Wide Load.

So hey, remember how I keep banging on about making some changes to the layout of the blog to enable me to embed widescreen youtube videos? Well after months of slaving over a hot CSS, I've done it. Don't tell me you didn't notice the difference as soon as you walked in here. Oh yeah, it took a real man to fix this place up...

Alright so all I did is change two numbers. How many numbers have you changed lately? That's what I thought. Those extra 100 pixels in width are going to change my life.

Ok, I need a video to demonstrate this brave new world. Something epic. Something with explosions, maybe. Or slow-motion...

Wait, do I dare to dream of a video that contains BOTH?



BAM, best 100 pixels I ever spent.

Spot The Difference.

Evening. Hope you're all somehow going about your lives despite the treacherous conditions. I fell over yesterday, but don't panic because I managed to contort my body in mid-air to avoid landing in such a way that would break the Kinder Egg in my pocket. A lucky escape, I'm sure you'll agree. I'm expecting a TV news crew at any moment.

ANYWAY, that's not why I've called you here today. I would like to direct your attention to another blog. This one belongs to a friend of a friend and is a genuine danger to your free time. I intended to dip in and read a few entries but now I've read the whole dang thing.

It's called 'London, Differently' and is the chronicled adventures of a girl who realised she was too broke to afford a holiday and decided to spend a year "rummaging through London to try on all kinds of the lives that are lived here." A champion idea, I'm sure you'll agree.

Now it would be all too easy to attempt something like this and only make pedestrian changes, but our author scoffs at that notion. Instead throwing herself whole-heartedly into the breach: Becoming a vampire. Getting covered in various animal poops and, yes... Taking a short break in a nudist camp only to discover it was in fact a sex camp.

Anyway, it's fascinating, inspiring and well-written to the point that it makes me feel bad about my own piss-poor writing skills. Hooray!

Have a squiz, it's London, Differently.

Plinx Quickie.

Hello, this doesn't really need much of a write up. But it did make me chuckle. So check it out:

Things Bears Love.

Never Mind The Blosics.

Hello, ready for your first physics game of the new year? This has actually been around a while but it got ignored in my scramble to provide christmas themed plinx.

It's called Blosics and it's a game in the 'chucky-ball-bouncy-knock-over-blocks' mould. But it's a good one!

You choose the power and direction of your shot and try to knock the green blocks off screen while (in some levels) keeping the red ones on screen. Also, there's a strategic decision to be made when choosing the size of your shot because it will detract from your score which needs to be over 100 for you to advance...

Ok, so that sounds more complicated then it actually is. Just play it and you'll pick it up in a snap. Also, the sound effects are pretty funny.

Play Blosics!

Snappy New Year.

Welcome to space year 2010, everybody. Hope you all had a great night. I saw in the new year with some friends playing 'Ghostbusters' on Lego Rock Band, I trust you did something similar.

Anyway, I meant to plink this yesterday but I didn't get the chance to get at a computer. So I'd like you to come with me as we go back... IN TIME!

To yesterday, to be exact. Because just like last year, Boston.com have summed up the highs and lows of 2009 in photographs. Some of them are in due to recording historic events, and others are simply incredible pictures.

It's in 3 parts, 40 photos a piece.
Part 1.
Part 2.
Part 3.

You can use the J & K keys to move between pics without scrolling. Oh, and some of the pictures are potentially upsetting so steel yourself.

Happy New Year everyone, thanks for sticking with plinx. I'll try and keep you entertained for another year!

Bandits At 3 O'Clock.

Hello! I trust you all had a fantastic Christmas? If you didn't, go back and try again. I'll wait here.

All back? Good. I have a video for you. It's a simple concept, some dude flies a RC Plane with a camera attached while some other dudes try to hit it with fireworks. Then they take the camera footage from the plane and stick some AC/DC over the top and whack it on youtube. Then yours truly finds it and writes a few words about it before embedding it in a blog post, then you click on it and watch it for a while. Then we all go on with our lives. Sound like a plan? Marvellous!

Bigger Tree.

Holy Crap, it's getting very close to Christmas now, isn't it? I just finished wrapping my presents and I have a Christmas dinner to cook tomorrow. My first ever roast dinner in fact. Let's hope it goes well. If it does, there may well be pictures.

But for now, here's a link that fills me with a mix of joy and despair. It's a news article about something cool (joy!) but it's from the Daily Mail website (despair!).

I'll link it anyway, then go and have a shower. It's about a dude who purchases a 50ft Christmas tree then transports it home attached to a G-Wiz(!) and uses it to create an impressive illusion.

Anyway, See For Yourself.

Blarg, I feel dirty.

Following Yonder Star Power.

I'm going to have to change the layout of this site. I can't embed certain videos because they're too wide. Anyway, you don't care about my html problems, you just want some distraction, right?

I got you covered.

Every year, someone somewhere rigs up an insanely complicated fairy-light display that flashes and twinkles in time to a piece of music. Impressive, but surely it's a formula that could be improved upon.

Yes it is. You could make a christmas light display that can be used to play Guitar Hero! Just an example, like.

CHRISTMAS LIGHTS HERO!

Genius.

Jangle Balls.

Hey!
'Tis the season for festive remakes of existing flash games. Now, in some cases that can be a lazy palette swap, but done properly, it can mean new levels, new mechanics AND a palette swap.

Which is how it is with this holly jolly version of previously plinked 'Civiballs'. Joy to the world.

It's still a case of getting the right balls in the right coloured containers, but now there are candles, toys, santas and snow!

Civiballs Xmas Level Pack. Go!

Ho Ho Hoh My God!

Right, it's time to start getting festive all up in the place. From here until Christmas, it's going to be nothin' but holly jolly plinx.

Starting with Sketchy Santas. It's a blog dedicated to photos of kids sat on Santa's knee, which is a timeless holiday image. Unless the Santa looks like this:



WAH! No wonder the kid looks terrified. So yeah, a collection of frightening Father Christmasses. Fill your boots.

Sketchy Santas.

OK GO - WTF. TTFN.

Howdy. Not much to say this time. just want to report that the wonderful band OK Go have a new album coming out next year and have released the first single from it.

They seem to be making a habit of bringing out great music videos with each new single. Exhibit A. Exhibit B.

This time is no exception. The video for new single 'WTF' is the most visually interesting I have seen yet and is destined to be ripped off by a bank advert just like last time.

See for yourself: OK Go - WTF.

Pow! Oof. Pow! Oof. Pow! Oof.

Good afternoon. How is everyone? Glad to hear it.

Today's link is simple. It's a blog dedicated to sets of 2 or more photos that have been taken very close together. These are then turned into an animated .gif and the results are strangely, hypnotically, funny.

For example:



Hee!

The Whole Blog is pretty cool but it really peaks around about This One.

Egg Feather Bird Of Hen.

Oops, no new plinx in a whole week. Sorry about that. Would a new game dry those tears?

Ok, so once in a while, a game comes along that I know is going to be good before I've even clicked on it. Sometimes, a description is all it takes... This is one such game:

"Help Dale get his chickens back from the Coyotes with the help of Peakot, his magic hen."

Yes, you heard right. This is a game when you control a dude with a magic hen. I nearly went straight ahead and posted the game without checking it out first, but I've been let down by seemingly guaranteed solid gold before. So I gave it a shot and am pleased to report that it is a charming little platform game. The controls are good, the aesthetic is pleasing and YOU CONTROL A DUDE WITH A MAGIC HEN!

Play Dale & Peakot

Ring In The New.

So, I was pondering the mysteries of the universe this evening, as I so often do, and I got to thinking... What would it be like if the Earth had rings like Saturn? If only I could see a graphically rendered simulation of that, my life would be complete.

5 seconds on Google and...

GUESS WHAT, YOU GUYS!


YouTube Video.

Ok, so none of that was true, I just happened to stumble upon this video and thought "Dang, I wish Earth had some rings now". Chances are you're wishing the same thing too. Sorry, reality is such a let down.

I couldn't get this video down to a size that wouldn't balls up the layout here, but to be honest, you should go to YouTube and watch it in big-o-vision anyway.

Plinx Quickie.

The post title here has never been more appropriate. Today I am bringing you an article about the nominees for the Literary Review's 2009 bad sex in fiction prize!

There are some interesting nautical metaphors, the line "there is no mistaking that tang of fish-slime and sawdust", a whole paragraph that sounds as if it was written by primary school children and a book by the legendary Nick Cave.

It's an interesting read, and not for the faint of heart.

Enjoy!