Today's Massive Time-Waster

The reason I'm not posting a "Movie Log" here tonight: TV Tropes. (And it's looking like there won't be a "Manga Friday" tomorrow, either.)

TV Tropes is a Wiki of plot and character tropes -- it says TV in the title, but the examples seem to usually start with Anime/Manga and then spread out uncontrollably from there. It's heavily hyperlinked, and nearly all of the tropes have clever titles, which leads to uncontrolled clicking and reading. I've lost at least an hour and a half there tonight. It's clever and has good examples, usually -- another example that the Internet is best at doing things geeks like.

I started at Exactly What It Says On The Tin; other particularly good bits are the Sorting Algorithm of Deadness, Rape Is The New Dead Parents and one of my favorites, the Suspiciously Specific Denial. (One of my best friends in college used to always insist that he'd never been convicted of a felony in New York state, which, when used correctly, would unnerve people. I've appropriated it myself a couple of times since then.)

If you consume or commit fiction, it's worth a look. But be warned: "a look" may turn into "three hours."