One of my clients, 123ish.com, is an international platform which has been gracefully accepting some of my most maddened rants over the years. Sadly, they do not have a way to link to an author’s page using their set-up. So from here on out, I will maintain this specific blog post and link it from this site’s front page, serving as a pseudo-directory to my work over there.
Links to all my 123ish.com posts in chronological order (bottom = newest) after the jump:
How To Build An EDH Deck For Magic: The Gathering – A tutorial for new Commander format players in MTG, sharing some of my methods for constructing a deck in that fun format.
Why A Death Note Adaptation Is So Hard – A rumination on my favorite manga of all time and why all attempts to adapt it into film may be doomed to fail, even notwithstanding Netflix’s incompetence.
Leave The Star Wars Holiday Special Alone! – My defense, yes, DEFENSE, of the most hated holiday TV special in all geek fandom history.
15 Hot Music Genres You’ll Be Thrilled To Discover – One of the last times I ever got to write about music. That used to be my mainstay topic!
We Always Need A Black Mirror – The importance of the hit Netflix series, why it’s a worthy successor in a long lineage from Twilight Zone, and why watching it is very good for us.
Why Do We Force-Feed Dystopian Literature To Students? – One of my most controversial op-eds. I counter that shoving George Orwell down every student’s throat is considered harmful to society and we should stop.
The International ECommerce Guide To American Holidays – A useful utility post! Are you an Australian wondering why your American colleague needs a half week off in November? Are you a Canadian wondering whether your American colleague needs Mardi Gras off? All your questions about American holidays are answered here!
Destroy the Palm Trees – Five Reasons Why Palm Trees Need To Go Away – We’re starting to recognize that palm trees are an environmental menace, but I was the first to say so way back when – couched in a humorous Cracked.com-style article.
Let Comedians Say What They Want – That’s Their Job! – Yeah, comedians get to say what they want and if it offends you, tough titty.
The Catholic Horror Legacy – We’re All Demon-Possessed Nun – Why so many nuns in horror movies? Why so much demon possession? Why so much Christian-based horror themes? Is anybody else sick of the Bible being three-quarters of our horror movie culture?
Real Men Don’t Let Razor Commercials Get Under Their Skin – Way back when Gillette razors released a nice commercial about how everybody should get along, and how the toxic hate groups online went ape-poop about it.
Star Trek Is For Liberals, Star Wars Is For Conservatives – You all knew this intuitively, and yet I had to come along and say it out loud.
Bill Maher vs. Comic Book Fans – A Deeper Look – This is twice I had to bail out Bill Maher. He owes me some big time juice.
The Vortex Of Madness Between Putin And Trump – Russiagate rant #1, mildly documenting the conspiracy theories between Putin-Trump. This is me pouring one out for Robert Anton Wilson.
If Anybody Cared About Climate Change, We Could Have Solved It By Now – Seriously people, solutions to climate change are stupidly easy, using technology we invented decades ago. There’s plenty you can do right now individually.
It’s Time To Embrace The Bio-Tech Age! – Biological technology is big news, and could solve a whole lot of our problems if we’d only let it.
Why You Mourned The NASA Opportunity Like A Lost Pet – The freaky psychological short-circuit in our brains that causes us to anthropomorphize inanimate objects as if they were people. Be warned, the end of that post plays with your head.
In The Shadow Of A Tall Mouse – Disney’s Real Monopoly Game – Worried about Disney taking over the world? Too late, a bunch of other multimedia multinational conglomerates own it!
Redefining Success In The Millennial Age – A philosophy post rehashing some of my tiredest ideas about what constitutes success in the modern day. I think this one sucked.
Trashtag – The Day Social Media Became Self-Aware – Phoned-in post about the trashtag phenomenon that was relevant for about five minutes after I posted it.
Best Magic! the Gathering Sealed Products – A Guide to Strategic Investment in Magic: The Gathering – An outdated post about MTG collecting, long before COVID-19 killed the game. See other posts I’ve made about collecting MTG in the wake of COVID-19.
The Top Linux Distros for Everyday Use for Everyone – One of the few times in the modern web I actually got to write about Linux again.
The Biggest and Best Lego Sets Ever – A fun merchandise post about Lego sets. I went through a period where I really liked writing about Lego.
The Best Desktop Toys For Killing Office Boredom – A fun merchandising post about desktop amusements, with of course my usual geeky bias.
The Top Games On Android Worth Your Time – Mostly free Android games that don’t suck, personal picks of mine.
Useful Apps On Android You Never Knew You Needed – In a companion piece, I listed my favorite non-game apps for the Android platform.
Are You Ready For Amazon Prime Day? – In which I took merchandising even farther. There is no point to that post besides “buy this crap, we get a commission!” My clients need to make money sometimes.
Best Devotional Items For Alternative Religions – A merchandise post with items of religious devotion, with the catch being that none of them are about mainstream, serious religions. Ha ha, isn’t that funny?
A Day At The Zoo: 2020 US Democratic Presidential Candidates – The boss said “do a politics post”! Fine. You now have a guide to a bunch of other guys who also ran for the Democrat primary for general election 2020. Sur-prise, Biden got the nod.
VTubers (Virtual YouTubers): Is This The Future Of Entertainment? – At the geeky intersection between anime, music, Japanese pop culture, and video capture technology lies the short-lived culture of vTubers. I live to explore obscure subcultures like these.
How Junji Ito Scares The Pants Off You – Junji Ito is one of my favorite mangakas, this is my fantard introduction to his work.
7 Cool Kitchen Gadgets You Didn’t Know You Needed – Did you know Penguin Pete is a foodie? Did you know I cook? Did you know that I have a range of small-change gadgets which I like to use in cooking?
The Mediterranean Diet and The Struggle Against Fat Culture – My aggravated rant about how fat we all are as a result of American consumer deception.
Complete Guide Magic: The Gathering EDH Commanders You Will Never Get Tired Of Playing – Another MTG EDH Commander guide, this time about finding the most generally versatile commanders and the decks to build around them.
The Road To Hong Kong – China is a horrifyingly oppressive regime, and what it’s doing to Hong Kong is no good, bro! But it took a revolt in the Hearthstone game community to bring it to the West’s attention.
Gift Ideas: Black Friday At Historic Valley Junction – Christmas shopping with Penguin Pete! Had I known that this would be the very last Black Friday, I would have put more effort into it.
Gift Ideas: Penguin Pete Picks a Peck of Geek Toys – Another merchandise post about geek toys and STEM fun for kids.
The Impeachment of Donald J. Trump, 45th President of the United States – Russiagate #2, and what an anti-climax that story turned out to be! 2020 will be the first year we have ever voted in an election where the sitting incumbent president was already impeached.
Russia and Propaganda: What Does Putin Want? – Russiagate #3, the nut of the matter.
How I Accidentally Became A Writer – People ask me, they says, “How yah get to be a writer, Pete?” Well, I just started typing one day, you see…
Top SEO Factors BESIDES Keywords – Sometimes I publish “You Overthink SEO” posts on my own, and sometimes I sell them to clients who drool over the traffic SEO posts get.
Amazing New SEO Method Discovered : Write Like A Human Being! – Oh how I love debunking the bullshit of SEO cargo cultism!
The Top SEO Tools For Content Marketing – Some third-party SEO tools for content marketing. Oh, wait, the title says that.
Social Media Optimization – The Other Digital Marketing – A whole post about content marketing without being about SEO. Social Media is important too!
Freelance Writing in a Post-COVID-19 World – Professional advice to my colleagues and peers around the world, shoring how I’ve continued to thrive in my career while everybody else is on the skids.
Post-Apocalyptic Parenting in a COVID-19 World – The schooling of your rugrats now that the school system is even more damaged by the COVID-19 pandemic than it was already. US education is broken and public school employees are evil and dumb; throw rocks at them.
It Is Indeed Time To Police Social Media – A follow-on from my Invisible Nation post. More about why we need to set up a system of governance of the Internet if we ever hope to get anything done ever again.
Etsy Gifts Christmas 2020 / 2021 – You’ve seen Christmas gift lists before, but what happens when you turn Penguin Pete loose on the eCommerce powerhouse Etsy? You get bags of Bigfoot poop, giant carrot pillows, and fruity soap sets, all made in AMERICA for a change!
US Capitol Insurrection 1/6/2021 : Why the South Will Fall Again – Once again, I apply my perspective to political news in the US. What’s really going on? Step back and view the big picture, and things are going a lot better than you would have thought. 2021 is indeed proving out to be better than 2020 so far.
From Bitcoin to Stonks : The New Wealth for the New Generation – In which I examine the feisty dawn of Generation Z and its influence on the economy. They got tired of protesting and decided to use the system to beat itself. Isn’t that hilarious?
Seeking Online Eden : The Quest For An Intelligent Discussion Community – Why is it so hard to have mature, amicable conversation on the Internet? What online community comes closest to the ideal?
America’s Two-Party Left-Right System Can’t Last – Sick of the US political 2-party cycle? So is everybody! Statistics show it represents virtually nobody. But the good news is that it has changed before, and from the signs of it straining at the cracks, it looks like it’s about to change again.
The Race Illusion : There Is Actually No Such Thing As Race – Dive into the simplest examination of the human population, and you’ll find that we’re all related far more than we’d think. So why do we persist in believing in this illusion of “races”?
The COVID-19 Investigation : Drastic Times Call For D.R.A.S.T.I.C. Measures? – Where did COVID-19 come from? That is the question we’re attempting to answer with the DRASTIC Twitter investigation team, looking for a “smoking gun” at the Wuhan lab. But is the “lab leak” theory actually credible, and even if it pans out, what then?
MTG Arena : The Mediocre Miracle – We return to the decades-long love/hate relationship I have with the most frustrating trading card game, Magic: The Gathering. They have finally (!!!!!) gotten a feasible mobile game going with MTG:Arena, but as you might imagine, the rest of this story is a very, very Hasbro screw-up.
The Environmental Holocaust of Grass Lawns – Since my old palm trees rant has become so popular on 123ish, I followed it up with another environmental rant about how we’re killing the Earth by paving it with mono-culture turf grass.
I have since put my involvement with the 123ish.com project on hiatus. I may write there again or may not. It was mainly a gig to fill in between other gigs back when I had that kind of time.
And do you see how hard I have to work just to keep up with myself? There’s stuff back there I even forgot I wrote!
