I recently decided I would spend 24 hours avoiding the use of the word ‘cool.’ Harvey Smith has challenged me to 24 hours of not using any superlative or adjective, but instead to describe things as they are, leaving the subjective and unsubstantive words on the wayside for a short period of time.

I accept his challenge, and I look forward to utilizing language in a manner different than to which I am accustomed. I also expect a few slip-ups and will enjoy overanalyzing why I was using those words in those sentences.

See http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7576956.stm.

This is a very, very good idea, and I’m surprised we haven’t seen more of this in other venues similar to Xbox Live. The only issue now is encouraging people to stop playing Halo 3 for just a few minutes come election day and actually go to their polling place.

I’m only being partly facetious. I hope that there’s an obvious option in the online registration that allows people to sign up for absentee ballots.

A few new XBLA games have caught my attention recently. Braid is being played and praised. Geometry Wars 2 is addictive. And Bionic Commando: Rearmed releases today.

This is in contrast to months and months of low-profile releases. Is Microsoft playing at something? Some sort of summer blockbuster concept of downloadable game releases?

A great video of a procedural city generator. Seen at serial consign, via DesignNotes.

The cities in the video above, with a bit more art direction, look like they could be right out of a Spiderman game, or Mirror’s Edge. Procedural content, especially in terms of environment design, is an iffy area, but those topographies could be great launching points for game designers needing a large, urban environment. And with the right constraints, I bet some very playable cities could be generated without much effort.

• Wanted: vacuous characters, farcical plot and ridiculous character abilities (spec.effects wet dream): just what an action movie should be. #

Found this on fig crumbs. By Lenka Clayton and James Price.

• Ate at the airport Chilis. Not good. #
• @jeffdanger Already feeling it. Send pepto bismol. #
• @evanembedded Is that you all the way in the back of the plane? #

• On my way to visit Monica. LA traffic isn’t too heavy but cab is a traffic ninja anyway. #
• @charliekeen Har! It was close, actually. Worse coming back in traffic this morning. But well worth it. I sound like a Mastercard shill. #

• @Harvey1966 Be very glad. #
• If any of you folks are in LA, come by hotel figueroa to check out Mushroom Men. #