That Was Fast.

The speed at which a mouth injury can heal is scary. I took it for granted, when I nipped my cheek or the tip of my tongue, that things would be OK soon enough. But with a stitch in my mouth, I've been a bit more concerned, which has led to me sticking out my tongue in the mirror so that I could be sure that the wound wasn't, as warned by the nurse, "oozing." I wish I'd taken pictures instead. I essentially watched my tongue heal itself over the course of my Saturday. At 8 p.m., I went with cramerica to see V for Vendetta, and I could speak freely, except for sibilants. Twelve hours later, when I drove home to edit The Gamer's Quarter, I could make all sounds without pain. In between, I watched the small blood clots medimagically disappear in the mirror of the office bathroom.

I've been helping to edit The Gamer's Quarter for a few months, and this weekend, I went all out by doing final copyediting on the entire issue (save for two articles with heavy spoilers for games I haven't finished yet). It wasn't as bad as it sounds. There were only a few places with big problems, and mostly I was trying to get some consistency with typeface and punctuation. Still, it took a long time. Probably a bit to much of that time was dedicated first to discovering that the fonts were to messed up to completely fix and then to trying to restore the fonts to the previous state which, though messed up, were at least stable.

It was actually a lot of fun. That has a lot to do with some beautiful essays in this issue. It's also thanks to the editor in chief, shapermc, who is a fantastic and amusing IM companion. The full issue is currently available for download as a large PDF within a zip file. You can also preorder the print edition of the magazine for $5, along with various other gaming merchandise. This is a wonderful option. Don't worry about the time delay; everything will be just as relevant in five weeks as it is now, and it's really nice to hold the words in your hand.

I felt there were several standout articles this issue. Sergei Servianov (seryoga) has two very gentle articles about some rather brutal games. M. O'Connor (http://dhex.org/htbr) also has two articles, each with a wonderful sense of humor. "Lucid Dreaming" by Heather Campbell (velveteencat) has some of the most haunting imagery I've seen recently. John Sczcepaniak's article about Outrun 2 and emulation touches on cross-generational gaming well. And Tim McGowan (swimmy) has a short and sweet article that appeals to fans of RPGs and fans of punctuation (and doubly appeals to people like me, who are fans of both).

Download and preorder and read.

BNA

I've been wanting to do a lyrics meme since sunyata__ got a horribly inaccurate impression of my music from the music that came up on my iPod while we were driving through LA. And I'd thought of this as something I wanted to try. And I was bored today. So voila.

Every lyric listed below occurs immediately before or immediately after the title of the song. This should help eliminate those times when you can think of the song but not the title. This is a random selection of songs in iTunes that I've rated three stars or higher, and obviously I eliminated songs that didn't have the exact title in the lyrics, or that were otherwise annoying to work with. There are thirty, because I didn't realize how many I'd made until I was at 29, at which point I added another for roundness.

And, as always, only correct guess per person.

Update: Things are moving slowly, so I've added ellipses to all of the quotes, and I've expanded guessing to two songs. So if you've guessed once before, you can guess once more. And if you haven't guessed, you can guess twice!

1. A falling star can’t fall forever, but . . . (identified by zdamiana)
   
2. And a world screams . . . (identified by orenr)
   
3. And frightened all the dogs on . . . (identified by hahathor)
   
4. . . . And the television news
   
5. And the whites will be grey but . . . (identified by lunchboy)
   
6. . . . Are a double ess, I see (identified by satch)
   
7. . . . But, baby, don't pout (identified by thedan)
   
8. But I still hit your walls, and it's just like . . . (identified by fmi_agent)
   
9. . . . Come hold me tight
   
10. . . . Covers your tracks, doesn't do shit for the facts
    
11. Help me stay awake, I'm falling asleep in . . . (identified by morganlight)
    
12. . . . I don't want to see (identified by joenotcharles)
    
13. I know you were a bit surprised by . . .
    
14. I'm only into this to . . .
    
15. . . . I'm terribly fond of you
    
16. In the game of life, he's just a dreadful . . . (identified by lunchboy)
    
17. It would be as flat as the . . . (identified by slipjig)
    
18. . . . It's a crazy feeling (identified by paulobrian)
    
19. MTV level three when I fly on BET . . .
    
20. . . . Much, much better off, better by far (identified by fortunavirilis)
    
21. People change, here I'm just a . . .
    
22. . . . We all love looking down (identified by thedan)
    
23. We're giving it all away, we're giving it all away . . .
    
24. What you want, you don't know . . . (identified by paulobrian)
    
25. When I reach those hills, boys, I'll never roam . . .
    
26. Sweeter than a drop of blood from a . . . (identified by hahathor)
    
27. Take me, I won't surrender the battle for . . .
    
28. That's how the surf gave birth, I'm told, to . . .
    
29. The moon was paper white . . .
    
30. You've never seen what I could do, like run a mile and jump . . .