This Month At Dontmindme.com — December 2002

Song of the Month: There are so many possible songs I could go with for this month. I was going to go with some vintage 80s cheese, but then I realized that this is December, after all, so I should go with a Christmas song. Vintage 80s cheese will have to wait for January. Instead, I'm going with something in even worse taste. Weird Al Yankovic has done a few Christmas songs in his day, and they are among his most demented. So the song of the month is "Christmas At Ground Zero" despite the fact that some people are going to be offended by it. It's just so catchy.

TV Show of the Month: I was going to go with another animated series, but I saw Clone High for the first time recently, and it demanded to be the show of the month. Apparently it airs on MTV, but in Canada I've been watching it on Teletoon, Saturday and Sunday night (right after Undergrads, which you should also watch — it's on Comedy Central in the US now) and loving it. The concept is that major figures from world history have been cloned and now they are in high school. I could go on about it for a while, but I won't. Not now. It's twisted, it's animated, it's hilarious. If you like Undergrads you should love it.

Rerun of the Month: To continue the trend of twisted of stuff this month, I'm going with Santa or Supervillain as the rerun of the month. It's one of the more entertaining seasonal items I've written, and certainly among the most twisted.

Odd Link of the Month: So you're into extreme activities, but base jumping and street luge just aren't cutting it anymore. Maybe you need something more intense. Maybe you want to get kidnapped. Now it can be arranged. That's right, there is now a service that you can hire to kidnap you, assuming you live in the greater Detroit area. I'm not sure if this is entirely legit or not, but so far as I can tell, it's real, and not all that expensive, either. Check it out if you don't believe me.

Bizarre Animation of the Month: You can do a lot of stuff with flash animation. Brilliant stuff. Clever stuff. Weird stuff. And so, without further ado allow me to present the Terrible Secret of Space. It's really, really strange, but it had me laughing, although I wasn't entirely sure why. Mostly it was the dancing robots. You will definitely need sound for this link. Check it out, it's well worth the load time.

Quote of the Month: "I am the shover robot. I push bread down their throats." From The Terrible Secret of Space.

Word of the Month: Superlative. Normally I define words when I post them as word of the month, but I really can't restate this definition without making it even more confusing, so let me just say that it means best, and here's a link to a more detailed definition.

Game of the Month: I knew this was coming. Several years ago, when hunting games had taken off big time and Sim everything was in vogue, I said it's only a matter of time until someone did a SimAssassin game. Well, they did, and apparently I missed it entirely. Now they've done it again with Hitman 2: Silent Assassin. You play a contract killer doing various jobs in exotic and distant locations. When I say jobs keep in mind that the game IS called Hitman 2, so these jobs are all wetwork of one sort or another. It's a seriously violent game, or at least it has the potential to be. Somewhat perversely you get the best rating, and bonus weaponry, by doing missions with the lowest possible body counts and without raising alarms: hence the Silent Assassin part. It's not a terribly long or wildly challenging game, but it is a lot of fun. Sometimes the most fun takes place when you ignore the whole stealth element and just go all John Woo on dozens of guards and soldiers. That's most enjoyable after a stressful day at work.

DVD of the Month: Okay, so it's not seasonal or twisted, but Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones is out on DVD now, and quite frankly it's awesome. The movie looks great, sounds better, and if you haven't seen it yet, Yoda's fight near the end exceeds any superlatives that come mind. I love that little green muppet. Oh, and the rest of the movie is good, too. I want a copy for Christmas (hint hint).

Rumour of the Month: Those who have read Hergé's Tintin books will be interested to know that Steven Spielberg might be doing a live-action Tintin movie. This is still in pre-pre-production mode, apparently Spielberg and producer Kathleen Kennedy are trying to acquire the rights from a Belgian company. Not enough details? Okay, then, my sources state that the movie would be based on a two book story arc, most likely Secret of the Unicorn/Red Rackham's Treasure or Seven Crystal Balls/Prisoners of the Sun.