Level Orange

• New computer smell. Nice. #
• Didn't realize the Magic Mouse was so…magical. This is one snazzy piece of gear. #
• First day of school. My boy's a pro already, but my baby girl is just starting. There may be tears. #
• To the asshole that decided I can't have lunch with my kids for three weeks: FUCK YOU. #
• Still fuming over this. Guess I'll be writing to my kids' school about their weak-ass communication skills and overall cluelessness. #
• I favorited a YouTube video — "SCOTT PILGRIM VS. THE MATRIX" http://youtu.be/4RsZErYEXz8?a #
• All I know is zombies don't run. #DawnOfTheDead http://bit.ly/9iEH4Z #
• Netflix for iPhone is here! http://j.mp/aCAoME (thanks @probune) #
• So it turns I could've had lunch with my son after all. Thanks to idiots working at the school, I didn't get to on my one day off. Bitches. #
• PROTIP: If your job involves other people's children, have your shit together and communicate with parents to avoid getting smacked up. #
• Considering picking up Fallout 3. Not really an RPG guy (I liked Mass Effect but not Oblivion). Is that trigger worth pulling? #
• District Line = chill dub business #Rusko http://bit.ly/bOU5hh #
• "If people aren't getting into LaserDisc technology, they're really missing something." Siskel & Ebert : The Abyss http://bit.ly/946N0a #
• Picking up my kids because the wife's out of town for the day. THAT'S ALLOWED, RIGHT? #
• I am watching Rescue Me #RescueMe http://bit.ly/93y859 #
• Take meee..take me back to paradise! #nerds #38Special http://bit.ly/aPEYJU #
• I am watching A Prophet #AProphet http://bit.ly/c3mOKK #

• Still loving "I Trust You to Kill Me" #RoccoDeLucaAndTheBurden http://bit.ly/9O63D8 #
• Podcast: SPJ #2 All the News That Isn’t Fit to Print – Wherein we talk about enthusiast magazines and their future: http://t.co/JsSttVD #
• Just watched the never-before-seen opening to Return of the Jedi. That's what all the fuss was about? #
• Watch George Lucas waste a minute of your life: http://bit.ly/9YdGUH #
• What's that? Autoplaying music on your web site that I can't turn off? SCREW YOU. #
• I favorited a YouTube video — Halo: Reach ViDoc – A Spartan Will Rise http://youtu.be/Bs2TPo7z0sM?a #
• Any recommendations for a decent 20-23" monitor with USB ports that's good for graphic work? Something in the $200-300 range would be nice. #
• …if such a thing even exists. #
• My Twifficiency score is 500MILLIONTHOUSAND%. Whats yours, jerks? #
• Good times with Joseph and James on Blu-ray tonight! Thanks again @warnerblu! http://twitpic.com/2fqgyy #
• I earned the Clash of the Titans sticker on @GetGlue! http://bit.ly/bFQbHm #
• Quite the milestone today. Celebrating ten great years with the gal I love. Happy anniversary, babe! Here's to many, many more! #
• This actually sounds like something @TinyManRages would enjoy: http://gizmo.do/c5kf #
• I guess it's pretty lame that tonight, after all these years, I finally had myself my first adult beverage. #
• Friday night's a great night for football! #TheLastBoyScout http://bit.ly/dD8fcb #
• Was a pretty great evening for us boring wedded folk. Thanks for all the congrats everyone! #
• Just finding out about what's happening to @ktruriceradio. What a shame. KTRU really helped me expand my musical horizons back in the day. #
• Had a satisfying experience with a cat named Brandon at the Apple Store while picking up a new Mac Pro. Rock on! #

• Gritty, violent film and probably Paul Walker's best role to date. #RunningScared http://bit.ly/bU9PuN #
• Caught just the end of One Last Dance and seeing Swayze doing his dance thing with real wife hit me hard for a second there. Very sweet. #
• Our dog ate my sunglasses. Literally. Did I mention I don't like dogs? #
• THAT'S MY PLEASURE! http://j.mp/dncP1D #
• Why, yes, I could go for some Highlander Blu-ray action. http://bit.ly/bR6JSv #
• I am listening to Chase & Status #ChaseStatus http://bit.ly/dmgbEn #
• I favorited a YouTube video — Radiolab and NPR Present Words http://youtu.be/j0HfwkArpvU?a #
• I didn't realize how much I had glossed over BioShock 2 until the BioShock: Infinite announcement. Rapture was fun, but take me to Columbia! #
• I am listening to Skream #Skream http://bit.ly/bPz6jB #
• Today I discovered that @duststorm does in fact eat like a gentleman. #
• #FF @Ind1fference because if you're a gamer and you play your cards right he will #FF you so hard. Mmph! #
• Editing a podcast. #
• I am watching Kick Ass #KickAss http://bit.ly/cUP6nn #
• I am watching Hot Tub Time Machine #HotTubTimeMachine http://bit.ly/9XOZAn #

• So this happened today: https://twitter.com/warnerblu/status/20152207151 #
• Had a good time going back to my podcasting roots with the @podtacular gang last night. #
• Don't forget @MrHoward @pts and I also posted the first @SodapopJournal podcast this week. http://bit.ly/cKFyBe #
• Listening to The Write Stuff panel from SDCC, with @JoseMolinaTV, @ashman01 and a ton of great genre TV writers. http://bit.ly/c5CQLI #
• Whycomeitgottabesohotoutside? #
• Sounds like this is a double rainbow day for California. All the way. #
• Somebody from Tennessee please tell me this isn't a joke. I want to be able to laugh at you wholeheartedly. http://youtu.be/fnx-SqMYknI #
• Poor lonely computer… #PrinceTheRevolution http://bit.ly/deNuav #
• I just got $309,950 while chasing the girl in a red car in http://www.truckersdelight.net #
• I just got $775,700 while chasing the girl in a red car in http://www.truckersdelight.net #
• It's funny how Housequake performed live always outshines the album version. A groove this fonkay is on the run. #
• Today I was reminded that the Magweasel himself, @kevingifford, also eats like a gentleman. #
• Watching @kanyewest on ustream. Surreal. #wherethegoldat #
• This film had one of my favorite David Caruso moments ever. #Session9 http://bit.ly/clwGxh #

I’ve never understood March Madness. Not because I don’t like basketball or because I don’t get the fuss over college sports (OK, maybe that’s a little true). It mostly because I don’t follow any sports with enough regularity to know who’s doing what or why any of it matters.

However, this year, as a perk with my new job, I was invited to take part in the office March Madness bracket. While I was at first reluctant to display my ignorance for all to see, the latest issue of Esquire arrived just in time to offer up a solution—their Sexiest Woman Alive bracket.

I’d seen it as I was flipping through the pages and just thought it was a fun thing to get cats who are really into sports to take pause and think about beautiful women for a few minutes. Then I considered that maybe this was actually created with guys like me in mind who couldn’t care less about sports. I mean, I don’t know any of the schools or teams in the NCAA but I’m all right with figuring out who the hottie du jour is (although I did have to look up a few).

So I took all of my picks and essentially mapped them onto the NCAA bracket, then added them to the office pool. I have to admit, it’s made March Madness fun for me for the first time ever. Now to see if my taste in sexy ladies pays off.

Round 1

After the first round, here are my picks that are moving on:

• Beyonce
• Rihanna
• Katy Perry
• Ana Ivanovic
• Gina Carano
• Tanith Belbin
• Megan Fox
• Marion Cotillard
• Penelope Cruz
• Eva Mendes
• Ashley Greene
• Lindsey Vonn & Julia Mancuso
• Jessica Alba
• Zoe Saldana
• Christina Hendricks
• Bianna Golodryga
• Gisele Bundchen
• Adriana Lima
• Alessandra Ambrosio
• Natalie Gulbis
• Blake Lively

Not bad for what I figured would be a fun gag. I’ll let you guess who made it all the way to the end, and while you’re at it, why not pick your own?

Check out Esquire’s Sexiest Women in the World bracket here

I was going through some old files on my computer the other day and happened upon these charming little nuggets from the past. In case you missed these back when we recorded them in 2008, here are the full episodes of the  PiQ Podcast (and thanks to Facebook, the summaries of what we discussed), as hosted by Messrs Howard, Starr, Gifford and yours truly. Sure, all we talk about is stuff that happened two years ago but hey, it reminds me of good times.

Download (right-click, Save As…) and enjoy.

Episode 0

Listen now

Just to prove we are not sitting around all day eating Fritos and wiping the grease on our tank tops, here is the highly experimental Episode 0 of The PiQ Podcast (thePiQ-cast? Perhaps I’m getting too far ahead of myself). Have a listen — just press that little “Play” button up above this text — and you’ll get to hear myself, Robert, Paul, and Scott discuss the sorts of things we’ve been up to while working on this magazine.

We got print copies of Issue 1 in the other day, and I hear that some subscribers have received it as well. Huzzah! Tremendous! We hope you will get it soon if you haven’t, or later this month when it hits newsstands. We honestly care what you think about this issue, so keep letting us know.

PiQ Episode 1 – The Sausage Fest

Listen now

Now that we’ve slogged through our deadline for Issue 2, we’re able to share our much-delayed discussion about Issue 1 with all you fine folks.

If you have Issue 1, feel free to follow along as we talk about some initial reactions to the magazine, and go into a bit of discussion on Appleseed Ex Machina, Avatar, The Sarah Connor Chronicles, Honey & Clover, recent legislation in Japan, Tweeny Witches, Battlestar Galactica, Independence Day (!), our Monitor think-piece “Is Anime Dead?” and more.

PiQ Episode 2 – No Games for Old Men

Listen now

Did we ever say this podcast would be a regular thing? Whoops. After a hectic month or so, we finally sat down and got to discuss some of what we’ve been up to, including Kevin’s trip to Japan, the infallible legacy of Upton Sinclair and our collective realization that some games are just entirely too damn hard for old fogeys like us (and we’re not even that old).

More importantly, there’s also our discussion of Issue 2 and all the goodness therein, like how much we dig Sam & Max, Lucky Star, Iron Man, Tim and Eric, action movies, old game shows and pig creatures? Also, we have another sweet prize for those of you interested, so be sure to listen for that too.

PiQ Episode 3 – Delicious

Listen now

Here we are again to discuss what we’ve been up to (despite being such losers). Kevin tells all about his conniving ferret, Scott and I celebrate the epic nature of GTA IV and Paul tells why you should check out The World Ends With You.

We also discuss a fair bit about Issue 3, which you should be able to find at your local newsstands. Find out what we really thought about our cover story, Speed Racer, and what other movies we’re looking forward to from this summer’s crop of big releases. There’s also some talk about roller derby and its appeal, Working Designs and our MONITOR piece on translation “Found in Translation”.

Back in 2008, after PiQ was abruptly put to an end, some of us were still itching to do something in entertainment media and publishing. The only problem was that here in the Houston area, there’s not a whole lot of opportunity in that field, so we all scrambled to find whatever work we could. Me? I managed to snag a contract job at Shell that turned out to be one of the worst experiences I’ve ever had (not my fellow designers, mind you, just the corporate treatment) and all the while I kept the idea in the back of my head that one day I’d be back in publishing. I’d even started to blog about entertainment-type news and goings-on here to sate my appetite.

A few months later, I met up with some of the old PiQ crew and a kernel of an idea turned into a discussion, and that discussion turned into a plan. Myself, Scott Howard and Paul Starr decided to put together something along the lines of what we originally envisioned with PiQ. Entertainment coverage with some depth and character, but without all the all-too-easy snark that seems so prevalent these days. As “the magazine formerly known as Newtype USA“, we’d seen the blind hatred and spite of anime fans first-hand and made it our mission to fight the trend of just hating on things because it was easy. We wanted to celebrate the things we (and apparently, more than a few PiQ readers) loved and had fun talking about.

Enter Sodapop Journal. Sounds like a mouthful, but we found it catchy, meaningful and even a bit timeless, if you will. Unlike PiQ, this baby is all ours, free of interference from silly coked-out execs who can’t sit still and cagey money men who bend numbers to their will. If it fails, it’s all our own fault, but like PiQ, this is a labor of love first and foremost, so just the fact that we’ve actually started doing something is already satisfying in itself.

So remember the name. Sodapop. Journal. Even “SPJ” if you like. We’re just getting things rolling but feel free to jump into the discussion on your favorite movies, music and other entertainment. We won’t bite.

Yes, this joint’s been pretty dry lately. That’s because, among other things like looking for a new job and cranking out freelance work when I can, I’ve also been working on something shiny and new!

Some of you won’t be all that surprised, some of you will dig it and some of you won’t be into it at all. That’s OK, though. I stand at the ready.

Reports are in that ABC has cancelled Life on Mars after only one season. However, in a bit of an unprecedented move, the network will let the show wrap up and bring its main storyline–how detective Sam Tyler found himself transported back in time to 1973–to a fitting conclusion. Apparently ABC was pleased the show’s creative spin, but couldn’t continue to back its falling ratings, so perhaps allowing a series finale is a move to reward those viewers that stuck with the show.

Frankly, I’m surprised that more viewers didn’t get into Life on Mars. While it’s yet another British remake and was hampered by a complete revamp before even airing (including reshoots and recasting), I thought there was enough great writing and performances to keep viewers engaged. And while the show revolves around a central mystery, it never went so far into LOST territory that new viewers couldn’t check in and still enjoy it. Maybe that was a mistake on ABC’s part. After all, the show had excellent production quality (and exceptional music selections), but it was nothing like LOST, and perhaps aligning the two shows worked against Life on Mars. Either way, I thought it was a great run and will be happy to see things wrap up.

LINK

According to an announcement today by Great American Group, one of the firms liquidating the remaining Circuit City inventory, over $1 billion of product has been moved in the last month. After the announcement on January 17 that Circuit City would be closing its 567 stores, sales have apparently been brisk on discounted consumer electronics.

While that’s all well and good, deeper discounts and even lower prices are on the way, starting this Thursday, February 19th, and will continue for the next month or so until all inventory is gone. So, for those shoppers who didn’t bite at the “going out of business” prices, maybe now they’ll be able to find some real deals worth their time.