Link roundup

1. "The protagonist of The Shining is the hotel" - - observation from a well-written and multi-part analysis of Kubrick's The Shining. Via.

2. Pointing out how archaic the Final Fantasy systems have become:
Our major concern with the battle system is the use of numbers: quite frankly, it’s jarring in a game where the visuals have obviously been afforded so much care. Numbers were, in the early days of the role-playing game, a placeholder for some more-effective future means of communicating the awesomeness of an attack. In Final Fantasy XIII, you will never see an enemy’s total hit points: you will, however, see the shit out of the amount of HP being subtracted with each attack. The stronger the attack, the bigger the numbers. The bigger the numbers, the bigger the . . . numerals. The numerals themselves grow in size, turn gold, begin to glow and gleam. The growth, goldness, and gleam of the numerals indicates to us that the game designers might understand, on some subconscious level, that using the graphics is the key to enhancing the effectiveness of the game’s communication of damage to the player.
3. Step 1 of 12 from instructions on putting on a sports bra:
1. Approach the sports bra with confidence, secure in the belief that you will wear it.
*Buy Advent Children at Amazon.