This is weird.

For the last month, I've been playing a tower defense game called "Kingdom Rush" on my iPhone. I've been playing it night and day, constantly.

Today, YouTube showed be a "recommended channel" that was nothing but videos of levels from the sequel to that game, "Kingdom Rush Frontiers".

OK, so I did a single Google (not YouTube) search, a few weeks ago, about the game's user interface. But I do a lot of Google searches, and I don't get YouTube channel recommendations about all of them.

So, something told YouTube that I need to watch a lot of Kingdom Rush Frontiers videos, just as I'm finishing Kingdom Rush.

Does my iPhone talk to Google ? My iPhone knows my gmail account, but that's not the same as my iTunes account.

Confused. Puzzled.

Wow... that was a long vacation. Nice.

Sucks to be back to normalcy!

Did you know that McRib meat slabs ...

... are actually...

...made from lunar soil ?

Lest you think my talent for the pithy one-liner is limited to just "cleek's law", know that Fact #2 is also one of mine.

Two! I have two!

Look out Mencken - I'm comin for ya!

Here's a band of mine (in 1992?) doing a song called "People Suck". Starting at 2:05, we slip into INXS's "Don't Change".

You don't have to love it. But it loves you.

Let's listen to Bardo Pond!

Mrs was away. So, last weekend, I sat on my couch, listening to this album (loud!) and staring glassy-eyed (...) at the iTunes visualizer (big-screen!).

Best hour-ish ever of the weekend.

Well, not quite. But the DailyMail has a bunch of posed animal pics from the early 1900s.

1. Vampire Weekend - Modern Vampires of the City. It took a few listens to grow on me. But, after the initial shock wore off, it seems to fit right in with all their other stuff.
2. Shouting Matches - Grownass Man. A nice, simple, throwback rock and roll sound. Nothing flashy or fancy here, but the songs feel comfortably familiar even on the first listen. It's the same trick that the Black Keys and Alabama Shakes pull off: good songwriting, sincere and un-mannered performances worked into a well-worn and much-loved style.
3. Mazzy Star - Seasons Of Your Day. Sounds like a putdown to say this is more of the same old Mazzy Star, except that I can never get enough Mazzy Star. So, more is awesome.

Honorable Mentions:

• David Bowie - The Next Day. I like it better, on whole, than some of his classic records. I think the lesser songs on this are better than the lesser songs on, for example, Scary Monsters; but this doesn't have the one or two killer songs that Scary Monsters did. I won't listen to Scary Monsters all the way through. But this one I will.
• Queens Of The Stone Age - Like Clockwork. I like this as much as I like any QOSTA record, and in much the same way. "Hey, these guys are great!" Twenty minutes later "Oh, this song again?" The difference between this and Mazzy Star is that Mazzy Star's distinctive and unvaried style just clicks with me in a way that QOTSA doesn't; I don't mind hearing fifteen slow hypnotic Mazzy Star songs in a row, but after two or three thumping, grinding QOTSA songs I'm worn out. Good in small doses, is what I'm saying.

I've bought a ton of music this year, as I always do. But very little of what I bought was released in 2013, and not much that was stuck with me. So, just the three.

Bill Mitchell is hoping his new invention will do for beer fans what coffeemakers did for coffee lovers.

While it is a bit larger than even an industrial grade espresso machine and about as expensive, the portable PicoBrew Zymatic beer brewing system still goes a long way toward eliminating much of the tedious and laborious craftsmanship of home brewing. Inside the oven-shaped portable device is an intricate series of computerized precision automation technologies, each doing its part to ensure that even first-time amateurs, with a push of a few buttons, can reliably replicate just about any formula for beer.

In the future, every frat will have one.