[caption id="" align=“aligncenter” width=“500” caption=“Baseball is BACK! The (Miami) Marlins are headed to Philadelphia for their second/third series of the year.”] [/caption] Baseball. It signals the end of winter. Guess what, guys? Winter is GONE! The Marlins are off to a rocky start (1-3), but they’re still looking pretty good and, in the past two games, playing pretty well too. I really hope this season is better than the last, but, either way, at least baseball has returned. ...

[caption id="" align=“aligncenter” width=“333” caption="(Photo courtesy Hot Grill)"] [/caption] This is gonna be a weird update because I don’t think any most of my regular readers contributed to the Double Fine Adventure, but the first episode of their documentary series is out for backers. Watching it…felt good. I would love to link to the video to prove it, but it’s backers-only (I’m sure you could find it on youtube if you really tried, but that’s really crappy. Don’t do that). The production values are high and the documentary just pulls at all the right heartstrings. I mean, I felt really good about the entire project and that’s why I’m writing this post. This project makes me feel like I’m a part of something big. All I did was toss in $100, but I feel like I’m contributing to the changing face of games and seeing the happiness on Tim Schafer’s face (a man whose work I adore) makes everything feel so right. I’m proud of Double Fine and I hope this project goes really well. ...

If you were to bother to read my books, to behave as educated persons would, you would learn that they are not sexy, and do not argue in favor of wildness of any kind. They beg that people be kinder and more responsible than they often are. It is true that some of the characters speak coarsely. That is because people speak coarsely in real life. Especially soldiers and hardworking men speak coarsely, and even our most sheltered children know that. And we all know, too, that those words really don’t damage children much. They didn’t damage us when we were young. It was evil deeds and lying that hurt us. ...

Not every episode can be a bombastic “Zou Bisou”, can it? A lot of people don’t like Betty, but this episode featured centered around her in a truly bizarre fat suit. Betty has a little bit of a health scare related to a lump found on her thyroid which sends ripples through the Francis and Draper households. The scene with Henry and Don talking on the phone was pretty interesting in how threatened he seemed by the fact that Betty shared her health scare with Don too. Betty’s scenes in the show (minus the cheesy medium one) were pretty great at illustrating the complications of being her. She’s always been profoundly sad and unable to cope with her life and the cancer scare actually seemed to give her a spark and some meaning. It’s like she doesn’t know how to be and having that made her somewhat special. Her immediate response at finding out it was benign was to dwell on her getting fat instead. More negatives. She’s truly got a sad existence. ...

If there’s one breakout actor from Parks and Recreation for me it’s Aubrey Plaza. Take a silly premise and what looks like a quirky indie film about the funniest wanted ad ever and I’m game.

Mad Men is back, y’all, and it’s better than ever! Season four flirted with perfection, but that was somewhere around 17 months ago. Now it’s time for something new. I think it’s fair to guess that season five is probably going to deal with the civil rights issue that its protagonists have mostly dodged for four seasons now. The bookends to the episode involving Y&R and SCDP’s various pranks at least promise to make it an important issue for at least two episodes, but I’m betting we see it take greater importance as the season wears on. ...

[caption id="" align=“aligncenter” width=“346” caption=“Seann William Scott is so innocently dumb in this movie, but it’s actually quite good. (Picture courtesy nxusco)”] [/caption] Guys, Goon was really good. More later, but you should check it out. This week was a real scattershot weekend as I tried to play a bunch of games I didn’t give much time to before. Movies Martha Marcy May Marlene - The cult in the movie is an interesting contrast to the fundamentalist Christian society in Higher Ground and the hippie commune of Wanderlust. This movie really ratchets up the tension of not knowing what’s real and what’s not. Ideally they would have made Patrick a scarier presence, but the movie is still on pretty solid ground with what it accomplishes. Congrats on the fantastic part, Elizabeth Olsen. Keep it up! ...

[caption id="" align=“aligncenter” width=“500” caption=“Season 5, y’all! (Photo courtesy Roman Skrada)”] [/caption] Mad Men is BACK…but shhhh! I haven’t seen the premiere yet. Trying to finish S4 first and I’ve got about three episodes to burn through. I’ll get it tonight. Don’t worry. Movies Was supposed to watch one, but…didn’t get around to it. TV Persona 4: The Animation - This show continues to be awesome. The Nanako stuff was really emotionally tough to watch, wow. ...

Jimmy Kimmel reminds us all that celebrities see what you tweet at them.

The Mega64 guys team up with Cliff Bleszinski to honor the achievements of video game luminary, Warren Spector.