes. Not so much.
• Common ground – this made me grin
• Rock ‘n’ Roll Nerd – Tim Minchin being brilliant; can so identify with this song
• Notes from a Man Trapped in a Giant Bottle – a mad and hilarious short story
• French bread spiked with LSD in CIA experiment – I don’t think there is a better word for this than “evil”
• So Fucking Rock – Tim Minchin again; if this doesn’t impress you, I don’t know what will
• Tron Legacy – the trailer doesn’t look bad, and it has Bruce Boxleitner in it… what a voice that man has
• Redder – the new Auntie Pixelante game is cool (flash)

Back to writing now. Almost finished with my changes to Phenomenon 32, by the way.

• Follow the Commentarium Twitter Feed to get our reactions to the Academy Awards live.
• Recently at Commentarium: Can Lost pull it together?
• Made some progress on Phenomenon 32. The new save system is almost ready.
• That’s it, really.

I want to thank our friend Sebastian for bringing this divinely inspired song to my attention. Seriously: this is the kind of overwhelmingly brilliant work of art that gives me hope for mankind and the universe. This song is a thousand times closer to the divine than any work of boring religious propaganda. This is genius. William Blake would love it.

Also, if you open your mind too much your brain will fall out.

Edit: Storm is also something of a masterpiece. And I don’t think that you have to be an atheist to admire its beauty.

It makes sense, of course – it’s so much easier to justify destruction and oppression when the people you’re doing it to aren’t the real deal. No, they’re just greedy imitators who have happened to live here for the last few thousand years, and all they want to do is steal your hard-earned money. And they want reparations! Aren’t they ashamed of themselves for pretending to be Greek/Indian? No, we just can’t accept this sort of behaviour. Bloody savages.

(That the ancient Greeks were better-organized than the modern Greeks and that Greek nationalists should STFU about their heritage – not because it’s not their heritage, but because they’re pissing on it – has nothing to do with the issue.)

Enjoy, and spread the word! We’re counting on you.

• Tomorrow I’ll start working on Phenomenon 32 again, in the hopes of getting version 0.9 out soon.
• I’m typing the parts of my novel that aren’t typed, and ordering many of my novel-related files. This may not seem like much, but it’s actually quite significant. Slowly I can see the book being finished, and I’m certain that if you enjoyed my games, you will love this story.
• Our film and TV site is getting ready to launch – maybe tomorrow, maybe on Tuesday. I think it will be great fun.
• I’m writing a guest blog about the situation in Greece for another blog. I hope it turns out good.
• I have several interesting blog posts coming up – reviews, links, various thoughts, etc.
• And a couple more things that I might talk about at a later date.

My pain is still there and I’m still taking painkillers and antibiotics, but at least my face is slightly less swollen today.

Because some things are so bizarre and wonderful that they never grow old.

Interesting updates tomorrow. Now watch, listen, and sing along in your head.

One pain is the pain of my wisdom tooth that was recently taken out. The amount of pain comes and goes with the drugs, and I’m feeling more than a little woozy, but it’s better than it was on the first day. Still, it will take some time before I feel even remotely OK again.

The other pain is the pain of reading about Greece. The amount of racist nonsense that’s being presented in the media is just disgusting. Facts are thrown out the window in favour of absurd clichés and stereotypes and the complexities of the situation are neatly ignored. Greece is presented as a country without civilization, a bunch of uneducated leeches stealing Europe’s money. One article (in German) even says that, for nationalist reasons, Greeks still give their children heathen names. Heathen! Yay for the great German Theocracy, I suppose. The article also accuses Greeks of keeping their alphabet for nationalist reasons – because they’re the only ones using it, so clearly that’s barbaric and behind the times. Not, you know, just their alphabet.

And in Greece, of course, all this is fodder for the right-wingers and the racists. So the racism of Europe is doing wonders for the racism of Greece. Thanks, guys.

It makes me sick. It all makes me sick.