Friday Cat Blogging (™ Kevin Drum)

When we close the curtains to keep in the warmth, Amy likes to get between them and the windowsill. Datsa, of course, is a bit large to fit, so he just watches.



Thanks to my brother for the matching bedding! We're rolling in burgundy now.

Silly Site o' the Day

Well now, where we did last leave Elayne? Ah, that's right, with three training days left and a really positive 2+ hour interview under her almost-50-year-old belt. Well, I got a callback today from yesterday's proceedings -- my first callback in awhile, so I'm very excited about that. (In case you're reading this blog entry, S, thank you so much, and I look forward to seeing you again next Thursday!) And I think I've tied up just about every possible loose end here at the old office, including making the more urgent travel arrangements for my old boss, who was in and very appreciative and we even hugged before he left. So, all appropriate digits crossed (she said superstitiously), it looks like I may have a couple things to celebrate next week besides our birthdays and anniversary! Gosh, I'm feeling giddy! Let's pick a good Silly Site this time... hmm, how about a Blackadder quote generator (via Gerard)? It appears my cunning plan is working out after all!

Silly Site o' the Day

I had a nice long, very good (I think) interview today, so fingers crossed again. I heard from my last remaining coworker that my successor was let go today, so my final three obligatory days at the old job would appear to be actually DOING that old job again rather than training someone else, although I'll doubtless wind up training my coworker before saying my (please god) final goodbyes. I can't describe how much stress this nonsense has created. It's the kind of stress that affects me physically even if I manage to wipe it from my mind; for the past couple days I feel like I have the bends, and I can't seem to stop sneezing. And I'd just started remembering what my life was like without this sort of thing, too! Ah well, this too shall pass. Part of me wishes I could take off for Disneyland, but...



No escaping, I suppose. Disneyland sign generator via Gerard, once more.

Midweek Blogaround

The temperature will supposedly plummet sometime after my interview tomorrow morning, but that's okay because I'm back in the old office on Friday, Monday and Tuesday, my final three obligatory days according to my severance agreement. My 50th birthday is on Sunday but as Robin's on deadline we'll probably wait until after our anniversary (on Tuesday) and celebrate everything on his 46th birthday (Thursday), when we're both finally free. It'll be nice to finally be able to relax with nothing outstanding from the former job hanging over my head. I really want to get back into actual writing. I haven't had the energy to do much more than my weekly ComicMix column, the latest installment of which went up this morning. All this "my life and welcome to it" chitchat is becoming boring, even to me. Here's what caught my eye from other blogs recently:

• Lots of good stuff coming out of the WGA strike. Aside from direct strike-related sites like Speechless and blog posts like LowerManhattanite's latest, the job action has indirectly inspired essays like Ted Rall's Future Imperfect, which was in response both to August Pollak's revelation that the deep-pocketed and for-profit Huffington Post isn't paying him (nor, apparently, any of their bloggers) and to the Jaron Lanier op-ed in the NY Times admitting that, after all, entertainment piracy is by and large not friendly to the people who create that entertainment. As Ted notes, "I've already been through this give-it-away-for-the-exposure crap before. It wasn't any more fun in the 1980s than it is now." And as Colleen Doran notes in another must-read essay on the subject, "I don’t need pirates to upload my work for me and show it to people. I can put it up myself if I want to. And I did. Pirates didn’t make any sales for me." Mikhaela wishes there were a cartoonist/bloggers union. And someone whose link I cannot find so I cannot credit them observed (and I paraphrase), "Information may want to be free, but art and entertainment ought to be renumerated." Unless a professional writer or artist deliberately sets out to give away all their stuff for free, thus choosing not to defend their trademarks and copyrights, it's just not fair to steal other people's ideas and not compensate them. Never was, never will be.

• Susie Madrak finds a fascinating article about the underground world-builders of Valchiusella.

• Yet another reason to despise conspicuous consumerism during a holiday season that's supposed to be about the evils of conspicuous consumerism -- the kinds of things people do to, for instance, their children in pursuit of their useless bits and bobs.

• I'm so proud of what Val has done with my old Industrial Strength Women list! She's going to be updating my Women Doing Comics behemoth as well. When I left Friends of Lulu I promised myself I would only return under very specific circumstances, when I once again felt the group was moving forward in a positive direction with solid planning and transparency and a leadership that cared more about the organization's goals than about... well, be that as it may, Val, Marion and the current Board have me wanting to re-up, and anyone who knows my history with FoL knows that's saying something.

• Hey hey, Kenneth Quinnell reminds us, they were the Monkees! Head remains one of my favorite movies, even though I seem to be the only one in my social circles who seems to "get" it.

• Lastly, this has been another edition of What Digby Said. Because she's the Digbyest!

And so to bed!

Silly Site o' the Day

Via Teresa Nielsen Hayden, it's the 12 Days of Kitschmas! Blogaround coming this afternoon, I hope. Tummy hurts; need sleep.

Silly Site o' the Day

Wow, today was a real struggle. I finally slept through most of the night, the cats didn't even wake us till around 8 AM, but I got up an hour later just before the phone rang with the first of what felt like nearly a dozen calls throughout the day from my successor at my old job. I even spent about half an hour in the office getting a few personal loose ends tied up. Somehow in between all those calls I also had a phone interview with another potential employer, plus I finally managed to bang out this week's ComicMix column, a love letter of sorts to Marie Javins for being so patient with me all these months that I haven't written about her lovely gift. Another loose end tied up! Alas, that meant job searching and blog reading and even sleep have gone by the wayside, so that's on tomorrow's agenda, along with perhaps leaving the phone off the hook. At this point I'd sell my soul for a business day without a call from my old job. But Robin thinks it's a much better idea to rent it out, via the very cool website Rent Your Soul. How it works is, you upload a picture of yourself holding your Soul (usually a piece of paper that says "My Soul" on it); souls are chosen at random each on Sunday, and if yours is picked, you get a $10 check for yourself and a confirmation of a matching $10 emailed donation to the charity of your choice; the following Sunday, your Soul is given back to you, with a copy kept in the websites Past Souls section, along with a permanent link to your chosen charity. Granted, you only have 52 chances per year to get chosen, but it's still a pretty cool idea, and who knows, maybe they'll expand it to the Jewish and Moslem Sabbath days as well...

Silly Site o' the Day

It's getting harder and harder to drag myself into the old office, particularly after as insomniac a night as I had last evening. But as of this afternoon I only had three more severance-obligatory in-office days left, not counting coming in tomorrow morning for a half hour or so to take care of some personal business. Meantime, I'm so tired I can't even think straight. And via Cute Overload, here's an egg in pants. You heard me, egg pants. You know you want it. You'll never be able to look at pantsless eggs the same way again, will you?

Silly Site o' the Day

Robin's decidedly "not into it" but I find it eerily fascinating - Musical Fruitcake, a collection of the worst Christmas songs ever recorded (via Sheila Lennon)...

Silly Site o' the Day

Continuing with our hyper-consumerism-is-evil theme, Lindsay passes along a site that's scary and satirical all at the same time: the Predatory Lending Association. Don't know who created it but I agree that it's brilliant; I just wish more people got the point behind it.

Wrapping Up Thanksgiving

A few Thanksgiving Day photos, most taken from my brother's backyard deck in Jersey, where the thermometer read 75 degrees Fahrenheit. (When we called Mom around 11 AM her time she told us it was around 46 degrees in Vegas.)



Okay, this one was taken from the end of our U-shaped driveway as we set out. I love how the bright oranges are giving way to deep reds and russet tones.



This is from Jay's deck looking southward. I love the various colors and depths as you go from the bushes in the foreground to the evergreens in the middle ground to the late autumn mix in the background. As Jay lives in a higher elevation we did see a lot of bare trees, but there were still enough pretty colors around to entice.



Jay's shed and some of the forest in back of his house.



I thought this bush was lovely; most of the red is berries but a little bit is leaves.



Naturally, Robin took this one. Majestic, isn't it?

Belated Friday Cat Blogging (™ Kevin Drum)

I'd been using a cheap red pillow that I'd bought to do some balancing exercises, but found it didn't work as I'd hoped so I cast it aside, until the radiator heat started coming on and I realized it would probably serve as a nice kitty bed. Amy agrees...



...as Datsa storms off to sulk that she took "his" place...

Silly Site o' the Day

Happy Buy Nothing Day, Black Friday, or Leftover Day, whichever you prefer. I've just finished doing a couple leftover posts at ComicMix that I've been wanting to write up for awhile, so now it's time for a quick blog read before going back for more CM stuff and maybe doing a bit of online job searching, depending on how tired I am. I'm glad it's an "inside day" for us! At least the sun's out again. Of course, it being Buy Nothing Day I'm not going to get any of this today, but continuing on our series of weird holiday-season gifties, how about some Turducken for Cats (via Robyn Lee at Serious Eats)? And I just saw a cool bit on Euronews about an exhibition at a French museum on religious symbolism used to sell Savon soap that I thought was pretty interesting. This stuff isn't new by any means, folks.

Silly Site o' the Day

Make a silly turkey -- g'wan, I dares ya.

Happy Thanksgiving

May we all someday have freedom from want.

Thankful Blogaround

I'm thankful I finally caught up on blog reading, and can devote today to job searching and ComicMix posting and last-minute local shopping for the holiday tomorrow (which we'll be celebrating at my brother's house). I'm also thankful that so many Pen-Elayne readers have stuck with me through my period of light posting during this life transition -- which, come to think of it, has been pretty much all year, between the losses I've had and the travails of the day job. Although I say as much in this week's ComicMix column, I also wanted to say it here: You are wonderful and I cherish you and I don't take you for granted for one moment. Here's some of what I've seen on the blogs this past couple weeks:

• Le sigh. Due to all the weirdness this month, I missed noting Neil Gaiman's birthday, Heidi MacDonald's birthday, Mustang Bobby's and Echidne's blogiversaries, even Jill Thompson's birthday which was yesterday. Happy belateds to all. November's sure been a busy month for marking milestones!

• I'm hopeful things move forward again as the AMPTP and WGA meet next Monday to reopen negotiations. As always, Mark Evanier brings some great perspective to the proceedings, and I'm not just saying that because I was so happy to talk with him again this past Saturday. If you haven't seen them yet, here are the Daily Show and Colbert Report writers' strike-related videos:





Liss has the transcript of the Not The Daily Show one. Also, good strike-related posts on HuffPo as well from Laraine Newman (here and here) and Barbara Ehrenreich. Also, naturally, what Digby said.

• During the strike I've been content to catch up on real-life things but, for my TV watching, I've stuck to Olbermann and food shows (even started watching a food "reality" show, Gordon Ramsey's Kitchen Nightmares, which I'm quite liking). I've bitched about The Next Iron Chef America before, but overall as a TV experience it was pretty good, particularly the final episode which was the actual finalist battle in Kitchen Stadium. Judge Michael Ruhlman has a final comment on that episode, as well as an amusing book tour anecdote about meeting up with one of the NICA contestant chefs. Meanwhile, the NICA winner, Michael Symon, has started a blog as well, talking about his victory in the show, the subsequent media whirlwind, and his first challenge as an Iron Chef proper.

• If you're a moviegoer looking for new and interesting stuff during the strike, Morgan Spurlock suggests checking out his What Would Jesus Buy? just in time for the crass holiday commercialism. But if you've succumbed to the hype and gone to see Bee Movie, have you wondered about the dearth of female protagonists in most non-fairy-tale animation, particularly in a film purported to be about a species where most of the characters ought to be female? Both Amanda Marcotte and Lance Mannion share their thoughts on this.

• And then there's stuff to do on the internets. Perhaps too much stuff, if you're a fan of Mystery Science Theatre 3000. Ken Jennings tries to make sense of what he calls "a Beach Boys-like situation, with three separate factions of the same band crisscrossing the country doing thin-gruel versions of all the old hits."

• Over in the UK, Budgie reports on a pretty cool media campaign called Creature Discomforts, designed to educate able-bodied folks about discrimination against the disabled.

• And here in the US, but from the UK, Stephen Fry talks about the differences he's noted in the way Brits and Americans approach informal dinner-table debating. This actually explains much about home life here in the Riggs Residence.

• When she finds herself in times of trouble, Susie Madrak turns to her God box. This is actually quite a nice idea; even an atheist could make use of this by calling it a "note to future self" box.

• Paul Krassner remembers Norman Mailer. I'm grateful that Martha Thomases told me some wonderful Mailer stories last Saturday. If upon your passing you're remembered so positively by those who knew you personally, Mailer was indeed blessed.

• Melissa at Shakespeare's Sister again tackles one of my favorite subjects, women and humor; in yet another brilliant and related post, she invites you to enter, if you dare, into the sick world of gag gifts featuring disembodied boobs.

Well, we've been up for long enough thanks to Datsa; time to get some more sleep before actually starting our day.

Silly Site o' the Day

Okay, I get the point of Buy Nothing Day (this Friday, remember!), I really do. But sometimes you can take this stuff too far. Take No Music Day, for instance. Kevin Church called my attention to this. Even their About page is kooky: "No Music Day is on the 21st of November because the 22nd of November is Saint Cecelia's Day. Saint Cecelia is the patron saint of music... No Music Day has nothing to sell. There is no mission statement." Except for that About page, which may as well be a mission statement. Now that's a silly site. It's so pointless, it may as well be *shudder* performance art. Hey, Robin has a good idea -- let's have a No Talking Day, and a No Reading Day, and a No Breathing Day, and a day marking the cessation of any other useful contribution! Sheesh. (But seriously, Buy Nothing Day is a really good idea in our hyper-capitalist society...)

Silly Site o' the Day

Interview set up for next Thursday at the very cool place which called yesterday, spent about an hour or so on the phone with my old office walking the new employee through various things, did a bit of shopping, and once again it's after dark and I haven't gotten nearly as far along in blog reading as I wanted to. I blame the rainy gloom. That, and my head hurting from yet another Theory of Everything:



That's via an email from Dean Friedman. Back to more blog reading now...

Silly Site o' the Day

Severance agreement signed at last, and I have my check for owed vacation pay as well. Also gassed up the car, picked up my dry cleaning, applied online for unemployment insurance, had my last physical therapy session and slept a little. Didn't get as far as I'd wanted in blog-reading, and didn't do any job searching, but I did get a call for an interview from a place that sounds wonderful. Unfortunately, I was about a second too late in picking up the cell phone, so we're playing "phone tag" at this point. It bodes well that I'm still getting calls during the holiday season! Speaking of which, I should start putting up the links I've saved to silly products. Remember Sky Maul from last year? I first saw it via Lis Riba, then it got BoingBoinged and everyone was linking to it...

Going National

As promised, a few photos from yesterday's convention. Most of the very good photos that don't have to do with me personally will be going up in two batches, along with my con report, on ComicMix tomorrow. Still working on that report. But you won't be able to enlarge those photos like you can enlarge these by clicking on them. If anyone in these photos or in the ones going up on ComicMix wants me to email them the originals, please let me know.



The inimitable Michael Netzer, all the way from Israel. Because Mike sat opposite us rather than next to us, we didn't get a chance to chat as much as we did the last time he came in a few years back, so I'm more grateful than ever for the internet!



I sat next to Robin on one side and Scott Roberts on the other, so I got to see a lot of Scott's doodling. Doesn't he do a great Bugs Bunny? If you click on the photo you should be able to read the whole thing.



I had been talking to Vinnie Bartilucci about how he was probably my longest-standing friend at the con, as we knew each other before I was reading comics, before my first husband even. Then Derek Tague (above) showed up. While we still exchange holiday cards, Derek and I haven't seen each other in person in at least a decade. We know each other from, can you believe it, Uncle Floyd fandom, which I got into right after college as I recall, so that's almost three decades now. Scary, boys and girls!



Here are two of at least three inkers whose initials are RR. If Rick Remender had been at the con, I would have taken his photo alongside Robin and Rodney Ramos. Rob and Rod know each other from Marvel UK, Rod was the brash American. Um, still is. But a total sweetheart. And he let me flick through photos on his iPhone!



It was way cool seeing Val D'Orazio twice in one week! Here she is with her sweetie Dave Gallaher, writer of Zuda Comics' High Moon. In my opinion, Val and Dave are destined to be comics' next power couple. I have a better (more posed) photo of them in my ComicMix report, but I liked the casualness of this one.

Lots more photos up on ComicMix tomorrow. We left around 6 and had a quick dinner at a relatively quiet KFC, after which we missed the express bus by two minutes and had to wait another 45 for the next one. I figured, why not take my mind off how achy my body was becoming in the increasing cold by snapping a photo of the holiday decor at Macy's?



The effect of the tree is really cancelled out by those bright lights atop the building, isn't it? But hey, it's not for actual pedestrians to enjoy; like everything else surrounding the upcoming parade, it's all done for the TV now.



I thought the decorations at the Time Warner building at Columbus Circle were very pretty, but because of the bus movement and my camera taking forever to click the shot (I need to reinstall the smaller memory chip so it works faster) it took four tries just to get this.



No such luck with Yankee Stadium. Hope you've enjoyed the pictorial; I'm going to go make dinner now.

Fall Foliage 2007

It's probably past peak now, but I've promised you some fall foliage photos, and here they are at last. The first three were taken last weekend, the others yesterday. As always, you can click on them to see larger versions.



The view from our front stoop (the top step under the canopy). It's gotten even more gorgeous since this was taken.



From the driveway leading to the Palisades Center in Rockland County. The foreground trees may be bare but it's a hell of a vista in the background.



At the corner of Riverdale Avenue and 238th Street.



On 263rd Street right by the corner of Riverdale Avenue.



Fallen leaves in front of the wall boundary of Mount Saint Vincent college. I love the different colors and textures in this photo.



The college has some lovely landscaping.



Here's the same view taken from the other side, as we were waiting for the express bus to take us into Manhattan.



I love the perspective in this one, with the still-green trees in the foreground, the reddish-yellow one in the middle ground and the blue puffy-cloud sky as backdrop.



I managed to get a few nice shots once we were on the Deegan southbound. I guess that's upper Manhattan (East Harlem and such) across the river.



Another shot of the trees bordering the Harlem River. Next up, convention pictures from yesterday!

Silly Site o' the Day

One of the things with which yesterday's convention attendance left me was a desire to read more online comics and seek out more interesting animations. So I was delighted when Jason Bergman led me to the work of animator Dan Meth, a friend of his from high school. Here's Meth's latest Meth Minute 39, entitled "Syd Barrett Visits His Accountant":



Back to blog reading to see what else I've been missing...

Silly Site o' the Day

I'm getting too old for this, and hoping I never get too old for this. We had a lot of fun at the National, meeting lots of friends both old and new, but the after-con got to us, as we ended up standing for about 45 minutes in the wind and cold for the express bus home. Now Rob's back is worse, mine isn't far behind (well, it is behind me, but... oh, you know what I mean), I'm in considerable pain below the waist, and we're just going to stay home tomorrow in, with any luck, pseudo-fetal positions. Oh, and tomorrow I'll also be posting lots of photos from today's con, both here and on ComicMix. One of today's highlights was seeing Mark Evanier again; here, via his blog, is a very cool World Clock site.

Friday Cat Blogging (™ Kevin Drum)

Severance agreement not signed yet, but I took my ex-boss' version home with me to review over the weekend and will stop by the old office on Monday not to work but to sign off on things and receive my owed vacation pay. Consulting duty's been changed to the following Monday, so I'm off all next week, which will be spent resuming my job search and catching up on all things comics after the National (which it looks like we'll be attending as planned this weekend, since Rob's back is feeling marginally better). Meantime, let's look at a couple sun-dappled cats, shall we?



Hope it's sunny during the weekend so they can get their 'beams...

Silly Site o' the Day

I was hoping to do a blogaround, but I haven't had the time or energy to even catch up on this week's ComicMix comics installments, although thanks to a touch of insomnia (gee, I wonder why) I'm finally caught up on reading all the columns. It's been two days and nobody's yet commented on my column, which has to do with the writers strike and how their residual reality compares with comics creators' royalties and such. Probably just as well, since I've been forcibly AFK and will continue to be through Tuesday. Meanwhile, Robin's back is acting up and we're hoping it'll ease in time for this weekend's National, I'd rather not go alone! Oh, and Suicide Squad: Raise the Flag #3 is out in stores now, so folks who want autographs this weekend can now bring the first three issues. Speaking of flags, via Eszter here's a site that lets you create your own flag mashup using bits of three different flags from around the world.

Silly Site o' the Day

I spent this morning in my old office once more, and I'm obligated to go in again tomorrow, Monday and Tuesday. Some severance period so far, no longer an employee yet into the office more than away from it! After Thanksgiving, though, only two definite days and three half days as needed, so I can finally resume my job search at that time. Right now, I'm exhausted and badly need to catch up on not only blogging but sleep. So far the former is winning out as Lillian's son is back from school downstairs and, as usual, his computer's loud enough that it precludes any shut-eye in the bedroom. So might as well blog. Colleen Doran found a wonderful site that not only helps improve vocabulary (I have a pretty large vocab but I'm missing more than a few words) but helps feed the needy, and I highly recommend visiting the dual-purpose FreeRice loads of times to better improve the world! Now back to blog reading...

Silly Site o' the Day

Well, that wasn't a fun way to wake up. My first out-of-office severance day consisted of three consulting to answer former-job-related questions, errand running, checkbook catch-up, and definitely not enough downtime nor sleep after having gotten back home after midnight following the first decent comics industry socializing I've had in months. Did the review post and my column for ComicMix, my daily post here, and that was about it for blog stuff. Since today I'm in the office (and inaccessible computer-wise) all day, then to my penultimate physical therapy session, blog catch-up and ComicMix news posting will have to wait until tomorrow. I'm feeling about as off as a broken bumble-bee in the creek, at least according to the Homespun Analogy Generator (at Generatorland).

Silly Site o' the Day

Yesterday's interview seemed to go well -- I can certainly do the job, I love the location, it's just a matter of the employer wanting me over the others at this point -- and the MoCCA event and after-event socializing was great (my write-up is here on ComicMix).



That's me and Valerie D'Orazio, the Occasional Superheroine, getting all fangirl over each other (as it were). Robin happened to get Val in like the one second she wasn't smiling. More pictures to follow later today, as we venture out to do local errands amidst the beautiful foliage. So, what's on your mind today? Find out with the brainscannr (via Gerard). Here are my results; looks about right.

Silly Site o' the Day

Half a day at the office, about an hour to breathe here at home, then into Manhattan for my job interview and the Lulu panel at MoCCA. My stomach's churning and I'm not sure why. Won't be spending a lot of time online until tomorrow, which I've designated a catch-up day but it's also an errand day so we'll see. Things will be a bit crazed until Thanksgiving. At least I think so. Maybe I should generate a calendar (via Gerard) to be sure.

Silly Site o' the Day

While I've been trying to come to terms with the job thing (see below) I've fallen behind in blog-reading again, although not so much that I can't catch up again fairly quickly by day's end. While beginning the catch-up, I happened to note that Arianna Huffington is branching out from HuffPo into online comedy news, so I thought I'd plug her new venture, called 23/6 ("Some of the News, Most of the Time"), which I hope gets a working RSS feed soon.

Coming to Terms

I'm starting to find my equilibrium again, after being knocked flat by the suddenness of my unemployment. I mean, it really was only a matter of a few weeks between my official last day and when I thought I'd be gone. This morning I finished typing up my severance agreement (yes, this whole thing has been going so smoothly that my all-but-former boss had me create the written agreement myself, based on Friday's discussion), I'm coming into the office a handful of times in the next few weeks to continue consulting and training, but mostly I'm in forward-looking mode now. It's just going to take a bit of getting used to; after all, as Robin pointed out, due to my work ethic of staying at a position for the long haul, I only undergo this trauma once a decade. Of course, Mom corrected Robin by saying it's been more like twice in a quarter century. :)

In so many ways, my current severance situation is close to exactly what I've wanted, except that I'm not gainfully employed elsewhere yet. But I'm convinced it's only a matter of time before I find the perfect job, and in the meantime with the holiday season coming up and a bit of a financial cushion I'd be foolish not to take advantage of being able to do some of the things I really enjoy.

Tomorrow afternoon Robin's coming into the city with me to browse about during my job interview, after which we'll catch a bite then head down to MoCCA to see Cheryl Lynn moderate the Women of Color in Comics and Manga panel, where we'll not only be catching up with Cheryl and other Friends of Lulu NY folk but will finally meet new FoL national president and blogger friend Val D'Orazio. I'm not sure Robin has even met Val, although they did briefly work together when she was an editor at DC.

Then continuing on the comics theme, next weekend we'll have a table at the National Big Apple comic book, etc. expo across the street from Penn Station, where I plan to schlep in my laptop and camera in the hopes of getting a wifi connection to report live from the scene for ComicMix. It'll be great catching up with industry friends now that I'll be able to do the news for CM again, although I won't be able to finish my outline for Megillat Vashti in time to discuss it at the con with the book's artist, Mike Netzer, who's coming in from Israel. It looks to be a nice little con, Mark Evanier and Sergio Aragones will be in from the other coast so I can get lots of first-hand news from Mark about the WGA strike and the Broadway stagehand strike and even non-strike stuff before I read it on his mandatory blog. I can't express how much I've missed having a social life since my now-former job moved to the Westchester suburbs.

And there's other stuff I want to do. TBS' horrid lower-third-ad-laden showing of The Wizard of Oz last night reminded me how much I long to reread all the Oz books given the leisure time. With Robin able to set his own hours, we don't have to wait for weekends to do errands and go places. When I went out during lunchtime last week my back didn't seize up at all, which bodes well for things like checking out holiday store window displays in Manhattan and maybe the Bronx Zoo holiday lights (although I will probably "cheat" and bring along my walking stick just in case), weather permitting. I may even be inspired enough to jump-start my comic book writing again and do a story or two with my house artist; Soulmate Productions hasn't actually produced new comic book work in about ten years, which is way too long.

And since I won't be going to physical therapy any more (as the PT place is near my former office where I don't want to travel any more unless necessary), I hope to embark on a personal regimen to stay as physically healthy as I can. My exercise bike misses me! I just hope I can summon up the energy for all the stuff I want to do now!

Silly Site o' the Day

Sorry to hear about Norman Mailer, although he lived a pretty full life. In his honor, via Jessa at Bookslut, two book-related games -- okay, library-related actually -- from Carnegie Mellon that I can't play for the life of me.

Friday Cat Blogging (™ Kevin Drum)

A little more excitement than usual at the Riggs Residence this evening, as my godson Jonny came over with his dad and brother to pick up Robin's old G4 and my old CRT monitor. We're totally flat-panel now. But I'm getting ahead of myself. The cats are still on the prowl because we ordered out from the chicken and ribs place, so they got a bit more than their fair share yet they still seek more, as kitties will.



No guys, it's all gone now. Amy really appreciates all the room she now has under the vanity where the CRT used to be:



And here's Robin's current setup with the iMac and Cintiq:



Streamlining; it's a good thing! Special Infinite Regression Bonus!:



Yeah, I probably could keep this up all night, but I think I'll stop here.

Well, That Was Fast

As of today I am no longer employed full-time at the day job I've held for the last 10+ years, although I will continue to train and consult on and off for the next few weeks. This will leave me lots of free time, much sooner than expected, to concentrate on my job hunt, transition to a healthier overall emotional and mental state, and enjoy both the upcoming holiday season and my hobbies. I'm a firm believer that everything happens for a reason, and this aspect of my life could not have occurred in a better way and at a better time.

Silly Site o' the Day

As Melissa says, "Eddie Izzard + LEGOs® = Unadulterated Brilliance." Here's a bunch of YouTube videos of Izzard bits illustrated by stop-motion LEGOs®.

Silly Site o' the Day

Tomorrow is the day everything changes for me, as my successor starts at the office. As there are no working computers set up in any offices other than those belonging to the few employees left, this means my online access will probably be severely curtailed during the day in the three weeks between now and the end of the month, which will be spent training my successor and cleaning out all my ten years of accumulated stuff. Just means I'm going to have to majorly shift how I do things after I get home; from now on I'll have to be a little more disciplined, and situate myself in front of the laptop immediately instead of turning on the TV, so I can catch up on blog reading and ComicMix stuff.

Speaking of the office, Mark Evanier notes that production has shut down on NBC's show The Office where star (and WGA member) Steve Carell "has been calling in sick with what he claims is a case of 'enlarged balls'." Office costar Jenna Fischer confirms the work stoppage and links to this amusing video featuring the showrunner and other members of the writing staff (a few of whom, as you probably know, also double as cast members):



And here's a nice neat encapsulation of the writers' strike via Bob Harris:



Considering the clever use the writers have made of online video, can anyone honestly say they don't deserve to be compensated when their producers make use of their work online?

Update: Speaking of showrunners, you want to keep up with Nikki Finke's Dateline Hollywood Daily blog for the most comprehensive news and analysis about yesterday's showrunners meeting.

Calm Between the Storms Blogaround

I still can't shake the probably-hypochondriacal anxiety I've been feeling all day, but I've gotten through my entire immediate workload (leaving only further file cleanout in the inner office, and my muscles tell me I've done enough for today) and caught up on blog-reading, and before I move on to other matters I need to clean out my saved bookmarks:

• It seems wherever you go you'll find a version of "Where are all the women [insert profession or hobby]?" The latest version I came across, via Robyn at Serious Eats, deals with top-line female chefs. Seriously y'all, the more things change...

• Although Hallowe'en is over, Melissa's post about costumes -- which is really a post about flashers -- is still mandatory reading I had to deal with at least two pretty traumatic exposure incidents (that I recall) when I was younger, and I agree that when you're victimized by this sort of thing it totally ceases to be amusing. Echidne has some good thoughts on the subject as well.

• I'd never heard about the "Chinatown bus phenomenon" until Lindsay blogged about it. Now I have DC2NY bookmarked in case I ever want to schlep to Washington DC and not drive.

• What Donna said.

• Congratulations to Bob Greenberger on his election! And Curt Schilling reports he's re-upped with the Sox.

• Lastly, Mustang Bobby reminds us that the good guys aren't supposed to stoop to the level of the bad guys.

And that leaves me with just about half an hour to check my Google Reader blogs for ComicMix before leaving for the day...

Silly Site o' the Day

It's Wednesday, so that means my latest ComicMix column is up. It's freezing in here, which means I'm still not out of this job, but at least there are rumors of a light at the end of the tunnel. Speaking of which, via Jessa at Bookslut, it's musical Tesla coils!



I'll never hear the Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairies the same way again...

Silly Site o' the Day

I have another interview lined up for next Monday! I'm very excited about this potential job, not only because the qualifications look to be right up my alley but because the location in Manhattan is absolutely ideal, pretty much everything I could hope for. And the job sounds interesting, too. The sooner I get out of my current atmosphere the better, it's really taking a toll on my physical and mental health. When this whole job-transition thing is over and I'm settled in and no longer strung out all the time, I promise I'll start posting more again both here and at ComicMix. Until then, as I'm sure you understand, hobbies go by the wayside until survival matters are taken care of. At least I'm getting a little more sleep as the writers' strike (go writers!) means no more new Daily Show and Colbert for the foreseeable. Although if you need your fix of such things, you might want to try The Bugle, to which Robin tried to introduce me this morning but I had to go off to work. Looking forward to listening to it tonight.

Keep the Home Fires Burning

It's Bonfire Night in Robin's old home town of Lewes. Here's my annual links to the relevant information and to the Lewes Bonfire Council. Yes, other towns in the UK commemmorate the Gunpowder Plot, but from what I hear Lewes does it best, so much so that they tend to discourage non-locals from even attempting to attend...

Silly Site o' the Day

This morning was a bit of a challenge, as our servers were completely down. But they say every challenge is also an opportunity, so I seized the time to catch up on filing so I leave no loose ends when I'm let go from this 10-year job, which at this point looks to be the end of this month. I had a couple pleasant conversations with agencies this morning, but nothing other than that, so everything remains status quo. At least I can do some more online job searching now. I'm sure something will come along, but in the meantime I guess I'm a little scared, or maybe it's just left-over Hallowe'en jitters caused by sites like this defacer widget (via Gerard)...

Silly Site o' the Day

Good lord, a 25-hour day and I completely forget to blog. Ah well, better late (with two minutes to spare) than never. Hope everyone else out there has enjoyed their extra hour. Here, have a Star Wars Rube Goldberg machine (via Cory at BoingBoing):



And so to bed.

Silly Site o' the Day

What with all the other things going on in my life, I haven't been keeping up my comedy bonafides as much as I should be. So I was delighted and somewhat exasperated when Mark Evanier's blog led me to My Damn Channel, "an entertainment studio and new media platform created to empower artists to co-produce, distribute and monetize original, episodic video content," featuring lots of stuff that there's just not enough hours in my day to watch, particularly the video work of the beyond-magnificent Harry Shearer. Here's the video to which Mark linked:



I'd always thought that "waterboarding" sounded like it would be perfect for a Beach Boys parody, and Shearer is spot-on here; my only (minor) quibble is that I think the tempo should have been a bit faster.

Friday Cat Blogging (™ Kevin Drum)

So I have this bolster that I sometimes use instead of propping up a pillow, if I want to elevate my feet or my head, and usually I wind up throwing clothing on top of it prior to hanging it up, but today was laundry day, and Amy found a new place to sleep. We woke her up with our cameras. First mine:



Then Robin's:



Then she went back to sleep.



Well, I can't let Datsa have all the cat-blogging glory this week...

Silly Site o' the Day

Darn my work ethic anyway! I've actually spent the majority of my day doing my day job, even though nobody else is in the office. Doesn't seem fair, somehow. Oh well, lots accomplished and all that. Haven't been keeping up with the news, so I figured I'd make my own with the London Evening Standard Headline Generator (via Gerard, of course).

Silly Site o' the Day

White Rabbits! I'm only now first getting to blog posting, so the day's pretty much shot. The less said about my workday -- or, for that matter, my euphemism -- the better, I suppose. Here's one left over from yesterday, via Zuzu: Zombie Yoga.