Silly Site o' the Day

I'm very, very glad to be seeing the end of 2007, and looking forward to all that 2008 will bring me, including getting a new job and bidding a final farewell to the Bush era. Speaking of which, via Gerard, Ryan Russon presents the Chimp-O-matic, which apparently you can customize for all sorts of homepages. You get the feeling Russon really doesn't like our current president...

From Cards to Video

I finally got around not only to putting up all our holiday cards on the wreath, but to doing a little video of them.



Hope you enjoyed it. Slight correction to the audio: I should have said "Bristol board" instead of "poster board."

Who Are You Going to Believe, Me or Your Lying Eyes?

I can't believe they've started already. Usually the "lose weight" propaganda ads don't start until the new year, when people make resolutions their bodies can't possibly keep ("I'm going to lose weight" often makes about as much sense to me as "I'm going to change my eye color" or "I'm going to be taller"). Now the Obesity Panic police are up in arms over a new study finding many parents don't think their kids are as fat as the diet industry and other alarmists are trying to talk them into believing. Chances are these parents also know that "fat" doesn't always equal "unhealthy." Of course the alarmists are, well, alarmed that their propaganda doesn't seem to be swaying these ignorant hicks. I'm just happy that, as meaningless a study as this might be, it shows that not everybody is susceptible to this mania, even when it's practically inescapable.

Silly Site o' the Day

Via Sean at Cosmic Variance, it's the World's Smallest Website! Do click through it, it's pretty amazing.

Silly Site o' the Day

Wow, there's actually an activity that combines two things I really don't like, ironing and "danger sports." Yes, it's Extreme Ironing (via Cathie from Canada). These guys can come handle my unironed shirts any time they want.

Hail the New, Ye Lads and Lasses

Must close those bookmarks before the new year!

• It's been a horrible year for many of us in terms of passings. The world is still reeling from the assassination of Benazir Bhutto, who is remembered online by a number of her friends and acquaintancs; among the most interesting eulogies I read, which actually changed my mind a bit about her, were posts by Arianna Huffington and Harry Shearer. Shearer in particular raised an interesting point: "Were the corruption charges against Ms. Bhutto true? They were never proved, and, as conveniently as they appeared, they were dropped when she began her minuet of negotiations with General-President Musharraf for her return home." And closer to my particular social circle, on Thursday my ComicMix colleague and friend John Ostrander broke the sad news that Paul "Zeus" Grant passed away last month. Zeus was one of the first folks that I and so many others befriended back in the days of the CompuServe Comics and Animation Forum, when that venue was practically the only one for online comics fandom. So many of today's pros came out of there! And many of them showed up in John's comment section to express condolences, in what became a sort of virtual wake. Two days later and I'm still activating comments for that section. Zeus would have loved to see so many of us get together again to remember him.

• Bhutto's assassination is, of course, not the only major story in the world this past week. Ms. K was ecstatic about the Kenyan voter revolution, but her happiness has turned to bitter disappointment in the election's violent aftermath.

• Happy birthday, Bint! Lots of us are glad you're still around as well. May you continue to survive and thrive in style.

• A few more seasonal posts to note: Jonathan Schwarz remembers when decrying the commercialization of Christmas was much less commercial than it is today. Kevin Church has a special holiday message from Dr. Doom. And Wolfrum at Shakespeare's Sister echoes a sentiment I'm pleased to say I'm starting to read more and more (and, I hope, practice more and more) lately -- tolerance, even affection, toward the religious by those who are not. The difference between atheism and anti-theism is something I've been exploring a lot of late, and I've come to many of the same conclusions Wolfram has. Believers are the majority in this country, possibly in the world, even if we may think their beliefs are erroneous (as long as there's no tyranny of the majority involved). As Wolfrum says, "The average religious person doesn't want laws made specifically for them and their beliefs, or want war, or want anything bad. They just want to live freely while believing in a personal God. And this is a pretty substantial group, in every religion. Who am I to be insulting and dismissive of them?"

• Amanda once again tackles one of my favorite subjects, women and humor -- specifically how so much larger a percentage of funny women go the self-effacement route as opposed to the percentage of funny men who opt for aggression. Kate Harding has some great writing advice. And Daniel Lyons, aka Fake Steve Jobs, sits down to breakfast with an Apple lawyer.

• Lastly, Justin asked me to plug this very long post from Lambert on Barack Obama, Paul Krugman, and the history of conservative think tanks; and Cliff Meth asked me and a whole bunch of other people to publicize the fact that he's helping sell off Dave Cockrum's old comics collection. A bit too rich for my blood, but then I'm used to perusing the $1 bins at conventions.

Back later with my Silly Site!

Friday Cat Blogging (™ Kevin Drum)

Made it to the fruit and veg place okay; the toe still hurts but having the sneaker on is at least bearable now. We had to mail-order more Dettol from Brooklyn, as we couldn't find it at the local pharmacy, and I truly believe soaking the foot in that antiseptic is helping the toe heal more than just about anything else. I still feel like I'm stuck in that weird limbo vortex created by the confluence of my unemployment, the writers' strike, winter and the holidays, but I'm caught up on my job search for the moment and I have some phone calls to make on Monday morning and I just need to get myself on a regular schedule again after the new year. And the sun shone today!



Hard to think, though. Too sleepy. Mayhaps I'll curl up with kitties.

Silly Site o' the Day

A nearly sleepless night has led to the postponement of me having my toe looked at until, very likely, the new year. I'm too tired to think, and it's too late to call a medical office anyway by now, but I'm going to attempt a short blogaround after this, and I'm determined to catch up on job hunting again. Maybe this will work?



Another Glass Giant goodie via Gerard.

Silly Site o' the Day

I love and collect matryoshkas. I've always thought theremins were cool. But a theremin device inside a matroyshka? That's the craziest f*@king thing I've ever seen.



Via Hanan Levin. From Theremin player Masami Takeuchi's pseudo-Engrish website, here's how Matryomins are done.

Silly Site o' the Day

Happy Boxing Day! If I can wake up enough, and after Robin has his morning nap to make up for the time he lost having been woken up by the cats way too early today, we will be venturing out to the local supermarket to pick up milk and snackies prior to our bubble and squeak, since we hadn't been able to procure last-minute stuff before the holiday owing to my toe hurting. I think it's almost certainly a slight infection and possibly a bit of an underdone potato ingrown nail, but the Dettol soakings and the Savlon seem to be helping; I love British topicals, they work so much better than American ones. My ComicMix column is up, but for some reason this photo didn't post:



So yeah, Eric and Laura, it's about Baum (specifically his book The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus).

Hmm, maybe if I can handle the walking we'll get some wine too, so I can practice with the wine review generator (via Gerard).

Silly Site o' the Day

Robin just found this one -- One Cold Hand, for those of us who've lost a glove.

Steeped in Sage and Onion to the Eyebrows

That's from here, of course. What else would I quote upon this day?



The Christmas dinner plate. Turkey covering yon sage and onion (and mushroom and sausage) stuffing, turnip, roast potatoes, ham, Brussels sprouts... it's going to amount to a fine bubble and squeak tomorrow. I'm particularly pleased that I've gotten Round One of the washing up done already.

And here's the pudding!



There never was such a pudding. And the eggnog, oh, the eggnog. I'm just glad we were able to use a tiny bit of the liquor we'd gotten from Mom's house...

A YouTube Christmas

Here's one of my favorites:



And here's Robin's:



Lots of different YouTube choices for both songs, if you want to search around. As for me, it's time to get get moving on Christmas dinner.

Happy Christmas

...to all out there who celebrate.



Hope this works, it's supposed to be animated...

Silly Site o' the Day

Remember way back last March when I fell in my former office's parking lot and "did something to my right big toe" in the process? Well, a sort of second nail started growing under the bruised area, and this past Friday the last of the over-nail finally came off. Unfortunately, it seems it had been serving to protect the toe all these months, so now the entire tip of my toe feels like it's permanently stubbed. Again, a good time to be out of work and not have to go anywhere that requires footwear! I'm padding and soaking it as much as I can, but it doesn't appear to be infected, just feeling very bruised (it hurts every time I curl it), so I think I'm going to start on witchhazel and/or arnica. And a happy Christmas to you, too! Oh, speaking of which, Gerard found an ornament generator, but I don't really have a suitable photo for it, so have fun playing with it.

Silly Site o' the Day

Ten years ago, the portion of the American viewing public that still watched the sitcom Seinfeld learned about a made-up holiday called Festivus. I had long since given up on Seinfeld, when the characters just got too mean and pointless for me to enjoy. I know I watched some '90s sitcoms, but nothing with slavish regularity. I can't recall ever being able to sit through an entire episode of Friends. And I was naive enough to believe that, as our entertainment choices grew exponentially with the advent of home computers and videogames and so on, the number of people who actually paid attention to these shows was relatively small. So I never cultivated the cultural vocabulary that included Ross and Rachel, or Uncle Jesse, or the ability to answer any of these questions. And I never heard of Festivus until a few years ago, when it seemed to be everyone's favorite in-joke.

Here's the Wikipedia entry on the made-up day, which is supposedly celebrated every December 23. I feel a little less duped finding out that Festivus was actually created by the father of a Seinfeld writer, not by the show itself. And while I can appreciate the inherent silliness of the concept, and the satire it presents of a culture obsessed with celebrating something, anything to mark the passing of a year and the rebirth of the sun/lengthening of the day, I admit to being a little disturbed at how easily folks have latched onto something everyone acknowledges is fake and meaningless and invested it with actual significance (if only by the act of giving it attention in the first place).

Is this how other rituals and "holy days" come into being? Kwanzaa didn't exist when I was born. It was a celebration wholly created from scratch, using symbols and rites invested with meaning by the people who made it up. Just like Festivus. And just like Christmas, or Eid-al-Adha, or Unduwap Poya, or Chanukah, or Saturnalia, or Hogwatch. Even an essentially secular celebration like Festivus contains the meaning we give it, and that meaning makes the day sacred to those who mark it.

Silly Site o' the Day

Happy Solstice! I slept through 1:08 AM but got up at 4:30, so I almost caught it. I think the Winter Solstice is when you can balance a snowball on its end, right? Anyway, I haven't found any Cool Yule sites to mark the day, but I'm sure places like BoingBoing will have them later. Or we can always make up a BoingBoing post about them (via Xeni at, um, BoingBoing)...

Friday Cat Blogging (™ Kevin Drum)

After much anxiety on the part of all tenants, it appears our house's heat is once again working as it should. We were even able to briefly open windows here and there today to air the place out a bit. I can't wait until Sunday when the side of the house will presumably thaw at last and we can finally do a proper trash bin excursion. Meanwhile, the cats are doing their best to give each other the benefit of body heat without, you know, actually touching.



Although I'm sure now that the heat's back to its proper levels I'll see a lot less of this.

Silly Site o' the Day

I spent this morning applying for jobs online; feels good to begin that process again. The afternoon kind of got away from me, but I streamlined the library a bit in preparation to get back on the bike, as well as finishing Oz book #5. I've taken an Oz break to read a comic book adaptation of Baum's other major work, The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus (as Santa shows up in Oz book 5 and Oz is also mentioned in Life and Adventures). I'm going to try to get the prose version tomorrow when we meet my brother and cousin at the Palisades Center for my very belated 50th birthday celebration. I figure if we leave for the mall about an hour before we need to be there, we'll find a parking spot. Looks like I'm all out of seasonal silly sites, so it's back to the generators. Have a tifo generator, care of Gerard.

Do You Know Women Have No Sense of Humor?

"No, but if you hum a few bars..."

Unicycle bars, that is. I guess it takes balls to laugh at a guy on a unicycle.

"The idea that unicycling is intrinsically funny does not explain the findings," said Professor Shuster. The simplest explanation, he says, is the effect of male hormones such as testosterone.

You absolutely cannot make this up.

Robin's comment: the professor's entire findings appear to be based on men being more likely to snigger and point out the wanker on the unicycle.

Update: Amanda believes it's a wry hoax. I hope she's right.

Blogaround for Bobby

I've been antsy for the past couple of days, but my energy level isn't there yet. Everyone who's been noting this is the absolute best time for me to be temporarily unemployed (crappy weather, bad sleep cycle, husband employed for the foreseeable) isn't kidding. I was hoping I'd make some more headway in my wish list of personal projects, including things like blogging here and at ComicMix, but after all that's just a wish list so I'm not that concerned. At least I'm caught up with blog reading even with the laptop still out for repairs (apparently a part is on order), so why not have a blogaround? This is dedicated to Mustang Bobby, whose play Can't Live Without You will be performed by the Manhattan Rep Company next month (Robin and I can hardly wait to see it, even though it'll mean braving the cold NYC streets which we tend to steer clear of in winter) and who is so consistently kind to me every week in his own blogaround.

• Congratulations are also in order for Jon Swift on his second blogiversary (do check out his essay about steroids in baseball, it's a credit to the writer for whom he's pseudonamed), Terry on her third, Digby on her fifth, and Mark Evanier on his eighth! Even though the last two brilliant writers use the occasion to blog-beg their readers to support their hobby, I'd once again implore folks, particularly at this time of year, to consider donating to bloggers you like who actually need the cash to help with survival expenses. Also congrats to Roxanne on the new job which will move her a bit closer to NYC so maybe I'll see her more often!

• I'm still 100% in support of the WGA of course but dang, I miss the Daily Show and Colbert! Nikki Finke has just reported they're slated to return on January 7, albeit sans writing staffs. Meanwhile, John Hodgman (currently co-featured in at least the third ad series to do a Rankin/Bass animation takeoff this season, if you also include Geico and the Food Network) mentions that he and John Oliver will be appearing on January 19th at 826NYC in Brooklyn to participate in a very strange tournament called "Scrabble for Cheaters" that sounds like a lot of fun. (Hey Jamal, that's in your neighborhood, isn't it? We should do lunch!) Oh, speaking of Colbert, he's just won AP's Celebrity of the Year, nudging out JK Rowling (Entertainment Weekly's Entertainer of the Year and Barbara Walters' Most Fascinating Person of 2007) and Al Gore (Oscar, Emmy and Nobel Peace Prize winner all in the same year).

• I miss my favorite comedy shows as well, but Jenna Fischer's keeping busy and is really psyched about her role in Walk Hard, which she advises has "full-frontal male nudity too. That's right ladies, we have penis. There is a ton of nudity in this movie actually. I mean, it's the story of a rock-n-roll star! I don't get naked in the film. I should probably say that. But I do showcase the ladies quite a bit. I had to be sewn into most of my costumes to make sure they were as tight as possible. My wardrobe assistant's main job was making sure my boobs didn't fall out. It was hilarious. I would see her across the room starring at my chest all day."

• It's that time of year when people need to be reminded that naming someone "this-or-that Of The Year" is not awarding them anything. In many cases it's like saying Wanker of the Year or Idiot of the Year. It's an acknowledgement that someone's stood out, not a reward for doing so! Why this was well understood when Hitler made Time's Man of the Year for 1938 and it's not understood when Putin gets the same notoriety is beyond me. Not comparing Hitler to Putin, obviously, just comparing the relative intelligence of the American public then and now. As the media shoulders much of this dumbing-down blame, I don't feel a bit sorry for the Time spokesjerks who have to keep going on the 24/7 cable news stations to tell their TV counterparts that it's an acknowledgement, not an award. Even some bloggers don't seem to get this, as Jamie of Crooks & Liars notes. I'm guessing much of this has to do with all the entertainer/fascinating person/celebrity of the year "awards" mentioned above.

• Some interesting cultural debates going on: Colleen Doran wants to know your opinions on copyrights. Mine is that people who create stuff deserve to benefit financially from it, and people who appropriate stuff should ask permission and never, ever seek to profit from theft; information wants to be free, yes, but entertainment isn't information. And Val D'Orazio makes some fearless predictions on what may be in store for the comics industry in 2008 and beyond; I wish I had the kind of imagination, energy and cleverness needed for this type of essay.

• For some reason lots of people are writing about religion recently. PZ Myers offers his condolences to England on its newly homegrown creationists. I remember Robin telling me they just didn't have that sort of Dominionist nonsense there. Well, they do now. Lawrence O'Donnell examines Mitt Romney and Mormonism, and Melissa McEwan has some interesting things to say about "the new atheism" which, to me, doesn't seem to be atheist as much as anti-theist, and you're never going to make any real progress if your movement is anti-something (except if it's anti-anti, if you know what I mean... anti-intolerance, anti-oppression, that sort of thing).

• All hail King Theresa! Back when Emma Thompson's variety show was on, a bunch of friends from the movie apa called CAPRA used to call Thompson "the king." I agree that, as unfortunate as it is in this day and age, that title does seem to carry more weight and cachet than "queen."

Sorry this blogaround isn't more political, but hey, when Keith Olbermann takes three days off then comes back on the air to do an Oddball 2007 retrospective instead of hard news; when the airwaves are more titillated by the pregnancy of Britney's sister than by the tragic death of Kucinich's brother; and when more bloggers seem fixated by Tom Tancredo dropping out of the Republican presidential horse race ("film of nothing at 11!") than by the Lakota Sioux' declaration of independence from the US... well, I suppose I can be forgiven for concentrating more on the cultural end of things.

Silly Sites o' the Day

I've been filling our DVR with various live-action versions of A Christmas Carol preparatory to burning them onto DVDs. (Next year I'll probably start seeking out the cartoon versions.) After this year's crop I'll have the ones starring Seymour Hicks, Reginald Owen, George C. Scott and Patrick Stewart, as well as the musical made a few years ago with Kelsey Grammar. I can't believe the Alistair Sim version, probably the most famous one of the black and white era, hasn't been aired in our area at all (at least that I've seen) in the last couple years.

The eventual jewel in my collection will probably be the Ross Kemp one, which we refer to in the Riggs Residence as "the Scruffy Boy Christmas Carol," even though it's not exactly a straight retelling of the original story. It deviates about as much as the Bill Murray vehicle Scrooged, which I've never felt particularly compelled to include in my collection; in fact, Murray seems to be a driving influence on the writers of the Ross one, which is actually more a combination of Scrooged and Groundhog Day. I remember taping it, so it might be on one of our few remaining VHS tapes, so it'll probably show up somewhere next month when we start to get rid of anything tapey-wapey (wibbly wobbly timey-wimey) as our apartment streamlining continues.

But I digress. The viral video parody this holiday season isn't Dickens (I guess most people recognize the current crop of radical reactionaries in power is far beyond redemption) but Capra. Here's It's A Horrible Life, from Current TV (via Diane):



And here's the link to It's A Blunderful Life, via Scott Clevenger, one of my favorite movie critics. Hey Scott, what's your favorite version of A Christmas Carol?

Silly Site o' the Day

Well, the rash on my legs is apparently just eczema, which I was told tends to crop up in colder weather, but the dermatologist said that my weight could also be a contributing factor. I wonder what he tells his skinny patients with eczema. Anyway, instead of just taking my ointment prescription home, getting in the car and going to a pharmacy in a mall somewhere, Robin and I wasted far too much time in Kingsbridge waiting for the local Walgreens to fill it, which took two additional hours. Half the day wasted, and alas but the stuff doesn't even stop the itching. Despite Robin's best efforts, Datsa kept meowing to interrupt the rest I was trying to get this afternoon, so goodness knows when the sleep cycle will ever regulate. Probably once I'm at the computer for more than a few hours straight during the days and Robin's working on his pages in the studio, which I figure will start again tomorrow. In the meantime, the LOLinator (via August) asks, I can haz websiet? Oh yes, and my ComicMix column is out with, as usual, no comments. Please go there and leave one. Maybe I should go back to pontificating on world issues instead of trying to make it relevant to the site's subject matter...

Silly Site o' the Day

It's been a strange few days. As I've mentioned before, our U-shaped street/driveway is almost never salted or sanded, and there's no way to get from our house onto the main street other than walking on a long sheet of ice, so driving is preferable if one can get enough traction which we couldn't until today. The combination of being icebound and somewhat stir-crazy (we keep accumulating boxes and other trash because the side of the house where the bins are is completely iced over), my euphemism, the leg rash getting worse (Robin's accompanying me on the bus to the dermatologist tomorrow morning, as there's this sheet of ice yadda yadda) and Datsa demanding near-continual attention has not helped my sleep cycle at all, and left me really addled and unable to concentrate on writing or blogging or job searching.

Somehow I got through most of my comics reading and have thus finally finished my ComicMix column for tomorrow (which was dependent upon the reading). The holiday cards are mailed at last; apologies to those of you who don't get yours until after Christmas. We even did some local shopping, hoping the delivery people would carry most of it up; they could only manage to get the bags as far as the landing atop the 12 outside steps, because -- and you're going to love this -- see, their truck got stuck on the sheet of ice. And instead of unloading in front of our house like normal thinking people would and then figuring out how to exit with, you know, a lighter load, they spent ten minutes rocking their van back and forth until they were able to back out along the ice sheet after which they carried our groceries back to the house from the main street, on the -- yes! -- ice sheet. You can't make this up.

Here's something you can make up -- custom neon signs, via Gerard. Have fun!

Silly Site o' the Day

Pandas on Tour. Nuff said.

Blogspace

Wayne asked to see folks' blogspaces today. Here's mine.



Considering how boring this looks, and how much time it took to do on the PC with the new camera (had to install the driver and it still didn't work the way the old one had done because I'd opted not to install the other programs and Rob and I got into a little tiff over that), it really wasn't worth it. Maybe I'm just photo'ed out.

Silly Site o' the Day

Well, that explains why I've been feeling uncomfortable in my own body, as well as last night's intense insomnia. It might even explain the mysterious leg rash. Hello, euphemism! I don't think I'll be moving around much for the next couple of days. Via my ComicMix buddy Glenn Hauman, here's one my Mom ought to love: what if Christmas were subject to Jewish halachah (laws and regulations)?

Silly Site o' the Day

Our sleep cycle's been shot all to hell this past week; maybe it'll finally regulate by tomorrow or Monday. I want to eventually get some work done in the mornings (daily job search, ComicMix posting, etc.). As it is, half the day's shot again, and on a day with sunlight, too. Hard to get the brain working correctly during this time. Which is not to say I'm not enjoying myself during this temporary unemployment, just that I'm probably not making the most of a period that may not happen again for awhile. My hope is to clear out the library by the end of the weekend so I can start on the exercise bike once more; now that I'm not even travelling up and down the stairs daily any more, I feel like I'm becoming more sedentary than ever and less comfortable in my own skin (literally; the rash on my legs has yet to abate). My theory is that if I get my blood going and body moving a bit more, various maladies will clear themselves up as a result. But first I have to dust the place. And naturally, it's supposed to snow again soon; why can't we all just create our own snowflakes (via Gerard) instead?

Silly Site o' the Day

Via Laura, I'd love to try this Princess Bride game but I'm reluctant to download anything on my PC at this point and there's no online version.

Friday Cat Blogging (™ Kevin Drum)

Still getting the hang of the new camera.



I have no idea why this is so fuzzy, but I like it anyway.

Silly Site o' the Day

Via the birthday boy, this movie is about cats flying.



Well, it is.

Celebrations

Here's our holiday sweets table for this year (click to enlarge):



The castle-like picture frame in the background was taken down from our hallway wall so we could put up the cardholder wreath, which I'll photograph when it's filled out a bit more. Not so many British sweets this year, thanks in part to the lousy exchange rate.

However, it turns out we have a bit more to celebrate now than I'd anticipated. Robin just received confirmation of more work, which should take us through 2008. I can't tell you how much of a relief this is to me during this period of temporary unemployment! All indications are that next year will be one to look forward to.

Meanwhile, Rob's got the computer setup in his studio pretty much the way he wants it, with the addition of a Mac mini to handle his email and store our iTunes stuff. It's the silvery thing at the right, next to the black box standing up (external hard drive). I love the way he's rotated the monitor! Pretty cool scan on the screen, too. :)



Here's a close-up of the Mac mini (which Rob calls his "MiniMe"). Tiny, isn't it?



Still not sure what's to become of the setup with the routers and, um, whatever that thing is underneath them next to the now-relocated hard drive...



As if I keep track of what all these things are called. Back to Firesign chat now!

Snowbound Blogaround

It took over an hour longer than expected to get here, but the snow's finally started and is scheduled to get heavier as the day goes on. This is one of those days when I'm glad I'm currently between jobs. The car's all covered and we've decided not to attend tonight's Friends of Lulu holiday party; it's nice being able to stay in when one doesn't have to go out. We're now going back to bed (Datsa woke us early again), but not before I wish my first husband Steve a very happy 57th birthday and close some open bookmarks:

• Although my social life has certainly picked up since leaving the New Rochelle commute behind, not yet having a Manhattan-based job means (as in today's example) I don't go into the city in inclement weather unless I'm there already. So I missed the Bourdain/Ruhlman gig at Barnes & Noble (okay, I missed that because I had to be in New Rochelle that day, but still), but I can still enjoy them taunting each other.

• The writers' strike continues and, being writers, the strikers have come up with some novel ways to maintain interest and enlist more public support. Skippy has some great snapshots taken at Star Trek Day, and Nikki Finke reports on Diversity Day (which makes me wish "diversity" translated into "black and Latino and Asian etc." rather than, apparently, just "black"). Nikki also has the scoop on who exactly created the AMPTP parody site.

• A couple of nice thought pieces from Lisa Fortuner, here and here, about the state of being a fangirl in an industry that caters to fanboys. I may sometimes lose patience with the idea of fan entitlement ("they're my characters so you can't do this and that to them even though you technically own them"), but the thing is that fangirls aren't called on that. Fan-entitlement fanboys may be told "it's just a story, don't take it so seriously," but fan-entitlement fangirls are more often advised to "stop reading the stories, they're obviously not made for your demographic and there's nothing you can do to change that." As Lisa observes, "what it all comes down to is not constantly fighting to enjoy something. What it all comes down to is fighting constantly in order to be able to express our opinions about why we didn't enjoy something we should. It's fighting to have those opinions listened to so that our natural enjoyment of the genre will not need to be interrupted again." Or as I used to put it, not wanting to constantly deal with stupid stuff (like badly-drawn anatomy and the double-standard in objectifying female and male characters) that throws me out of the story.

• Speaking of fan entitlement, Kevin Church wants his money back. I laughed out loud at this one.

• And the whole idea of three against a thousand is, as Lance observes, very much a guy thing. I've no doubt that just about every nation has its own version of this young-male-bonding game; more's the pity.

• See, there's a reason behind the "Happy Holidays" greeting. It's a sign of inclusion. It's simply good business and good manners to acknowledge that different people in a pluralistic society have different beliefs, and that, particularly in a time of peace and goodwill, there's room enough in this land to live and let live. Except a small vocal minority with way too much power in this country have decided for reasons of their own (most having to do with the unChristlike acquisition of personal power) to brainwash their followers into believing that inclusion means attack, that inviting other people into your country club of goodwill somehow implies there's no room for you any more even though you've had reserved memberships there for generations and will continue to be the most welcomed and privileged. And that's why, even though Christians have constituted the majority US population for decades and will be so for decades to come, the followers of the vocal minority keep getting so in-your-face and violently offensive (although they doubtless think of it as defensive). Bryan has the rundown on this nonsense, from the pointless House resolution stating that Christians are the majority rah rah rah (next up, sun rises in east!) to the subway attack by so-called Christians on Jews, rescued by a Muslim, to the various reactions of, well, reactionaries to non-Christian groups wanting their symbols included in annual winter holiday displays. Over at PZ Myers' place there is, of course, lively discussion about two such displays. I like the "Tree of Knowledge" idea because it is, again, inclusive; the "Imagine No Religion" one is, it seems to me, designed to incite rather than include, and that's Not Helping. As a wise man once noted, there's a difference between atheism and anti-theism, and any time you cross the line into "anti" you're all but inviting hostility rather than rationality. And it would have been so easy to do a slight alteration on the CVA's "Imagine No Religion" sign to make it actually fit with the season and thus better conform with their own description on their permit application (a "triangular stand displaying information about the winter solstice, Atheism and Human Light observance") to which they were legally bound. My choice of alteration would have been to add something like "We remember a great philosopher on the 27th anniversary of his assassination," as Lennon was killed on December 8 and that's pretty much a winter observance for many of us anyway now (for me it was one of the Days The World Changed, and not for the better). But if you're anti-theist rather than atheist, conforming to your own stated vision is apparently secondary to pissing people off. Hey, 'tis the season!

• And speaking of religion, the Rude Pundit compares Mitt Romney's head-in-the-sand version of religious freedom (where religion and freedom are shackled at the wrists and ankles) to JFK's campaign speech about the absolute separation of church (religion) and state (freedom). I think I know which one I prefer! And to come back 'round again, so does the birthday boy.

Bed calls; back later with a Silly Site!

Silly Site o' the Day

Finally caught up on blog reading (so I'll try to do a brief blogaround later), filed for unemployment insurance for this past week, completed the first draft of our Riggs Residence Roundup to insert into our holiday cards, and did the washing up. Oh, and my ComicMix column is up. Today's errand day once it stops raining, as the temperature promises to get above 50 degrees Fahrenheit, which will be welcome after having had the space heaters on so much. Our shopping will be mostly local, but part of me wishes I could go to the Dutch department store HEMA if only because of the Rube Goldberg-ish design of their home page (don't click on anything once you're there, give it a few seconds to warm up, and be prepared for somewhat loud music at the end). Via Lis Riba.

Silly Site o' the Day

Today I pretend I'm a Real Writer for a living -- which I can do for the next few weeks as long as I'm receiving severance pay and unemployment insurance -- so on this morning's agenda is finishing up tomorrow's ComicMix column. Not on the agenda is picketing with the WGA, but I must pass along some anonymous writers' brilliant handiwork parodying the AMPTP website via, among other places, Nikki Finke's essential blog.

Weekend Pics

Not going to bore you too much with photos of the Station at Citigroup Center, because you can probably get a much better idea from the website. So I'll just upload a little movie:



Now here are some photos from Martha Thomases' wonderful annual Chanukah donut party which we attended on Sunday. As usual, just click on the photos to see larger-sized versions. These were all taken with my new Canon PowerShot.



Linda Gold shows off the holiday decor on her iPhone.



We arrived at exactly the same time as Friends of Lulu pres Val D'Orazio. Here's the Occasional Superheroine with ComicMixers Glenn Hauman and Mike Gold.



Yeah, I have a lot of photos of Mike Gold and Glenn, I tend to stake out a seat at a party and pretty much stay put. Here are the CM honchos greeting Mike Raub and Kai Connolly, who are responsible for the CM podcasts.



It seems as though you can't visit Martha's and not be drawn into learning how to knit, as Val discovers.



Robin took this one of me, Linda and Mike G, which apparently triggered a migraine, so we had to leave a bit early.



But not before the Bakers arrived. Here Martha talks to her movie reviewing partner Lillian, and Mike says hi to Kyle and the newest member of the Baker clan, Madeleine Grace.



Madeleine and Mommy (aka Liz Glass). I adore this one (and them!).

Silly Site o' the Day

A couple brief maintenance notes before I choose a Silly Site and saunter off to bed. Jon Swift has been added to the blogroll, and about damn time too; and Ezra Klein's merged his blog with his day job and can now be found here at the American Prospect. (Fans of his former co-bloggers can find them here at Cogitamus.) Robin and I had a great time at today's party until he got a migraine, but he tried HeadOn for the first time and that mitigated it somewhat so I may actually buy their migraine relief product despite the potassium dichromate. Hey, as a pro-level photographer Robin must have enough potassium dichromate in his system already. :) See, here's his brainscan (brainscannr via Gerard). Anyway, photos tomorrow or the next day or whenever I actually feel rested and have finished my ComicMix column. No more NYC for me for at least a few days, except if I get another interview...

Silly Site o' the Day

Not sure if this will work:



If it does, it's a Flash-based countdown timer generator, via Gerard.

Silly Site o' the Day

Tired, nice afternoon in Manhattsn with Rich, train-display pics and vids to come when I'm rested. Which won't be tomorrow, I'm afraid. Here, have some purring (via Meg at Cute Overload).

Friday Cat Blogging (™ Kevin Drum)

My first little movie of Amy, audio and everything, taken with my new digital camera!



Just for good measure, here's a still photo of Datsa taken with the same camera.



Nifty little piece of equipment, that!

Silly Site o' the Day

I'm not going to talk about the results of yesterday's interview; suffice it to say I now have a lot to think about, and I'm going to try very hard not to do so at least for the next few days, as I find an actual social life rearing its welcome head once more. Being able to jaunt into Manhattan is certainly a bonus of my temporary unemployment period. Today I meet a friend from the Firesign chat (which circumstances and Robin's birthday caused me to miss last night) and swing 'round to pick up my comics from Midtown; tomorrow Rich Watson and I are planning to take in the Citigroup Center and gawk at the Dunham Group's annual Station train display; and Sunday we've been invited to a Chanukah donut party.

[An aside: Growing up in an Eastern European-derived Jewish tradition, the big Chanukah food at our house was always latkes -- which I still haven't made this year; maybe when I get back from the city this afternoon -- but apparently the eating of Sufganyot (סופגניות) has its origins in Western European Jewry, when German Jewish immigrants settled in Palestine. Both foods are eaten because they're fried in oil, which is the Big Deal Substance on Chanukah. But I digress.]

Also sometime this afternoon it would be really, really nice to catch up on blog reading and job searching and ComicMix writing, but we'll see. At least I can do a Silly Site. Here's one from Keith, a massive collection of generators and other silliness called The Surrealist.

Christmastime Re-Ducks

My fellow ComicMixer John Ostrander's review of various televised versions of A Christmas Carol reminds me that it's probably past time to link once again, as I do every year, to my "wholly trinity" of Christmas-related media culture essays:

My tribute to Dickensian interpretations -- You Shall Be Upheld in More Than This

My love-hate relationship with Rankin/Bass cartoons -- "So That's Where He Got the Crown of Thorns!"

My obligatory Christmas music post -- I Hear People Singing, It Must Be Christmastime

As ever, the best way to enjoy A Christmas Carol online is to access the original.

Maintenance Notes

TBogg has created a new blog under the auspices of Firedoglake; although FDL's past racist missteps resulted in my delinking them until such time (if ever) that they actually acknowledge and seek to correct their actions, I'm still linking to TBogg because you can access his blog completely separately from the main group blog (looks like they're starting to do what Daily Kos does, have people create blogs via their server). Also, I found out via Avedon that Eli Stephens is a gal ("Eli" being short for "Elisha") so I've moved her from the News+Views Guys section up to the equivalent Gals section; my apologies for not ascertaining your gender sooner, Eli! I should probably make a number of changes to my sidebar other than these two, but I haven't yet had the time to really go through my blogroll to see who's still active...

Silly Site o' the Day

Here you go, Robin, a Sketchfu for your very own (via Susie). For when the Cintiq freezes up again...

Birthday Boys (and Girls)

Happy 46th birthday to my wonderful husband, Robin Riggs! Rob shares a birthday with at least two other comics folks we know, Leonard Kirk (with whom he partnered for over 4 years on Supergirl back when it was being written by Peter David, whose youngest daughter Caroline celebrated her 5th birthday yesterday) and Paul Jenkins. I think there's a fourth comics industry luminary with a 6 December birthday but I can't remember who it is (Tom Spurgeon lists Frank Springer and Claire Wendling as also having their birthdays on this date, but I'm pretty sure someone else does as well). It's also the 71st birthday of The Firesign Theatre's David Ossman, whom I've been proud to know for the last quarter century or so; I hope the recent flooding in WA isn't affecting Whidbey Island that much by today.

Silly Site o' the Day

If there's anything bad that can be said about living in this house, it's that the heat has never quite worked properly. While it's much better than our old top-floor place in Bensonhurst, it's still too sporadic. Our downstairs neighbor was supposed to contact the landlord today, so we're hopeful, but we've got the space heaters going at full force which I'd really rather not have to do, and we've spent most of the day in the warmed, curtained-off bedroom. Naturally I drifted off, but I needed the sleep and got the few things done that I wanted to do during this "off day" so I don't feel as though any time has been wasted. And there's the dinner bell (the doorbell actually, as we ordered out). Speaking of which, you must try Eurorail's dancing-turkey holiday greeting card (via Moi at Bloggg).

Silly Site o' the Day

Happy Chanukah! I just now lit the first candle, as my last day of training at the office left me fairly wiped and Robin's deadline did much the same to him. So we went out for our anniversary dinner (we got married nine years ago today, and I see where the 9th is the Leather Anniversary which pleases him greatly as that means I can buy him another levvuh jacket) then came home and collapsed, and I've only just gotten up again. I can't believe I forgot where to place the candle before lighting it. This game helped. I had to (virtually) go to Berlin to find it, but there you are. Tomorrow I make latkes, if I can rouse myself from bed. It'll be good to sleep in again, particularly since I have plans to go into Manhattan for four days in a row after that (hope the weather warms up a tad)...

Silly Site o' the Day

Back at the old office, having done some necessary banking before I came into the building so I don't have to worry about it once the winds kick up. The usual breeze at the corner of North and Huguenot is bad enough without the expected gusts. Trying to wake up enough to train my former coworker in billing procedures once he's done interviewing another potential successor for what's left of my phased-out job. Meantime, catching up on a bit of blog reading, and Meg at Cute Overload passed along, as she calls it, a totally "redonkuloss" website called Kitty Wigs. Yes, wigs on cats. As if all the things we do to them already aren't humiliating enough.

Silly Site o' the Day

Via Laura Gjovaag, can you trap the kitty in Chat Noir? Robin did; I had to settle for trapping the real thing, which has been rubbing against my legs every two minutes or so while I've been sitting at this desk.

Cry If I Want To

I was born 50 years ago, this very day.

I wanted to give a party to celebrate my half-century mark. But I wanted a party last year too, and the only person who answered my invitation affirmatively was Leah, who wound up not being able to come because she was in hospital. She was in hospital again about a month or so later, and never left.

I wish my Mom and Dad could be with me. But Mom's in Vegas for the winter, as she's been for at least a dozen years, and Dad's somewhere I can't yet go, taken from me and all of us last spring.

I won't even be getting a lousy pizza lunch at work, like we used to do for every employee's birthday, because there's practically nobody left in that office now. Not even me. I'm obligated to go in tomorrow and Tuesday to teach my coworker how to do billing, so he can in turn teach my eventual successor. I was never able to take the first couple days of any month as vacation or personal time because the billing needed to be done. This month will be the last time that ever occurs, now that the job and I have parted ways.

I miss my local blog friends. I haven't seen most of them all year, I no longer get invited to NY blogger gatherings for reasons I've yet to fathom, and because I've been away from Manhattan my social life has dwindled to a trickle.

And my body doesn't feel quite right, like it's still trying to settle in at some plateau. I had a year without a cycle, from October '06 to October '07, then two cycles in a row, and if I were still regular I'd be starting another one about now, so maybe that's why I'm in such achy discomfort. But it could be The Dreaded Lurgy, or it could be the multiple bug bites I seem to have all over from some unknown source (what bugs could possibly be biting in December?). The hip bursitis is more or less under control but I haven't done my exercises in at least a week, and I feel I'm spiralling downward.

So that's the bad news, and you get to listen to it because I'm officially Old now, and old people get to be Grumpy. Times like this I wish I had a lawn so I could tell you kids to get off it.

The good news, of course, is that I have lots of blessings in my life, many of which I enumerate here in my blogiversary post. I don't take for granted one minute that I have a loving husband and partner, two adorable pets whose lives have reached double digits, relative health, a roof over my head and enough money in the bank to tide me over this period of unemployment, family and comic-industry friends and a way to express myself and a connection with all of you. And I have a second interview on Thursday, Robin's 46th birthday, that we both hope will result in cause to celebrate more than just milestones.

So today I'll be updating my checkbook and putting away laundry and talking to Mom and others on the phone and playing with the new digital camera Robin bought me (a Canon PowerShot SD800 IS, for those of you keeping score at home) and reading whilst he works, and maybe after his work day is done we can go out for sushi, if the weather cooperates. Not how I envisaged spending my 50th, but after all it's just another day, we humans are the ones who invest such things with silly subjective significance.

Silly Site o' the Day

White Rabbits! Nothing much on the agenda today other than taking the car for an oil change and probably doing a bit of food shopping, so perhaps I'll try to do some ComicMix posting later. Todd Klein says he likes this solitaire Scrabble-type game, but I find its dictionary puzzling and frustrating, to say the least, so I won't be back. It's like the computer's cheating. No fun at all, I'm afraid.