Friday Cat Blogging (™ Kevin Drum)

Rob freshened up the catnip bags tonight.



The li'l stoned darlin's...

Marking the Day

Bibi announces that today is the third annual BlogDay:



Here are the BlogDay posting instructions:

1. Find 5 new blogs that you find interesting
2. Notify the 5 bloggers that you are recommending them as part of BlogDay 2007
3. Write a short description of the Blogs and place a link to the recommended Blogs
4. Post the BlogDay Post (on August 31st) and
5. Add the BlogDay tag using this link and a link to the BlogDay web site

Today, sayeth the site, "bloggers from all over the world will post recommendations of 5 new blogs, preferably blogs that are different from their own culture, point of view and attitude. On this day, blog readers will find themselves leaping around and discovering new, unknown blogs, celebrating the discovery of new people and new bloggers."

So I did it using Blogger's "Next Blog" button, and here are my five, although I won't be notifying the bloggers that I'm mentioning them (let them get your hits as a nice surprise!):

1. Vörös Liliom, a very pretty Hungarian blog of which I cannot read a single word but which contains beautiful photographs accompanied by what appears to be poetry. Probably worth it if you can read the language or want to go through Babelfish.

2. On the Tombstone of Luis Casati, who says, "I seem conventional only to myself presently, which is most inconvenient. Sometimes." In this fairly new blog, Luisa chats about her daily life, passes along YouTube videos, and discusses books and music. This may be a keeper.

3. Princesa says, "Soy una pequeña princesa que no hace otra cosa que estudiar para unas oposiciones que parece que no acaban nunca. Mi reino...la patria perdida que espero encontrar algún día." The princess' royal diary seems by turns upbeat and contemplative, but my Spanish is por merde these days so I could be wrong.

4. Really Nothing To Say. I love this concept, it's quite perfect for our blog-obsessed culture. In turn it led me to The Very Silly Blog, "the second silliest blog on the planet." Maybe I have the silliest because of my Silly Sites? I have to count these two as one.

5. Lastly, a blog for the Italian football club AC Fiorentina, in Italian of course, entitled 1529 FV QVI CHE NACQVE IL CALCIO. I have no idea but, um, Go AC Fiorentina! Lots of YouTube highlight videos; mercifully violence-free.

Also, PSoTD asks his entire blogroll, "What should the federal holiday 'Labor Day' mean to America? And how should we appropriately honor the day?" Didn't he do this last year? Yes, yes he did. But that was slightly different, as it was oriented more toward the personal than the political. Politically I believe Labor Day should be commemorated as first and foremost the Workers' Holiday, the one celebrated on May Day throughout most of the rest of the world. It should no more include CEOs in the celebration than Secretaries Day should morph into Administrative Professionals Day and suddenly even someone who isn't a secretary or receptionist is getting taken out to lunch or flowers or whatever and no, I'm not bitter, not much. See what happens when you ask me these things, Wayne?

Silly Site o' the Day

Have I linked to the Dummies Book Cover maker? I can't remember. Budgie did a cute one today, so I thought I would too:



Part of the Custom Sign Generator collection; lots to play with in there.

Silly Site o' the Day

Bloglines is starting to roll out its new reader in beta, which looks very spiffy so far (it's designed, from what I can tell, to work a little more like Google Reader) but is only available for the feeds section, not for the clippings one where I keep my Silly Sites and other saved posts. In fact, so far you can't even "Keep as New" (i.e., bookmark posts for later). So I think I'll stay with my current version until the new one is more feature-rich. Speaking of rich features, this brilliant page lets you turn headers into LOLCat pictures on all sorts of things, from Twitter to LiveJournals to RSS feeds to news headerlines. It doesn't seem to work that well for me, but your mileage may vary. Via Keith.

Reflective Blogaround

A pretty quiet week, except if you're taking a stand or remembering the grim anniversary of the definitive proof that the current government cannot keep its citizens safe. Digby has a timeline. Over at skippy's place, cookie jill has a handy list of Gulf Region bloggers, including Blogging New Orleans' 24-hour Katrina anniversary blogathon. Me, I'm flying a couple flags in solidarity.





Elsewhere in my corner of the blogosphere:

• Stuart Pivar has withdrawn his libel lawsuit against PZ Myers for Paul calling him a crackpot.

• Bully asks, Would you like to swing on a star? Sure you would.

• Photos from Asia! Chengdu Province over at Neil's blog (yes, it includes yummy food pics!), and Tokyo over at Cat's place, including a food post. Speaking of food posts, Marie hypes a burger in Egypt, and David Byrne reports from Red Hook.

• Cheryl reminds us there's nothing wrong with sexy, as long as it's part of a three-dimensional characterization.

• Kevin Moore has found the perfect term for my ex-husband.

• PJ wants to know why more feminists aren't up in arms over something he found in a letters column of a comic I don't read.

• BoingBoing has enabled its comments again, and they're bound to be well run because Teresa Nielsen-Hayden is moderating them!

• Melissa has one of the best takes I've read on the weird new Heineken keg ad.

• Barbara follows up on her Darmok post, which I loved (that's actually the TNG episode that sticks with me the most over the years), by talking a bit more about the myth-based Bush presidency. To me, what the Darmok thing symbolizes is the public's willingness to accept superficial catchphrases and buzzwords and references without asking that they be defined. You cannot communicate with people unless both ends of the conversation are using the same reference points. This is why I stress over and over again to make politicians on all ends of the spectrum define their terms.

And here's a few maintenance notes:

• It's going to be weird not having Max Sawicky on my blogroll any more, but my fellow Rutgers alum and economics expert is moving on. One of his co-bloggers, Barkley, explains why MaxSpeak will be so missed.

• Kate Harding has expanded Shapely Prose to include co-bloggers Sweet Machine and Fillyjonk (I swear, many of us do actually use real names when we blog!), so that blog gets moved to Da Groups.

• And Kathy Kattenberg welcomes co-blogger Chief onto Liberty Street. I'd move that blog into my Dynamic Duos section, but KK's a Liberal Coalition member so it's going to stay listed under LC for now.

Well, best get to updating that template...

Silly Site o' the Day

My newest ComicMix column is up. Wish my eyes were open enough to read it. If you're more awake than me, maybe you can figure out how this 3D Stereogram generator (via Gerard) works; me, I can't even see "ordinary" stereograms...

Silly Site o' the Day

Via Hanan Levin, it's the "Blog" of "Unnecessary" Quotation Marks. This one made me "laugh out loud."

Silly Site o' the Day

Boss day, light blogging. But must note:




Zombie Letters from e-zombie.com, via Cory at BoingBoing.

Silly Site o' the Day

Omelettes made with yesterday's fresh-cut herbs and some 'shrooms I needed to use or toss; showered and dressed; ComicMix week-in-review post written and an idea germinated for my next column (I like to write 'em on Sundays); and now it's time to tackle my three massive News+Views sections of unread posts (Gals, Guys and Groups), or at least a part of it before meeting my lovely cousin Faith at the Palisades Mall to shop for her much-belated graduation gift. Don't know if I passed this one on before but Zuzu blogged it so I'm doing so now (or again): the BBC America British-American dictionary, complete with a front-page explanation of Cockney rhyming slang. Alas, we are still in the Land That BBC America Forgot which, considering an Englishman lives in this house, is just as bad as having been in the Land That Food Network forgot for all those years.

Silly Site o' the Day

Interrupted night, which I more or less expected, as Datsa got to us around 4:30 and I finally struggled awake at around 5 to stay up until his normal feeding time and give Robin a few hours of shut-eye, after which I stumbled back to bed and we didn't wake up until half eleven. Since then I've straightened out the bedroom papers, hung up all closet-bound clothing, did the washing up and made a terrific salad with apple and freshly-cracked nuts and freshly-cut cilantro and other good stuff, emptied trash bins around the apartment and watched Robin break down all our empty boxes for disposal, checked my email (I have resolved to try and get back to doing that daily on all my home e-addresses, which are about half a dozen now) and am now relaxing with baseball. A good day, especially in terms of staying inside as the temps have shot up again. Is it indeed the End of the World (thanks Melissa)???

Friday Cat Blogging (™ Kevin Drum)

It's a little late, so how about a double treat this time? Two pictures of each, first Amy then Datsa.









Anyone else notice that Blogger now has the ability to add video as well as pictures? Maybe that's why they were bloggered a couple days ago, and the feeds are now spitting out the last dozen or so posts (at least from my blog). Anyone try the video feature yet?

Silly Site o' the Day

Big yellow ball in sky! Unfortunately, along with the finally-sunny weather come higher temps, and we've turned on the ACs again after giving them at least a 3-day rest. Ah well, it is still August after all. Mark Evanier's been posting some great old Tom Lehrer performances on his blog, and I thought they were cool enough to pass along to you. Oh, and my BP went back down again when I checked it last night, so the drop in Rx strength wasn't the cause of the previous night's readings. I think I can guess what was.

Silly Site o' the Day

See, it's not just the unpaid-personal-assistant aspect of the job that frustrates me and makes me want to be anywhere else, it's the whiplash effect when all the time I put in yesterday to get the information to my boss winds up being a moot point as he informs me that his crew members, being grown-ups and all, will be making their own travel arrangements after all. I literally wept with relief, holding in the wracking sobs and wondering if my mood swings aren't just due to his whims (for the third night in a row I had dreams in which I quit my job) but also a side effect of starting a lower dose on one of my meds. My BP was up about 15 points on the systolic yesterday, but I doubt the new dosage would have that quick an effect. Oddly, I seem to have more energy and the hip bursitis hurts a bit less. But that too can be explainable by effective physical therapy and me being a good girl and doing my exercises. Still, worth watching; I'd like nothing better than to be able to take nice long strolls come autumn. In the meantime, there's always lots to read and watch. Like this nifty video:



Via Keith DeCandido, who calls it the "best commentary on Spider-Man 3 yet." Haven't seen the movie, waiting for the DVD, you know the drill...

Silly Site o' the Day

Well, that's half my day shot. I've just spent four hours in Due Diligence Hell, finding out information on hotels for my boss and flight options for his crew members (much of which took place whilst his wife was in my office) and refusing to go beyond that, as he's had a tendency to blame me and threaten to hold me financially responsible when his bookings go contrary to expectation, so I no longer wish to be involved in his international non-business travel which was never supposed to be my job anyway. I sent out a whole bunch of resumes yesterday but no calls yet. My latest ComicMix column has been up for hours. I just ate a hurried lunch and am now about ready to collapse. Ah, but you will have your Silly Site, won't you? How about Rainbow Puke (via The Editors)? That's as silly as it gets.

Rainy Day Blogaround

Really, so much time, so little to do -- Strike that. Reverse it. Onward:

• Mike Netzer is back from his latest Negev wanderings. I had to mention this first because I've been using "the netzer" today (that's our nickname for the umbrella that Mike gave me when he went back to Israel after his brief sojourn in the States a couple years back).

• Steve feels a draft coming on. As his ex-Navy Wife I have a slightly different perspective than he does, but I also know that he served (at least when we were married) during relatively safe times.

• Colleen Doran is running a contest, nifty prizes and all: First, familiarize yourself with her "What Are You Working On" thread, as that's where you'll need to enter your submission. "Take the time to post about what you are doing, if you are creating a new comic, working on music, writing a play, whatever you are up to, we want to hear about it. If you can provide web links too, that would be great. This is a chance for you to share your work. You may post more than once, you may talk about more than one project. Then jaunt over to the 'Recommend It' thread and pick at least ONE nifty item one of your fellow posters has presented, and if you can, pick at least ONE other cool creative thing to discuss." Here's the money part: "$250 CREATOR GRANT for whatever the heck it is gets posted that tickles my fancy the most." The deadline for submissions is September 15. Post early and often!

• Val D'Orazio has decided to live up to her blog's name of only being an occasional superheroine, and branch out into blogging about whatever strikes her fancy. Although she will still tackle comics from a feminist viewpoint, as with her latest post about the current situation at DC Comics, it won't be her only topic. This saddens folks like Heidi Meeley, herself no mean slouch at feminist musings, but I can get behind it because it's the kind of thing I've always done. I'm a comics blogger AND a political blogger AND a photo blogger AND a cat blogger AND a lot of other things. Maybe us nicheless bloggers can band together and create some sort of Uncategorizable Club or something...

• Leigh Dragoon is warning all artists not to get too emotionally attached to their brushes. As far as I know, Robin's relationship with his tools is strictly platonic.

• Lis Riba is compilling a list of Shakespeare comedy videos. As far as I recall, Firesign never did record Anythynge You Want To on its own, but I do seem to remember an abbreviated version included with other material on a recent DVD; any help out there from Firesigny friends?

• Chris Weston runs into an old nemesis whose behavior makes him rethink his earlier animosity. I loved this tale.

• Did Lisa Rein hear what she thought she heard -- definitive confirmation that Karl Rove committed treason?

• Hope you've been following Marie Javins' saga of Teshkeel's Egyptian office. Looks like all's well that ends well, at least for now. Marie also has a food post, which I adore. Cat Simril Ishikawa has tons of food posts as he's just returned from Japan; here's part 1, part 2, part 3 (seafood) and part 4 (drinks). All come with a hefty side order of photos.

• Melissa Krause sums up very nicely why suggesting to women (to anyone, really) who prefer a specific comics genre but want to read better stories that they should try a different genre never works; and Rachel Edidin claims that everything she knows about diversity, she learned from superhero comics. Me, I learned that all British people eventually use the phrase "Lord love a duck."

• Martin Wisse at Pacific Views hits the nail on the head about the black eye some performance art gives to actual activism. I have only very rarely had any tolerance whatsoever for performance art; I think most of it's horribly self-indulgent, humorless and pretentious.

• Speaking of humorless, it seems an author who is probably an Intelligent Design-type creationist in disguise, and is also quite litigation-happy, is suing my favorite militant atheist, PZ Myers, because Paul gave his book a couple bad reviews. The ever-diligent Teresa Nielsen-Hayden has all the details. Silly rabbit, it's not defamation if I state my opinion that your book sucks, and the closest PZ ever comes to a personal insult is to call the ID-in-disguise guy a crackpot. Which he certainly seems to be.

• Yes, it's that time of year already, and Laurie at Ask The Blondes reminisces about her school days when she knew she'd never be one of the cool kids. Ah, takes me back. I was about as uncool as they got. I probably still am, but I have cool friends now, so that helps a lot.

• Chris Clarke puts a name to what I've been feeling a lot lately -- an odd mortal twinge. It hit hard last week what with the deaths of Mike Wieringo and then Phil Rizzuto, the latter of which served to remind me vividly of so many times Dad and I watched baseball games on TV. I remember Rizzuto, White and Messer calling Yankee games before I even remember McCarver doing Mets games.

• This has been another edition of What Digby Said, both about news management and about the deliberate dismantling of infrastructure safety by people who don't much like government but adore power.

• Also, What Melissa Said about the real terrorists. I can't emphasize this enough, people: Get your politicians to define their terms. Don't let them get away with buzzwords and slogans. Ask them for their exact definition of "freedom" and "support the troops" and "family values" and "terrorism." They may not (they probably don't) define things the same way you and I might.

Lastly, DC solicits for November are out. Robin will be inking this one.

Silly Site o' the Day

Noontime already? And here I was going to do a blogaround and everything; it's alarming how many posts I have bookmarked. Guess the rain is just making me sleepy and I'm falling behind. Need some pep pills. Pep Pills, Pep Pills, Yaaaaaaay PEP PILLS! (Sorry, slipped into Firesign mode for a moment.) Jim A has created a fine ol' Random Drug Generator for your amusement. My randomizer came up with:

Your drug name: Maxiprex

For treatment of: tired calves

Side effects may include:
* tooth clot
* loss of legs
* brain rot

I'm still seeking the cure for the common pharmaceutical ad...

Silly Site o' the Day

Off to various doctors' offices this afternoon to get poked and prodded and physical therapy'ed to within an inch of my body parts. Hope the PT has a chance to look at my left hand, which started hurting like the dickens last night after an impromptu and quite painful surprise massage (note to my friends, never massage me without warning unless I'm immobile, preferably sitting) and an hour of seat belt restraint on my left shoulder. Like I need more physical tsuris. All I want to do is be able to walk around my neighborhood again, particularly since it has a walk score of 71 out of 100. What's your neighborhood's walk score? Via Lance Mannion.

Silly Site o' the Day

Okay, this parody video confuses me:



Now, my immediate white-girl knee-jerk reaction was to label this as anti-immigration racism. But I got it from the very activist anti-racist Liza Sabater, who says "it is the most brilliant piece of immigration-related comedy I have seen or heard EVER!" and it's done by the Latino Comedy Project. So what am I missing? What makes this different from a typical Carlos Mencia comedy routine? (Of course, the comics fan in me justifies it by reasoning, "Oh, they're just all stampeding to get to the San Diego Comic Con because they're such fans of Frank Miller"...)

Silly Site o' the Day

Might as well face it, I'm addicted to Chuzzle. Not enough to buy the deluxe PC version at full price, I always wait until PopCap has a half-price sale (as they just did with Venice, which I grabbed), but enough to keep playing it online over and over. Because I, you know, need another time-waster.

How Does Your Garden Grow - Update 2

The mint is still struggling a bit and the rosemary still has only one pitiful shoot, but the others are doing well, so I trimmed the chives, cilantro and dill today to put them on equal footing with the basil:



And here are my gleanings:



They tasted wonderful in this morning's omelettes!

Friday Cat Blogging (™ Kevin Drum)

Amy, please get off my CDs...



*sigh* never mind, what's the use...

Silly Site o' the Day

Thanks to Neil Gaiman, we can all enjoy this video which "animates" the Bayeux Tapestry:



Phase II of the Huge Ass Project is done, and before I begin Phase III I'm trying to wrap up my boss' family's medical claims charting before his wife returns to, rumor has it, take over the reins herself on this particular aspect of their lives. Things are looking up. Wish I'd get a call back from even one of the places to which I've submitted my resume, though.

Effing Yankees

Everyone's linking to this very amusing and f-word-laden Onion spoof article about non-Yankee fans' frustration with the Bronx Bombers. Who lost yesterday, so I wish Yankee haters would calm the eff down. I don't hate the Yanks any more than I hate the Mets; I'm a New Yorker and root for both teams, the way it should be (although I suppose if I dig down deep I'm probably a teensy bit more of a Mets fan). I can't stand many of the announcers, though. If one more Michael Kay clone says "They've moved to within 3 to 2" instead of the correct "moved to within one run," I'm going to hurl something at the TV.

Silly Site o' the Day

Phase II of the Huge Ass Project should be done by tomorrow, and a coworker has offered to help with Phase III but I'm not holding my breath. Had my first physical therapy session to treat my hip bursitis and related conditions, so maybe by the autumn I can actually stroll around without my walking stick and go on the bike and lower that BP and feel better again. I know that's what Mom would want. She'd also want me to pass along this site she emailed me yesterday, Dr. Joe's Ethnic Music. I was a bit disappointed that "ethnic" in this case doesn't seem to translate into any other ethnicities than Yiddish/Jewish, but hey, that's how Mom swings. Besides, I suppose one can never have too many versions of Bei Mir Bist Du Schon.

Silly Site o' the Day

My newest ComicMix column is up. This one kinda tumbled out of me in one fell swoop, but I think it's still coherent enough. I wish Mom would comment on it, but she doesn't do comment sections (it's bad enough she's still on dial-up), so why don't y'all do it for her over on ComicMix? I already know what I'm going to write about next week, but if I need any ideas after that maybe I'll spin the wheel on the Special Projects Idea Generator (via Gerard)...

Burning the Feed

Since Feedburner has a site tracker, I decided to make myself a Feedburner feed and put the tracker on my sidebar. I only tested it on one post, but so far my Feedburner feed is a little faster than Blogger's built-in Atom feed, although today the LJ alternate Atom feed beats both of them by a half hour. Go figure. Anyway, if those of you who subscribe to Pen-Elayne via my site feed could perhaps subscribe to the Feedburner one, as that'll tell me how many folks subscribe to Pen-Elayne via services like Bloglines and suchnot and how many feed reads I actually get. (Or, you know, not. I'm just curious.)

Farewell to the Scooter

RIP Phil Rizzuto, now keeping Dad company as they cheer on the 2007 Yanks.

Oh, and if you're a believer in the Famous Deaths Come in Threes thing (which I'm not), add Brooke Astor to the list that, I guess, also includes Merv Griffin. The Truffle has a nice remembrance.

Silly Site o' the Day

KenD emails me a site which asks, "Is Google God?" And if so, aren't atheists getting the short end of the stick here again?

Blogaround for Roxanne

There's a reason I have a "Dead Zone" section on my Bloglines subs -- to catch returning bloggers should they decide to take up the hobby again. Roxanne Cooper is back blogging, and I couldn't be more delighted. This one's for you, Rox:

• I can't believe how bent out of shape some feminist bloggers are getting over Ellen Goodman's E-male column in the Boston Globe. As usual, this is merely another case of a mainstream "old media" journalist "discovering" a topic a couple years after all of us "new media" types have already talked it to death. It's Goodman's version of "Where are all the (A-list) female (liberal political) bloggers?" that (as Roxanne noted) used to appear like clockwork every three months or so, usually asked by a male liberal blogger. Now that lots of A-list female bloggers are well established, Goodman's biggest sin is being well behind the times. So cut her some slack, educate her, and suggest she ride the wave before it crests next time rather than two years after.

• Last week was Blog Against Racism week, which I forewent because I wasn't blogging for or against anything that much. I'd like to recommend the following race-related posts on the question of whether Yearly Kos (which I did not attend) was too white and male: Digby, who at least acknowledges her own misspeaking of the "some of my best friends" defensive trap into which many of us fall; Amanda, who makes the case that "organizers went out of their way to rectify the problem" but does admit the gathering "would have been even better if we’d had a tad more racial diversity"; and particularly Kai, who has a pretty comprehensive wrap-up of posts and reactions. While I have the greatest respect for Digby and Amanda, I do suspect a problem with diversity still exists to a great extent when the same white male organizes or sits on five separate panels, even though I like the guy and he's been on my blogroll for years. Oh, also highly recommended is Will Shetterly's post about class bigotry.

• Happy fifth blogiversary, Budgie!

• Comics from bloggers who aren't comics bloggers: Jim enjoys Spider-Man meeting Liza, and D at Lawyers, Guns and Money with the best tribute I could think of for the late Merv Griffin, courtesy of Evan Dorkin...

• Honestly, people, of course the North Denver News article about the guy whittling down his thumbs so he could better use his iPhone was a satire-hoax-parody-fake-whatever! Unfortunately, so many people didn't find this obvious that the NDN had to issue an editorial about it. Snopes has the details. Shame on y'all.

• The deadline for the Group News Blog's Shortest Book title competition will probably have passed by the time this post goes up. Hey guys, don't open the contest on a Saturday then close it Monday at 1 PM, that doesn't give most of us nearly enough time! :)

• Atrios, who desperately needs the hits (and has been posting some delicious-looking food photos!), makes a good point about Stu Bykofsky's ill-advised article. In our current W-is-for-Weimar Republic, there's little difference between unity and lockstep. In fact, the point I haven't seen anyone make in response to Bykofsky is that the country's unity of purpose after 9-11 was deliberately squandered by the people currently in power, who turned the collective grief (and world sympathy) that came out of that tragedy into cynical political ploys to get their way on everything from the slashing of civil liberties to the invasion and occupation of a country that had nothing whatsoever to do with 9-11. Our country's citizens can and will have that coming together again, as was shown after Katrina and Minneapolis and may evidence again in Utah -- but each time we try to express our collective sorrow these bastards turn it around on us, and we move ever backwards in trying to do something about the situation so that it doesn't recur. The problem isn't a lack of unity, it's the current administration's constantly divisive tactics. And I fear not even the departure of the architect of those tactics will make things better at this point.

• Speaking of which, Lance points out that Bush has been a spectacular success at getting what he wants. Reminds me of the Star Wars dialogue: "Ben's a great man!" "Yeah, great at getting us into trouble." Or was it "pants"?

• Kevin has a theory about the controversy surrounding Barry Bonds breaking Hank Aaron's home run record that I think is pretty spot-on.

• Scott has created a new comic day Bingo card.

Lastly, Terry notes that today is Left Handers Day. To all my fellow lefties: Left On! Now back to work...

RIP Mike Wieringo

One of my favorite comics people, and a really wonderful, gentle soul. I'm saddened beyond belief.

Silly Site o' the Day

Back to work, and it doesn't seem all that bad yet. I've relegated to tomorrow all the medical follow-ups for my boss' family so I can gradually ease back into the unpaid personal assistant work that raises my blood pressure the most, and concentrate instead on actual office work today, for which I do get paid. Today it's check processing and resumption of Huge Ass Project Phase II (which may well be completed by week's end). I'd also forgotten how stifling my office can be even with the central AC working, and didn't last five minutes before I turned the fan on. All in all I'd probably rather be home writing, but then I said that last week, didn't I? Anyway, here's a Star Trek Plot Generator for you to click through (via) to get mostly generic Original Series plots...

Silly Site o' the Day

I find myself awake, having been trounced by the three I's -- insomnia, indigestion and inability to keep my mind from racing. Played with the Lego-ish Mini-Mizer for awhile, thanks PZ. Going to try to sleep again now...

Silly Site o' the Day

Glorious day yesterday! Had my first acupuncture experience during my visit with Jan for a consult and session (her diagnosis should help my regular PT people a lot, and I know I certainly feel more mobile and aligned now!), then we went out for some amazing sushi, then I drove two hours (including Friday evening getaway traffic on the Merritt, which positively crawled) to see Tom and Lili and congratulate them both on personal and professional good news, then an hour back in the dark on the Merritt/Hutchinson which was quite the adventure.

Wiped but very happy now. Would be even happier if we hadn't gotten our fifth call in as many days from the Calvary Scammers this morning; Caller ID is indeed a blessing. In addition to everything else, my finances are updated, most of my comics read, we slept without AC last night for the first time in it seems like forever, and off we go to the supermarket in this beautiful weather as soon as I wake up properly, after which I'm spending the rest of the weekend relaxing, trying to figure out my next ComicMix column, and maybe even doing a blogaround. Or watching good videos, like the ones from Jacob Sager Weinstein (via BoingBoing, which linked to his If FDR were GWB short).

Silly Site o' the Day

This video is, you should pardon the expression, sweeping the blogosphere:



I first saw it via August.

Friday Cat Blogging (™ Kevin Drum)

Let's hope Blogger can publish these...



My big black beautiful blue-eyed boy baby beast.



Kitten-face!

Silly Site o' the Day

Ah well, best laid plans and all that. I'm pretty much resigned at this point to not doing any more ComicMix posts for awhile other than my weekly round-up and Wednesday columns; I'm far more burnt out than I thought, and this week has mostly consisted of various exhaustive collapses in between getting through my reading. I'm now only 2 months behind on Entertainment Weekly and I only have the Wildstorms to go (always quick reads, I only peruse about half that output) to finish the DC comp box. Whilst Robin naps away I'm catching up on blogs again. The car's passed its 2007 inspection, I'm seeing Jan (and, I hope, Doc Tech and Lili) tomorrow, laundry's Saturday -- goodness, what an exciting life! Could be weirder, I could be feuding with a bot. All the cool kids are talking about Chris Clarke's new BlogWarBot, so once again I'm waving to the cool kids.

Silly Site o' the Day

Off to Mom's for the day. My ComicMix column is up; enjoy and please comment there! This one's about not having time to read everything I want to. I'm about halfway through my Vertigo reading in our DC comp box (which is consolidated from the last 3 or so comp boxes we've gotten), hoping to finish that up by tonight or tomorrow, but that'll be dependent on whether my left eyelid obeys, it's been hurting the last couple days. With any luck, tomorrow we see Jan and possibly Doc Tech & Lili, Friday I take my car in for inspection, and the rest of the weekend I, well, rest. Sounds like a plan to me. As for my writing, who knows? No poetry though, that's for sure. Particularly since, if I were a man, my poet name would be Cyrano Feyfellow. I like the woman's name a lot better: Dame Lillian De la Smarme. Now that's a pseudonym I could get behind. Poet Name Generator via Gerard.

Silly Site o' the Day

I still don't feel quite like I'm on vaca, mostly because I keep giving myself things I need to do -- take the car in for its annual inspection, go fruit and veg shopping when Robin wakes up again (he was up from 3 to 7:30 AM), call the physical therapy place and start scheduling sessions, call Doc Tech about getting together Thursday or Friday, scour Google Reader to try and get back into ComicMix posting -- and it all feels too much like work. I need to do nothing but consume all the stuff I already have around me and feel a sense of accomplishment having done so, by which measure yesterday was a pretty good day, as I finished DCU reading (putting me about a month behind most others in the comics blogosphere as the DC comp boxes usually feature stuff already available for purchase), watched loads of DVR'ed shows, ordered the last four weeks' worth of comics from Midtown, and caught up on my Bloglines blog reads. Not only that, but "Astor attacks Kayle. Alexis vows to never again kiss Carswell in the examination room. Jack decides to promote Overton." At least that's what it says in the Soap Opera Plot Generator. Guess those people don't rest much either.

Ze Hot Fleshes

Well, I didn't quite get to the fruit and veg shopping this morning; I wound up going back to sleep at 7:30 and didn't get up again until four hours later, by which time it just seemed too hot to go anywhere. Besides, I'm on vaca and I was busy watching the Yankees game. Which is why I didn't pick up the phone when it rang, and by the time Robin looked at our caller ID said "Hey, it says it's Ruth Westheimer" they'd hung up and not left a message on our answering machine. It might have been Doctor Ruth, it was a Manhattan phone number. If it were, I'll never know why she called. Maybe to discuss my incipient menopause? To reveal that she knew I'd mentioned her name at BEA and launched into one of my bad impressions of her (which I've been doing for years because, well, she's just such an adorable 79-year-old pixie)? Zis vill remain-- a zexual mystery!

Now that the Yanks have won and I'm through with the DCU portion of my comp box (but not yet up to ComicMix posting), a few brief notes:

• It's the anniversary of Charles Fort's birth, as well as that of bloggers N. Todd Pritsky and Steve Bates - HB, guys! It's also a couple of grim anniversaries. Not participating in the PDB blogswarm, as I really feel it's just a drop in the bucket of this administration's mounting atrocities.

• The most interesting thing I found out in this SF Gate article about bloggers like Susie Madrak wanting to form a union is that the National Writers Union wants bloggers to join it. As long as they're willing to take people who don't get paid to blog, this would appear to me to be the best solution; the NWU is pretty strong, and it just doesn't seem a productive idea to keep reinventing the wheel. The trick is to be able to pony up the $120 yearly dues and figure out to which of their three genres you belong ("blogging" isn't a genre, but I'm not a book writer nor a journalist nor a "BizTech" person). Otherwise, this may be another dead end for those bloggers who wouldn't mind protection for the amount of work they put into their hobby, and the audience it garners.

• At the risk of being redundant: this sort of thing is why I love Cheryl's blog. The linked site needs to update its listings, though, as cirrent Doctor Who costar Freema Agyeman is most certainly a black woman.

• PSoTD asks his entire blogroll, "Will Joe Lieberman support the Republican candidate for President in 2008, reasons why or why not, and what's the political value to him?" If I say I don't much care one way or another about ANYthing concerning an election that's still over a year away, will I be considered a traitor to the cause? And the only interesting thing I ever read about Lieberman was that his wife Hadassah lived in my neighborhood. I long ago stopped believing that "good for the Jews" was any sort of criterion on whom to support for political office here, particularly since "the Jews" started morphing into "the more fanatic politicians in Israel" whom I don't consider to be good for the Jews (or most of humanity) at all.

• Dang, Barry's cutting back his blogging. It'll be a good thing in the long run, as it means more Amptoons, but I'll miss his blogging in the meantime...

• Lastly, real food for thought from evil fizz at Feministe about being judgemental toward "baby machine" women, and a good companion piece of sorts from Ann at Feministing about "competitive motherhood." The more the reality that I'll never give birth after wanting children for so long sinks in, the more I feel my attitudes towards these women stem from some sort of misplaced jealousy rather than righteous indignation.

Hmm, maybe that's what Dr. Ruth wanted to talk about...

Silly Site o' the Day

Well, it was a terrific weekend with lots of stuff accomplished, but unfortunately my phone battery ran low at 5 AM so I'm up now. Good job I don't really have to be anywhere today besides the fruit and veggie place (I made baked chicken with a dynamite sauce and lots of veggies yesterday so we're out of pretty much everything). Besides catching up on more sleep and more reading (today's goal: finish the DC comp box and finally place my four weeks' worth of non-DC orders with Midtown, once the new comics release list for this Wednesday comes out), I'd like to get around to writing a couple news items for ComicMix, but no promises. Still, this keyboard shortcut might come in handy:



Yeah, another Glass Giant special, brought to you by Gerard.

Good as Gold at 57

Below are my photos from yesterday's 57th birthday party for ComicMix editor Mike Gold. The light was uneven in the BBQ place and a number of pictures came out blurrier than I'd anticipated, but at least two dozen seemed to be okay. As always, click on each to see a larger version.



Lots of ComicMix folk were there, of course. Here are Kai Connolly and Ric Meyers (who does DVD Xtra).



John and Arthur Tebbel look on as Alex Rodriguez hits his 500th home run. The best part of watching the baseball game at the bar/restaurant was that the sound was off.



See, there's your proof in the background, as A-Rod looks up and party attendees... oh okay, not everyone was watching TV like me...



That's a whole mess o' Raubs! Let's see, there was Matt and Michael and Mickey and Marty and Murgatroid and Meshugenah and Sammy and Bert. Okay, some of those names are made up. Sammy's real, and some of the "M" names are. I couldn't keep track. One Raub lad short of a production of Seven Brides for Seven Brothers.



Black balloons. There were black candles on Mike's cake as well. Adriane Nash has a very strange sense of style. Somehow it worked.



Look, the birthday boy has an iPhone! I didn't get to touch it. Or the iPhone.



Kai and Mike Raub.



I wish this photo of the food came out better, but I suck with backlit stuff. Two different kinds of barbecued ribs, brisket, chicken, veg (zucchini and broccoli)...



...salad, beans, rolls and corn bread. Yummy!



John Ostrander and Mary Mitchell arrive and say hi to Frank McLaughlin, attending with his daughter Anne Erin (whoops, thanks Adriane).



Glenn Hauman just about fits under the relatively low ceiling, which does not harbor the same problem for Mike Raub. Backlighting again... sigh...



Somewhere in there, Mike Gold found time to get lei'd.



Glenn and Brandy Haumann. I love Glenn's smile here.



John schmoozes with ComicMix "Media Queen" Martha Thomases.



Mike sits down for a bite with his wife Linda.



See, black candles. That can mean only one thing, as Brandy observed: "Cake or death!" Not to keep you in suspense, everyone chose cake.



Mike summons up his super-breath...



An upside-down close-up of the cake.



Hassan... chop!



Slicing through the matter. Raspberry and lemon filling. My favorite as well.



John and Mike get to have their cake and eat it too.



Pressies!



Watch out Mike, that one bites! I thought the "shark teeth" packaging from the Raubs was very clever.



Two-thirds of the Suicide Squad creative team assemble as John reveals plot points to Robin. Not pictured is penciller Javi Pina, who's somewhere in Spain...



Brian Alvey arrives with his son Vincent Victor (thanks for the correction, Glenn) asleep on his shoulder.



Dick Giordano and Frank McLaughlin confabbing? Hmm, I wonder what they could be discussing, and if it is has anything to do with ComicMix? Well, I'm certainly not authorized to say anything here...



Nor am I permitted to speculate on what Trevor Von Eeden may or may not be up to with ComicMix...

Well, it took awhile to load all these, but it's been fun; I haven't done a good long pictorial in awhile.