Michael Irving

12 Nov 2024

Intro time! I'm a writer, wearing many hats – I mainly cover science and tech at the moment, but I've also written comedy and kids fiction. On the side, I accidentally amassed one of the biggest Simpsons collections in the country. Anyway, here's some of my work!

Oh man, this one hurts. I just met him at the Coyote vs Acme premiere in August. My wife managed to catch this short clip of him doing the Bugs voice while drawing me a sketch. Not captured: my giddy laughter.

ToonHive@toonhive.bsky.social

Eric Bauza has sadly passed away at the age of 46, his family confirms in new Instagram post.

My wife and sister in law designed and ran a little Taskmaster day.

An unrealised advantage of living in a church is that you can just eat dinner outside on the grounds and no one can stop you.

My copy of @continuemag.bsky.social is here! Can't wait to dig in, I miss physical mags. I used to read Hyper cover to cover, so it's a good thing half the crew is here.

I worked -1 shifts at the Pancake Parlour, because I bailed when I found out I'd be working till 2am each shift for below minimum wage. And they didn't tell me this till after I'd gotten the job (teenage me didn't think to ask those details beforehand for some reason).

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Ohhhh so this is gonna be one of those panic attack birthdays, huh

Was trying out Elden Ring on the Switch 2 at PAX, turned around and this dude was sitting next to me.

So is Boatbuilders or General Assembly the place to be tonight? #PAXAUS

Getting mad PAX FOMO even though I'm going tomorrow

There's an episode of Round the Twist where the angry ghost who haunts the dump walks through the bedroom wall of one of the bullies and leaves a cow skull on his pillow while the kid is screaming

Sleepy Hollow Reviews 🎃🐎@sleepingvillage.bsky.social

In honor of scary media month: what is the first piece of media you remember truly frightening you as a child?

My #MIGW consists solely of PAX on Saturday, Co-Op drinks on Friday and hanging around Boatbuilders trying to pretend I still belong in the games industry on Saturday night

Spent most of today begrudgingly updating my LinkedIn profile and my god they will just not shut up about AI over there huh

22 Sept

Well, my redundancy has been finalised today. Not really sure what to do with myself now, but posting about it again feels vaguely productive.

Michael Irving@mikeirvo.bsky.social

It's looking increasingly likely that my time at ScienceAlert is coming to an end. So I guess I have to join the chorus of people asking if anybody knows of any outlet that might be in need of an experienced writer, editor and/or fact checker, in science, tech, games or pop culture.

17 Sept

Making good use of my newfound unemployment by going to the first screening of Coyote vs Acme this morning

16 Sept

16 Sept

I know the music stopped 10 years ago and the industry has been rapidly removing the few remaining chairs, but no harm in asking hey

trib.al'Holy grail': Antique 'fox head' bought at a flea market turns out to be an ancient extinct species valued at $85KIt was a wolf in fox’s clothing.

7 Sept

Maybe it's asking too much of a rag like this, but if you ARE gonna rip off a story, you should probably at least also rip off the facts properly?

New York Post @nypost.com

'Holy grail': Antique 'fox head' bought at a flea market turns out to be an ancient extinct species valued at $85K

sciencealert.comAntique 'Fox Head' Bought at Auction Wasn't a Fox at All. It Was a Long-Extinct Species.With its googly eyes, lumpy forehead, and awkward almost-smile, the strange, taxidermied fox head at the antique market was funny enough to throw down 50 quid on. When the buyer later sold it at auct...

5 Sept

Been working on this story for a couple weeks, and it's got everything: surprisingly valuable antiques, the plight of the thylacine, and bad taxidermy. www.sciencealert.com/antique-fox-...

patch.comCoyote Finally Catches Road Runner In Wild LA PhotoOn "Looney Tunes," Wile E. Coyote never had much luck catching Road Runner. But one real-life canine was more successful.

4 Sept

Ladies and gentlemen... We got him patch.com/california/n...

The End of Oak Street was a popcorn-fun movie, but I can't help but feel like there was a darker original ending that got focus-grouped out of existence. Threading in case anyone cares about spoilers...

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The ending I thought they were building towards was that as the family stands there watching the wormhole bubble eat the neighbourhood, suddenly everyone but ol Ewan McGregor disappears - because none of them would've survived without him going back in time with them.

I dunno, I guess that's too dark for the vibe of the movie, but as is, the happy ending feels weirdly tacked on.

Anyway, so Ewan McGregor gets eaten by an Allosaurus, right? Then the rest of the family wormholes back to the present and rescues him before the neighbourhood wormholes to the past in the first place. BUT doesn't that cause a paradox if he never went back at all?

Went to the Australian premiere of Coyote vs Acme today and my God, that movie was worth the wait. Genuinely hilarious, and weirdly heartfelt. I have absolutely no idea why they were gonna kill this but let Space Jam 2 out into the world.

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Stuck around after for the Q&A with Eric Bauza, the modern voice of most of the Tunes. Got him to sign this old tin sign that hung on my bedroom wall as a kid, and then randomly sketched me out a Bugs too.

Anyway, go see it when it comes out! My friends brought their 6-year-old but I don't think she had a good time, it's weirdly too "adult" for kids. But if you're a lapsed Looney Tunes lover, it's great.

Will Forte and John Cena are perfectly cast for their roles - but then so are all the Looney Tunes. Foghorn Leghorn as the crooked Acme CEO. Bugs Bunny as a Deep Throat whistleblower. Senator Elmer Fudd. And some super deep cut cameos too - who the hell in this century even knows who Cool Cat is?

20 Aug

I'm just so tired

19 Aug

Cracked.com used to be my favourite website, and it was a dream to get three articles published there - including I think the best thing I've ever written. But it looks like they've wiped their archives - those stories are gone, along with classics from much better writers.

19 Aug

I'm feeling a genuine sense of loss today. I might have to see if the Wayback Machine has versions I can save, just for my own records

14 Aug

Our boy Pinchy won the crab race!

13 Aug

There's uh, a dog in our hotel room.

13 Aug

She's now just curled up and gone to sleep.

13 Aug

I bought a shiny new Switch 2 game for the occasion but I've spent the entire trip playing Picross on the Game Boy

12 Aug

Origins by @neildegrassetyson.com and The End of Everything by @astrokatie.com make a fun double bill of vacation reading. Technically they cover every other book that has ever or will ever exist

11 Aug

Sustaining myself on cocktails in colours that don't exist in nature

9 Aug

First day of our honeymoon and my wife has already met two new loves of her life.

pixelframe.designNOW That’s What I Call Music Logo Font Cover GeneratorType a headline, banner line, and bottom text to build a bold, layered graphic modeled on the NOW That's What I Call Music series, complete with a gradient face, automatic sizing to mimic the original logo stack, and simulated depth.

7 Aug

Everyone's done this one right

pixelframe.design@pixelframe.bsky.social

NOW has been compiling the most irritating songs for decades, but now you can use the logo style to "call" anything! The NOW THAT"S WHAT I CALL MUSIC! Font & Logo Generator is live now!

7 Aug

Okay I think I've packed everything

5 Aug

Came home from pub trivia where we not only won overall, but also won two jugs of beer. Sat down to finish some work I needed to get done and my wife asked, in a tone like I had just sat behind the wheel: "whoa, are you okay to write?"

5 Aug

She's right - I'm definitely not

31 July

Married in a prison, party in the gallery. It was very Us.

sciencealert.comEpic 'Turducken' Fossil Reveals Ancient Sea Monsters Devouring Each OtherMaking a turducken – stuffing a chicken inside a duck, then stuffing that inside a turkey – seems like a recent Thanksgiving tradition, but paleontologists in Australia may have found the dinosaur-era...

30 July

I love a fossil that tells a story, and this one is a doozy www.sciencealert.com/epic-turduck...

29 July

Aww can I just do it anyway? Is it weird I find this stuff kinda fun?

26 July

A big bucket of popcorn, beer, and a shuffled playlist of 176 golden era Looney Tunes shorts on the projector in the loft makes for a solid Sunday night

sciencealert.comNeglected Museum Fossils Turn Out to Be The First T. Rex Hatchlings Ever FoundJurassic Park was wrong.

14 July

New from me: T. rex hatchlings may have been smaller than cats and born by the dozen, according to new research. www.sciencealert.com/neglected-mu...