Whenever I start to write something and I think, “Maybe I shouldn’t mention this,” I go through a little phase of internal deliberation during which I usually settle on some sort of compromise. “I’ll just be vague about it,” or something similar. I’m big on compromises, because to me they feel like solutions. I like solutions: They’re masculine, action-oriented, results-bearing. We solved that problem. Grunt.

The problem with compromise is that while they are (or at least they usually are) solutions, they aren’t always good solutions. For example my maddeningly vague mentions of some huge event last week. The event wasn’t really that huge and it turns out it may not result in the Hallelujah Chorus and refrains of “He’s a Jolly Good Fellow” after all. This is a fundamental premise of life, in which things that could be great can’t possibly always be so and things which we don’t expect to be worthwhile at all can at times startle us with their unexpected delights.

So in this case I wish I’d simply said nothing until there was actually something to say, and no one would have to feel disappointed for me and I wouldn’t have to keep being vague without context.

Call it a lesson learned.

Miss Elainey Us

Ohh, look! I can surf the Webs!

• Check it out, you can actually buy a replica of Charlie Brown’s Christmas tree.
• Gaming Horizon has new Tomb Raider screenshots. They look pretty nice, I must say (even if Lara Croft is seeming a bit anorexic). But visuals are not the issue here, of course, the gameplay is. In a series that has been stale since (no exaggeration) the third title (did anyone not loathe TRIII?), they’d better bring it with this iteration or I forsee the Tomb Raider franchise becoming as much of an industry object of scorn as Sonic the Hedgehog. Come on, you know you hate Sonic for the endless string of disappointing titles bearing his name. You ain’t gotta lie to kick it.
• Joel Spolsky has marvelous insights on the record companies’ desire to introduce variable pricing to iTunes Music Store.
• Amen.
• Okay, so soon TiVo2Go will be able to transfer to video iPods. Does that mean that they’re about to start supporting OS X (finally)? From the article:
  

  There is no information available at this time regarding support for transferring recorded shows to Apple Mac OS X personal computers, although one might infer that supporting MPEG-4 video will allow Macs to play such content.

  Uh, okay. Thanks for clearing that up, TiVo.

• Mmmmm…. Mp3 player in a NES controller. Brilliant!
• You should check out Bob Elsdale’s photographs. He has some stunning stuff on there: Animals, surrealist photos and some very impressive Photoshop work to go along with the excellent photography. The site has kind of a dippy flash interface, but it’s worth the annoyance.
• It is imperative that you stop what you’re doing and go download this collection of pop songs done in old school NES style. My new mission in life is to get “Final Countdown” in NES glory established as my cell phone’s ringtone. Also, it is curious how much Queen’s “Bohemian Rhapsody,” when digitized as such, sounds like it could have come directly from some obscure RPG back in the day.
• I’m telling you, landlines are old and busted. Internet calling is the sorta-new hotness.