Holidays

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Drinking & Driving Is All Fun & Games…

[ Comments Off ]Posted on December 28, 2009 by admin in Holidays

Monday, December 28th, 2009

…until somebody loses a license. Or gets their DUI ticket Twittered all over Texas.


Don’t be a drinking and driving dummy

…until somebody loses a license or something. For all you poor cusses who have to hold down the office between the holidays, we have a special New Year edition of our Monday Demotivators. With New Year’s Eve just a few days away, many of you are probably thinking more about drinking than working: how much to do, how much to buy, how well you can drive when you’ve done a little. So let’s start with that last bit. You’d think that with the way most game developers drink, there’d be more Flash games devoted to the topic. All we could find were a couple that were devoted to staying vertical, like Sittin’ at a Bar (which was really just a promo for country band Rehab’s Bartender Song), or Mind Me Bloody Beer (which was a promo for British comic Johnny Vegas) and Haleed the Drunk, which was a plug for…I dunno. Haleed the Drunk? Games specifically devoted to drinking AND driving have run into marketing problems in the past, in spite of getting funding from the US Army. But we found a couple anyway. If you happen to be drunk right now, you’re probably in the right frame of mind to enjoy Drunk Driving Championship; hitting the space bar to avoid crashing gets dull pretty quickly on just coffee. Likewise with Drunk Driving Dummy, which gives you odd instructions for a drug run starting at a bar, and then sends you off. Unfortunately it sends you off in a car with a broken Read the rest of this entry »

The Black Candle – An Award Winning Film About Kwanzaa

[ Comments Off ]Posted on December 26, 2009 by admin in Holidays

Saturday, December 26th, 2009

Directed by author and filmmaker M.K. Asante Jr, and narrated by Maya Angelou

Last year I shared that I had decided to stop belittling Kwanzaa for being a made-up holiday, which I had been doing for years mostly because I was completely ignorant of what it was really all about, beyond the parts that were all too easy to poke fun at. This sentiment seems to be gathering some press here and there; this Slate piece by Melonyce McAfee, for instance, describes firsthand the positive part Kwanzaa played in at least one person’s upbringing. If you’re as ignorant as I was about the details of the holiday, you can of course hit Wikipedia, but I’m personally looking forward to watching The Black Candle, an award-winning documentary directed by author and filmmaker M.K. Asante Jr., and narrated by Maya Angelou. It’s available on DVD, but it also is making its TV debut on TVOne on Saturday December 26. If – like me – you’re in the Detroit area, there are also special free screenings on the 26th, 27th and 29th at the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History. If you’re elsewhere in the country, find a screening here. The official trailer is below, and there’s an extended unofficial nine minute preview on YouTube. Read the rest of this entry »

Merry Christmas! You Okay With That?

[ 1 Comment ]Posted on December 25, 2009 by admin in Holidays

Friday, December 25th, 2009

Excessive cultural sensitivity can be a real buzz kill.

We hope that whatever you do on December 25th, you have a great day. We’ve done our best to give you some seasonal cheer by sharing amusing ideas for holiday shopping and odd holiday Flash games to distract you. We hope you enjoy the the daily gift we serve up; we don’t expect anything in return, but if you feel like giving back something, support or sponsors by visiting their sites once in a while. Or even make a donation. Ultimately though, it’s reward enough to be able to ramble on about anything we like and have people continue to come back for more. Personally, if I could have one holiday wish come true, it would be for people to get off their politically correct pedestals, and share a little love and happiness this time of year. I was joking a few weeks ago that we’ve finally killed Santa, but there was an element of genuine sentiment behind what I was saying. In my opinion, what began as a healthy cultural sensitivity back in the 80′s (i.e.: the tendency to say “happy holidays” and avoid getting too specific) has in the long run destroyed the best of a multi-flavored season of celebration. Especially in the northern latitudes, we NEED a season to remind us to be loving and caring and cheerful; the seventeen hours of darkness we experience by late December can be a crushing blow to one’s biological clock, and we need all the help we can get! I personally feel that by elaborately dissecting how various holidays evolved to be what they are at this point in history, we destroyed a powerful positive spirit in order to eliminate a problem that wasn’t that big in the first place. The proverbial baby and bathwater scenario. I hope we can get better at respecting other people’s cultural traditions by respecting all of them, and by feeling comfortable saying Merry Christmas, Happy Hannukah, Happy Diwali, or whatever, whether acknowledging our own celebration or trying to acknowledge those of others. This “Happy Holidays” crap is for the birds. So Merry Christmas!

Reindeer Games Rudolph Wouldn’t WANT To Join In

[ 1 Comment ]Posted on December 22, 2009 by admin in Holidays

Tuesday, December 22nd, 2009

For some, the holidays can be a bitter time. Especially for Flash game developers, I guess. Help Rudolph get revenge, and see how many employees Santa can slay with this weeks holiday-themed games of violence and vengeance. And what is it with game developers and spelling, anyway?


Finally, a reindeer game even Rudolph can
get behind. Or in this case, in front of.

Sadly, for some people the holiday season is a time of frustration, anxiety and resentment. And apparently, this is especially true for Flash game developers, who probably all grew up as misunderstood misanthropes who never got what they wanted at Christmas because their parents didn’t understand their genius. Well, they’re silently eeking out their revenge; we went looking for fun and happy holiday-themed games to keep you amused this week, but were surprised by how many were based instead on violence and vengeance. We could understand Rudolphs Kick n’ Fly, in which Rudolph kicks elves into the air (much like Kitty Cannon), because no one really gets hurt, and Rudolph has every right to be upset after the abuse he received as a child. But Rudolph’s Revenge is downright ruthless, with a scrappy, gun-toting Rudolph that looks like he’s been working at the North Pole meth lab for too long. And why does Santa need a gun? The truth is, both Serious Santa and Santa’s Vegneance tease your inner psycho with sinister Santas who look like they’re out for blood in intense first person shooters, and then the games actually serve up silly little pixelated Santas that only move in two dimensions. Jingle Ballistics is doubly misleading; there are no bullets, and not much jingle, just a choice of a snowman, an elf, or a sullen Santa for one-on-one boxing matches. In the continued mind-numbing search (I say mind-numbing because I for one really am not a gamer) for something a little chippier to keep you amused, we thought maybe we’d find a clever or cute snowball game like Snowcraft, and ran across a little journey into psychosis misleadingly called Snowball Holiday Flash Game. It took a minute to realize that the the weird things hanging in the viewframe weren’t curtains, but an anime girl’s hair, and the little penises that kept popping up Read the rest of this entry »

Forget Festivus, Global Orgasm Day Is Coming!

[ 1 Comment ]Posted on December 17, 2009 by admin in Holidays

Thursday, December 17th, 2009

Between Festivus and Global Orgasm Day, you can rest assured that the North Pole isn’t the ONLY pole that’s getting some action this time of year.

Christmas is just around the corner (which is why we’ve provided so many offbeat shopping suggestions recently), but let’s not forget that Christians and capitalists aren’t the only people who celebrate a holiday in December. I know, you’re saying to yourself “I’m an educated, culturally sensitive individual, I know all about Festivus, The Holiday for the Rest of Us! “, but do you? Take the quiz and find out. And let’s not forget that it’s also time once again for the world to come together and, er, come together. Yes, for some of us, the real climax of the holiday season is Global Orgasm Day, which is on the solstice, which – as all you heathen pagans probably already know – is the 21st at 17:47 GMT. Give or take a few seconds. Personally, I like to combine these two holidays by buying my own very special Festivus Pole (the Peekaboo Hot Pink Party Pole Dancing Kit will usually suffice) and hiring a hooker. I’m sure some of you find that idea offensive, but spare us the comments here; you can share theme during the “Airing of Grievances” at Festivus Dinner, okay? Read the rest of this entry »

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