I subscribe to a trio of video game magazines: Official PlayStation Magazine, Electronic Gaming Monthly, and Nintendo Power. Even though I do check various gaming news websites on a daily basis, I still like getting the magazines.

I like the concept of books in general... actual permanent, tangible objects. Magazines are also easier to use than websites. You get more info with less work: less clicking around, waiting for stuff to load. And since it's a magazine, you're forced to see everything as you page through, so you see stuff that you might actively ignore on choose-your-own-link websites. Sure, the websites are going to have the most timely info, active discussion boards - and that's why I use them - but they also veer towards unprofessionalism in design, layout and editorial issues. I know the garage-band vibe can add to the charm, but that doesn't excuse crappy, amateurish design. Nor does it excuse embarrassingly awful webcomics and vicious, inciteful fanboyism.

Annie isn't quite sure what to make of Zoe, but she's already let loose a couple of dominant-sounding hisses to begin negotiations.

We picked up this little black farm kitten today, named her Zoe after consulting a list of Boyd's Bear stuffed animal cat names. "Zoe" works on several levels when combined with "Annie." There's Annie & Zoe, which sort of sounds like a J.D. Salinger novel. Then there's the alphabetical wordplay from A to Z.

You can take your goddamn Halo 2 headshot FPS rocket launchin' ass and sit in the corner, because Nintendo just came out of the E3 gate with some jaw-droppers.

The Nintendo DS just went from Maybe to Absofuckinglutely. Even if no more DS games are ever released ever beyond the E3 list, I'd consider it a well-planned purchase. DS versions (That means dual screen by the way... the DS is a fliptop double screen Bluetooth voice-recognizing touch screen six button GBA. Oh god I need a towel.) of Mario Kart, Wario Ware, Mario 64, Animal Crossing and Metroid Prime are all forthcoming. I need two of them already.

After the stunning realization that the Nintendo DS is not a big joke and is in fact quite awesome, it's tough to get super-excited about Sony's showing at E3. I mean, most of their stuff is games we already knew about, so there's not many surprises.

Already knew about (and already excited for): Ratchet & Clank 3 (online play!), Kingdom Hearts 2, MGS: Snake Eater, GTA: San Andreas, Sly Cooper 2, Star Wars Battlefront, Lord of the Rings Trilogy. Obviously. Then there's...

Black, a game that is still very much secret. It's an FPS, it has destructible environments, it's story-driven. Probably intended to be the Half-Life 2 of the PS2 world. Folks are impressed, the hype is working, I'm interested.

I set myself up for disappointment, sometimes, and crap like this really bugs me. I go in with super high hopes for video game experiences, because, at their best, video games are a lot of fun. I don’t need to preach to the choir about this, obviously. The problem is, when things aren’t as good as I think they should be, I force myself to stay with the experiment until I can’t help but be crushingly annoyed by its flaws.

Beyond Divinity set itself up as a wonderful experience based on the strengths of Larian’s earlier title, Divine Divinity. In fact, Beyond Divinity is based on the engine developed for Divine Divinity, so the only thing they really had to provide was a fun game to stretch over a workable canvas. That they didn’t really got annoying, particularly since the engine’s gotten even more buggy since its last incarnation.

The first wave of Majesco's GBA Video Paks is in stores, kicking off with a collection of Nickelodeon cartoon properties. It's a fair idea, the kind of thing that gadget freaks have been wanting for years. But since the concept is materializing on a Game Boy Advance using Nicktoons characters, it's not going to get a lot of play.

What you have here is a portable video player that doesn't totally suck, doesn't require some kind of crazy new imaginary hardware, and is available right now. We iPodders have been hearing rumors that some far-flung FuturePod will play video. Until then, there's quite a bit to be said for just plugging a cartridge into your GBA SP and watching 45 minutes of decently fluid and passably detailed cartoons.

My game clock for Red Dead Revolver shows a little over 15 hours. That includes probably 2+ hours of deathmatching. And me going through the entire game twice. Twice. The complete single-player game two times.

Either I'm a freakin' gamegod, or this game is short beyond all short. I complained that BG&E is too short at ten hours. A six hour single player adventure game is goddamned near unacceptable.

But I have to give the game this... once it was done, it was so good I wanted to play it again. Most adventure games I play once and that's it. In many cases it's because I prefer the notion of experiencing each game once and only once, but most of the time, they're just too long to play again and I've already bought something new. So maybe that was the plan for Red Dead Revolver: an adventure game short enough to finish several times and good enough to be worth the time.

Red Dead Revolver. Odd title. Let's get past that right away. Has a great rhyming quality though, which makes it work.

The Kitten Quarantine continues. Zoe has been revealed to have both ear mites and conjunctivitis. Fleas look like a near miss; we've looked and the vets have looked and not located any. Feces Test #1 indicates she is parasite-free, but a second test is required.

Last Friday, we upgraded her quarters from the cat carrier to the entire room. Her world currently consists of the spare bed, a litter pan (inside the carrier), a cardboard box lined with newspaper for romping, and a mess of board games under the bed. Included: Lord of the Rings Risk, Constructionary, Ubi, Junior Couch Potato Game, and the Star Wars Battle on the Sarlaac Pit game.

This is from Mark Evanier's weblog, newsfromme.com, part of an entry on Michael Moore:

I like some of the things Moore has done and not others. His two TV shows, TV Nation and The Awful Truth, almost seemed to alternate brilliant material with things that made me cringe...and not in a good way. I think he's kind of like the Rush Limbaugh of the left in that around 50% of what he says/does is honest insight and 50% is dishonest theater. It gets attention, it prods others into action, sells tickets (or in Rush's case, gets ratings) and it maybe reinforces a lot of dubious beliefs...but ultimately, it just drives our national debate further into mud-wrestling. I guess what ruins it for me with both of them is that in each case -- and this applies to others, as well -- you have a real smart man who's good at entertaining, good at socking home his points...but he won't stop where the supportable facts leave off. It may not bother others but I don't want to get hooked by the good parts and then embarrassed by the excesses. I keep feeling let down by the guy, and I'd rather not risk more of that intermittment disappointment.

I finally did some much needed basement cleaning last night, tackling a task once thought too gargantuan to take.

You see, I've been buying card game cards since college... and I have kept every single wrapper and box since then. Every booster and starter has been stuffed into a giant cardboard hidden downstairs. Yes, this is crazy. Those wrappers are trash. But I've always liked seeing the design and layout of the packaging - especially the umpteen million Pokemon starter boxes - so I've never been able to throw anything out.

About a year ago I decided to stop keeping the wrappers - Step One - so I've been tossing the new stuff (except for a couple samples for posterity), but this box still held almost a decade's worth of gaming refuse. It needed dealt with.