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If you like Minesweeper and you have an iPhone, you need this game. Between this and Bejeweled, I’ll never be bored again. It’s got your classic Minesweeper, sure, but it’s also got three other variations on the theme. I like “Imposter” the best, where you have to spot the aliens hiding amongst the boulders. Rodd prefers the hardest one of the bunch: “Rocket Shuffle.” It’s as if the columns on a normal Minesweeper board were shuffled like a slot machine, and you have to line them up the correct away again. He got the logic of it immediately, but it takes me a lot longer to recognize the patterns. There’s also a “challenge” mode at the end where you have to progress through 100 of the other challenges. The graphics and sounds are great, but my favorite thing is the trophy wall where you unlock achievements. Seriously, this is one of the best apps I’ve purchased. (And it’s on sale now!)

Buffy the Vampire Slayer (Abridged). All seven seasons in three minutes and twenty seconds.

The Duckworth-Lewis Method explained. Neat! The DL Method is a system for deciding which side in a cricket match wins when the game has to be cut short (for weather or darkness). I always wondered how it worked.

lowercase L. It’s a blog that collects photos of people’s hand-written signs where they’ve capitalized all the letters except for “L”. It doesn’t sound like much of a phenomenon to me, but I’m sure I’ll start seeing them everywhere now… (Link courtesy of Daring Fireball.)

I just finished reading this collection of short stories from the author of Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell. It’s lovely. Susanna Clarke created such a large and unique universe in that novel that I was happy just to be able to see more of it. The stories all feature interactions between our world and the world of Faerie. Several of them feature women, which is nice since the other book was so male-oriented. These aren’t complicated stories, and they feel more like fairy tales than anything else. The thing I really liked was the creepy mood throughout each one, that feeling that even in the must mundane British village, there are secret places around every corner just waiting to be wandered into. The writing is also amusing in places, such as the reworking of Rumplestiltskin. (“Mr. Simonelli or the Fairy Widower” is oddly stuffed full of references to Jane Austen. I suppose with a tale about five young ladies in Derbyshire though, you can’t escape that.) I think this review does a great job of laying out the strengths and weaknesses of the book. Just think of the stories as extended footnotes from the novel. They’re also great bedtime stories for grown-ups…

Oh, dear GOD. Pugs in hats. I think this one’s my favorite. (We’re cat people, but I just know the Snook is going to love this. Funny animals crack him up.)

TWoP have posted a Serenity recap and, though the author’s writing style sounds a little weird to me, it’s neat to read about the movie from the point-of-view of a serious Firefly fan.