PSA: "Isaac Asimov's Robots VCR Mystery Game" exists.

That's right, everbody. There is such a thing as "Isaac Asimov's Robots VCR Mystery Game." This should finally put to rest all those questions that have kept you up at night, and the fears that have you bolting upright in bed soaked in sweat.

Don't worry. It's here. It's always been here. (Well, for the last twenty years or so.) You can even buy it if you need to immediately own your own copy, which, as an owner of a copy of the Atari 2600 "E.T. game," is a reaction I would understand and endorse.

I discovered this while searching for awesome things at a Goodwill in Less Local City. Obviously, I struck gold.

P.C. and I have played it once, of course, and in addition to the awesomeness you would expect to find in a campy, vintage-80's (if such a thing existed) VHS-tape-based game, it actually had some merit. I was surprised by some of the things that happened in the 40-minute video, though the fact that it never actually changes ensures that I wouldn't be surprised every time. Still, I can usually "call" the killer, motive and method at the beginning of most post-9/11 one-hour-detective/procedural dramas, and those are supposed to be the most sophisticated video-based crime-drama plots humans have produced so far (according to some criticism I read at some point) -- so good for Asimov's Robots.

The point of the game is to solve the mystery of who tried to assassinate a prominent "Spacer" scientist -- "Spacers" being the race of people who left earth for space long ago, and are as a result taller, healthier and generally more attractive than "Earthers," and also have significantly more developed technology, allowing them human-like robots and the ability to live exceedingly long lives (as long as they aren't exposed to "Earth" germs) -- and the answer to the question is different in every permutation of clue combinations.

Because the video never changes, the clues are written on double-sided cards separated into four decks (beginner to expert). You can use the clue on either side of each card, which changes the outcome; at six cards per deck, the combinations of six-clue games allow for "over 250" different results.

Of course, there aren't really 250 different characters in a 40 minute video, but part of the game is figuring out opportunity and motive, which may change with every difference in clue combination. P.C. and I found that even the beginner level cards we tried when we played required pretty sophisticated reasoning when we tried to determine why one of the robots had done it. (That time! Next time it could be a person! An Earther! Or a Spacer! Or a different robot!)

To answer your most burning questions about the details of the video, yes, the game does endorse the once firmly held theory that sophisticated people in the future would wear mute-toned spandex (for the men) and very large shoulderpads (for the women). Yes, it is full of no-name actors I haven't seen in anything else, and yes, the main character does look directly at you, the viewer, when "receiving" new clues. No, they do not use transporters.

But yes, Earth robots do look like people dressed in silver-painted cardboard with silver-painted fishbowls over their heads, as I think we all knew, deep down, that they would.

There's also a VCR mystery game, also by Kodak, of Clue. Without having seen it, I feel I can recommend it, though of course slightly less than the significantly more bizarre (and thus more awesome) "Isaac Asimov's Robots."

Local Trivia: Turtle and bunny released into the wilds, which causes me some carver's block.

I recently let loose two "fleas," which are tiny stamps that travel from person to person or person to letterbox or box to person. I promised that when a person "found" both fleas, they would gain access to a clue to another, totally awesome stamp (set). This can be difficult to do, finding two small fleas in an international hobby, so I don't anticipate scads of success.

Still, because these boxes will be so hard to find, I wanted them to be awesome. The two fleas I refer to were a turtle and a bunny, so the mystery box will be on a "tortoise and the hare" theme. I scoured the internet looking for images but stopped immediately when I saw these schematics of Jeff Zugale (L.A. artist)'s submission to the 2009 Steampunk Challenge.

His concept is a reinvention of "The Tortoise and the Hare," which in his telling becomes the tale of a scrappy backyard inventor's success over the efficient and presumably German "Hare" racing and transportation system. Look it over, and marvel at the level of detail.

Then shudder thinking about how on earth I'm going to carve that out of a flat block of 4"x6" pink rubber. And then look at the hare.

I'll stamp and scan them when I'm done.

PSA: Stamps available for some.

Hey, all. I've been slacking on the blog front, lately, in part because I've been letterboxing so much.

A one of you may have already seen stamps that were carved for her personally, on account of her getting married. But the rest of you...well, you have no proof so far that I'm being awesome at something that isn't this blog, and I feel I owe you.

If you want a rubber stamp made for you, possibly for you to "plant" somewhere in your area of the country, or for you to stamp stuff with (I won't do address label stamps, because come ON, guys), I need you to select an image that will look good in black and white and either figure out how to post it in the comments, or email it to me, or both.

I promised this wouldn't become a letterboxing blog, but I didn't promise you wouldn't get letterboxing-related presents.

PSA: What they should have done about Terry Jones

The president shouldn't have to call up a guy in Florida and ask him politely not to burn the Qur'an. I mean, President Obama is busy doing things like making sure that that guy still has the right to burn stuff, and simultaneously trying to ensure that his right to burn stuff doesn't get a whole lot of other people killed.

What they should have done, because media attention probably felt a lot like the attention of God to Terry Jones, is sent down Robert Duvall. Jones reminded me, more than anything, of Duvall's character in The Apostle, flawed and yet compelling, and Duvall recently completed another film that deals with religious themes, Get Low. His ability to listen and natural gravitas would have pulled Jones back into line with mainstream America's (for once) well-reasoned stance against burning holy books.

And that would have been good for Jones, too, who didn't seem to consider in all this hulabaloo (and it wasn't pointed out to him by the media) that God doesn't really tell Christians to burn other holy texts, and that when God was offerred "strange fire" in the Old Testament, it didn't really go well for the fire-starters.

I'm pretty sure Duvall would have brought that up.

Local Trivia: We suck much more than our ancestors. At least in pictures.

While looking for images to carve stamps out of, I found this website for Local City's historic photos, comparing images of main streets in downtown Local City from 1899, 1950, and 2002.

I find it fascinating to look at how things have changed. Perhaps you'll find it less fascinating because you're not as familiar with Local City and are not (probably) sitting in Local City's public library while viewing them. But the thing that most strikes me, and that will be able to strike you even if you've never been to Local City, is the apparent change in the quality of life (and reflected in the increasing quality of the digital version of the photos): maybe 1899's horses and buggies aren't your cup of tea, but all the awesome old-tyme cars of the 50s crowding Local City's streets hold a certain appeal to me.

I wish this "Then and Now" listing also included a photo from the 80s, when I was growing up in Local City. Before Reagonomics set in, and before all the factory work moved elsewhere (not that I blame it), I remember downtown Local City as a happening place, with a sandwich shop that sold awesome milkshakes and a toy shop from which I made my first toy purchases: a doll and a marionette, both of which I still have (somewhere).

Local City now makes me a little bit sad, because I remember what it was, and what I was, and how connected I was to Local City. Maybe it's not that the 50s were better, but that the images of the recent past, as technologically advanced and populated with "normal" contemporary cars and people as they are, seem so empty and disconnected.

Happy Birthday (observed)!

I decided to celebrate my birthday (obs.) today.

A friend made me a version of a pineapple upside-down cake, and another friend re-glued my letterboxing logbook, which fell apart in a cemetery two days ago. We're currently watching I Love You, Man for the fourth time or so, as it's a very hilarious movie (though risque -- don't watch it with the kids or the parents).

Much improved from Tonsilitis-a-thon 2010, aka "my real birthday." So happy birthday (observed) to me!

Local Trivia: Letterbox series I'm planning

My Art Nemesis: Sol LeWitt artworks

Birdhouse in your soul (Jason and the Argonauts, blue canary, outlet by a lightswitch, bee in a bonnet, lighthouse, fresh-baked yummy dessert, birdhouse)

"Where's the pineapple?" an ode to Psych

Firehouse patches

Goodwill (a stamp at every state Goodwill depicting something I've bought from that store)

...and as always, the grand scheme of things: stamps to honor They Might Be Giants.

Confessions XLVI

I lied to a cop last night while letterboxing.

It was the stupidest lie I've ever told, and possibly the stupidest I've ever heard. I can't even remember most of it now.

I feel significantly worse about the stupidity of the lie than the fact that I didn't tell the truth.

PSQ: Primary sources...

I'm in need of a whittling down of all the television shows (and possibly movies) produced since 9/11 that have some sort of detective element in them (including, say Criminal Minds, but also House), for the sake of my sanity and my capstone Cultural Production paper, which I'd like to be awesome.

I've been considering Dexter, and as such am rewatching it in the nonchalant way normal people might rewatch things -- casually, without the several episode, several day gorging I normally do "for the sake of science" -- but it would throw a bunch of interesting wrenches in my proposed thesis to focus on a show where the detective is actually also a serial killer.

I also started watching The Shield, though ditto to that one.

All suggestions are welcome. I won't bore you with the details of my thesis here, unless you request them, so I realize it's a shot in the dark, but hey -- it's all helpful in whittling.

PSA: Why I'm excited about the 21st:

"The fourth slap in "Slapsgiving 2: Revenge of the Slap" (ep.9)"