Silly Site o' the Day

My first entry typed onto my new PC, which fits my widescreen monitor so nicely I can hardly read the tiny type! Thank you for Ctrl+, Firefox 3! You're second to none! Or is it, Nun? My nun name (at Generatorland, via Gerard) is Sister Marlene Brickwhipper; what's yours?

Silly Site o' the Day

Do you want something? Try the Something Store (via Mike at Left is Right). Do you want something specific, or even to know what that something is? Best try somewhere else...

Desktop

As Bloglines is temporarily down, I took the opportunity to reorganize the top of my computer desk. Here's what it looks like now:



You can click on the photo to embiggen it. Here's the key to a lot of the cool stuff: The pencilholder was standard-issue to all incoming freshmen at Rutgers three decades ago. I believe I received the Wonder Woman figurine at my 40th birthday party in Mid-Ohio; she broke at the wrist, which is why her bracelet has been Blu-tacked. The fishy lying on its side has a "DQ" button on it which doesn't stand for Dairy Queen but for Digital Queer; I was given the fish at some LGBT function but I have no memory for where. The gator is from Cruella, I won it at her stand-up show in Manhattan. I think its name is Fluffy. It's being "bitten" by the Millennium Bug; remember when we were all scared of that? Next to the stamp holder (which I adore) is my Lulu Volunteer of the Year award; I was the first to ever get one of those. And it balances nice with the paperweight on the other side of the display.

Silly Site o' the Day

Even though I had a bit of trouble sleeping last night, I felt fairly refreshed when Datsa woke us up at the usual ungodly hour, so after he and Amy were fed Rob went back to sleep while I caught up on my finances (i.e., balanced my checkbook and wrote in newer transactions). Fortunately I made it through unemployment with enough insurance payments banked to begin paying my share of the rent again, and I've also re-upped the subs on all the magazines I'm going to be reading during my commute. I can even swing my MasterCard bill, which will include my brand-new PC which came last night (and which Rob has pretty much all set up already, naturally). It seems good and fast, and not wonky at all as this old PC has continued to become (the latest headache -- when I upgraded to Firefox 3 I lost my ability to call up ComicMix's "Continued" tab on their editing site, and I haven't been able to post photos there in ages, I had to keep going to the Macbook to do that). Now if I can just get BigFish to acknowledge that I should be allowed to activate Atlantis Quest there, I'm all set and we can wipe this old baby's hard drive by the end of the weekend.

But that's a minor concern; first up, I need shoes (or, as Melissa says, OMG shoez) because the three pairs I currently own are all rubber-soled and look more like sneakers, at least to my supervisor at work. So it's off to the Palisades Center once Robin reawakens. Hey, I'm not complaining, especially with conveyor-belt sushi to hand! I think I can even deal with the ubiquitous consumerism. Speaking of which, this Fun with Brands post at David McCandless' The Internet Now In Handy Book Form! reads pretty familiar to me.

Silly Site o' the Day

Now that I'm gainfully employed once more, we can finally consider upgrading our furniture. We've needed new office chairs for so long! And we'll be giving them the requisite Swedish names (via Gerard)...

Friday Cat Blogging (™ Kevin Drum)

I like to think the cats have missed me whilst I've been back at work...



...but Datsa doesn't seem the worse for wear...

Silly Site o' the Day

Guh. Just, just guh. I left the house at 7 AM and didn't return until 9 PM. On the one hand, Robin has a point when he says "this is what working in Manhattan is sometimes like." On the other hand, I wish I hadn't had my first substantial overtime day during my first week, when I'm still getting used to being back in in the workforce after six months of enforced leisure! I'm too tired to think. Here, Gerard wants us all to have a drum kit band name generator. Another fine product from RedKid.net! If you need any suggestions, just read any one of Dave Barry's columns and you're bound to come across one...

Silly Site o' the Day

Definitely getting more comfy at the job as I learn the systems and procure access to the various computer programs I'll need (tomorrow I should be set up with the last of those), but dang, I don't think I quite have the hang of the commute yet. Loath as I am to spend the extra bucks, I was really knocked out by the rush-hour subway ride home after picking up my comics today. I loved going comics shopping again (and by the way my new ComicMix column is out) but, between the too-crowded "1" train (even though I lucked out and grabbed a seat abandoned by an impatient passenger during the train's long wait in the Times Square station) and the too-crowded B7 bus, it's just not worth the aggro when I can get the express bus home without walking more than a few steps from my office building. So on the nights when I go straight home rather than hanging out in Manhattsn, it's going to be subway down and express bus home. I need my energy to do my daily bike exercise, which isn't possible when I'm this sapped. Even so, it's still a more responsible carbon footprint than driving, particularly when I can't even seem to play Game Parken correctly (via Mike at Left is Right).

First Day Back

Thanks for all your good wishes, folks. Just a note, I cannot access personal email nor blogging software from work, so I'm afraid I'll be maintaining "radio silence" for 8+ hours on weekdays and playing catch-up as much as I can during early mornings, evenings and weekends. But it's a small price to pay for a truly amazing job at a wonderful location. My coworkers are all terrific, my boss couldn't be nicer, the benefits are outstanding, and I ate lunch in Central Park. Yes, I'm close enough to Central Park to stroll there on my lunch hour. I'm a very happy camper.

Silly Site o' the Day

Off to work shortly (giving myself plenty of time on the commute, just in case). Test your reaction time with Sheep Dash! Mine? Not so much, this early in the day. Via Mike at Left is Right.

Silly Site o' the Day

One of my heroes has died. RIP George Carlin. Never met him, although he was a vocal Firesign fan. I thought he was more mean and curmudgeonly than funny and observational in his later years, but none of that takes away from a lifetime of brilliance. (I almost feel guilty for noting that I had a super day today, my last day of unemployment for a long while, but I did. Among other matters, I took care of my annual cardio visit, and my cardiologist has approved my switch to the lowest strength of enteric aspirin. I love downgrading my med intake!)

Silly Site o' the Day

The Star Wars Crawl maker is one of those wonderfully creative sites that makes me wish I could think of clever stuff on the fly to create my own crawl. Via Gerard. This was the best I could come up with:



I have no idea if it'll come out on Blogger. If it doesn't, go here to see it.

Silly Site o' the Day

I've now filled out all the pre-orientation paperwork for my new job, which I start on Tuesday (Monday is my last round of odds-and-ends medical appointments, including my annual cardiologist visit), but I've yet to tackle the DIY Yahoo resignation letter (I first saw it via Catherine at Poverty Barn, but lots of folks have plugged it as well )...

Belated Friday Cat Blogging (™ Kevin Drum)

Happy Caturday! I got through filing the indie comics a lot more quickly than I'd anticipated, and Robin took down all those boxes this morning, giving me room to file away all the complementary copies of the DC work he's done in the last couple years. Here are the empty boxes (behind Datsa) in which those comps had been sitting for lo these many months:



And here they are (behind Amy) all flattened out, ready to take downstairs to the recycle bins:



And here's what the library/catbox room/exercise room now looks like from the entranceway:



Only one of the smaller boxes remain; everything else is in long boxes, and it's now an unobstructed beeline from the doorway to the exercise bike. It's a lot easier to get around in that room now, and so much more pleasant to spend additional time on the bike!

Silly Site o' the Day

Happy summer solstice, everyone! In the Eastern time zone of the US it arrives at around 9 this evening. I had no idea the tradition of June weddings goes back to ancient solstice celebrations. I also found it amusing that in NYC a modern summer solstice tradition will be marked by a fellow named Winter. Here are some more fun facts about the summer solstice. Having overheard one half of a quite loud and amazingly inappropriate cell phone conversation on a public bus last night, Robin and I know that at least a few people will be celebrating the solstice in northwestern Union County, NJ in a rather unusual and prurient-sounding manner, and would like to advise any interested parties to go to the Summit train station at 5 PM, look for the fellow in the yellow jacket, and follow him and Jose, and the towel he's bringing for Jose, to a place where there is guaranteed to be "no touching or fondling."

Silly Site o' the Day

Things on which I spaced out and forgot to mention yesterday: Paul McCartney's 66th birthday (Johnny has it covered, and doesn't that BBQ look tasty? Why can't I find veggie-based stuff that looks that good?), Pat Prentice' birthday, Alan Davis' birthday (and Alan and Heather's anniversary), and my latest ComicMix column, about guess what. No, not birthdays. I will be at MoCCA tonight taping a segment for Current TV with Val D'Orazio and other Lulu folks, which is not only a great way to celebrate the new job as it gives me and Robin an excuse to hit the city for dinner on this gorgeous late spring day, but with any luck will give me fodder for my next ComicMix column. I have no idea what I'll be wearing; I wish I had one of these cool and clever t-shirts publicized by Cory at BoingBoing. I'll have to see if I have some sparkly and telegenic top somewhere...

Silly Site o' the Day

My back is feeling the effects of moving around comics boxes yesterday, but it's a good kind of ache. The Marvels get sorted and "shelved" today, and the dozen or so small boxes of indies get dragged out into the living room to tackle over the next few days or so. I'm loving the speed of Firefox 3, which we dutifully downloaded yesterday to my PC and all three of our Macs so we could participate in Download Day. I don't have the time or inclination at the moment to make any Wordle art, but thought you might like to (via John Hodgman).

RIP Cyd Charisse

She was the Cyd Charissest. I really adored her.

Silly Site o' the Day

Continuing in my quest to get everything at home sorted before starting my new job, today was comics filing day #1, made possible by a grant from Comics 'R' Us Robin going into the loft to put away some stuff that had been hanging in the library since before Christmas, and bringing down some long boxes. The DC comp box stuff from the past year and a half is all done and put back in the library (no more room on the shelves, so they'll stay in long boxes until such time as we move to a bigger place); the Marvels are next, followed by the indies and then all the comps of books on which Robin has worked. I'm keen to tidy up the library as, even though it's the least-used room where the cats' litter boxes reside, it's also where the exercise bike is, and the neater it looks the more apt I am to want to go in there and do my daily biking. I also got Rob to bring down my INSIDE JOKE files, which now reside next to my filing cabinet; every now and then someone asks me an IJ-related question which I can't possibly answer because it was 20-30 friggin' years ago, so it's nice to have them all to hand again. Speaking of organization, have some fun with indexing, via Ann Bartow!

Silly Site o' the Day

Dang, insomnia again last night. Maybe it's my impending return to the gainfully employed? Anyway, despite my lack of sleep I had a great morning and early afternoon, as Robin and I travelled to DC Comics so he could drop off some boards and get other business done, and I got to tell Joan Hilty and Joey Cavalieri, probably my two longest-standing friends there, that I now have a job only blocks away from the DC offices, which I hope will mean actual lunches with friends in my near future! Speaking of which, we then met "Dexter Fong" (from the Firesign chat gang) for lunch and picked up our Midtown haul for the last two weeks. Next time I set foot in midtown, it will be to place a regular monthly order; it'll be great to go back to that routine! My ComicMix column is delayed a bit, as much of the afternoon and evening were spent in a somewhat delicate state, which I'm figuring is the sleeplessness catching up with me. I'm glad I still have another week to get things in order! I got my last LinkedIn endorsement recommendation today courtesy of Robin, so my profile finally reads 100% completed, just in time to not need it any more. :) Speaking of which, here's a LinkedIn Endorsement Generator to play with (via Gerard)...

Lazy Sunday Blogaround

Let's see if I can't close open bookmarks before they pile up too much:

• The sudden and shocking death of Tim Russert inspired out some interesting posts in the liberal blogosphere. I haven't read one single post that didn't acknowledge the sadness of his passing, as one would acknowledge the sadness of any celebrity's death; he's someone we felt we knew, someone obviously intelligent enough that we could vehemently disagree with his methods even while we admitted he knew exactly what he was doing (which probably infuriated some of us even more). And the stunned eulogies that MSNBC and fellow journalists offered are understandable, even if they bordered on the uncomfortably worshipful (Marc Cooper at HuffPo dubbed it a Requiem for Pope Russert); after all, I'm sure every on-air pundit was thinking "it could be me," and hyper-awareness of one's own mortality (combined, of course, with the civilized protocol of not examining someone's shortcomings right after their death) certainly colored much of what we were told. And it also deeply affected their ability to handle anything else going on; I know when my dad died I couldn't manage to be very other-directed for quite awhile. As Mark Adams at American Street puts it, "I agree with absolutely everything [Russert's detractors] have to say, and I’ll agree with it later, at a slightly more appropriate time. But...if the front page of every paper carries the same story and the cable news outlets devote hours and hours and hours to the same subject —- that IS the news. Deal with it."

• Keith Olbermann is being discussed as a possible Russert successor, understandable as he (like most of his MSNBC cohorts) obviously looked to "Timmeh" as a role model. In the wake of this New Yorker profile of the Man with the Special Comments, many are still extremely skeptical of his recent devolution, and the article won't disabuse you of that notion. Even though Olbermann's a pundit and not a journalist (a distinction made in the article by, among others, the late Mr. Russert), he seems incapable of realizing when he's gone too far, as with the locker-room-level sexism directed against Senator Clinton. Which reminds me, What Digby Said. (And again, I voted for Obama in the NY primary, but I don't think Hillary Clinton got a fair shake since at least February, and I believe the newsroom nastiness contributed as greatly to her eventual loss as the same people virtually ignoring Edwards contributed to his early losses.) As my buddy MadKane puts it, "I’d thought that once Obama clinched the Democratic nomination, it would be safe to start watching Countdown again. Without Keith's daily anti-Hillary target practice, I might even be able to watch it without cringing. Wrong! Keith’s bloviating "Worst Person in the World" anti-Katie Couric tirade was almost enough to make me turn to Bill O’Reilly. Talk about desperate!" And she follows up with a limerick that echoes what Robin and I have been saying to each other for awhile, musing on whether Olbermann is well on his way to becoming the liberal equivalent of his nemesis Bill O'Reilly. Yes, the man's still worth watching, but only on DVR and not until about 8:45, so I can skip all the pointless stuff (the sports-derived horse-race speculation, the misogyny, the O'Reilly obsession) to get to the increasingly fewer good minutes.

• Val makes a chilling prediction that the days of the free internet are numbered. And David Byrne laments the rising cost of everything else, but sees opportunity in the challenges ahead.

• Charlie Jane Anders at io9 thinks Steven Moffat might be dumbing down women in his Doctor Who episodes. I think she makes some good points but I'm not sure I agree. I think he's terribly romantic at heart, and I quite enjoy the "just this once, everybody lives" endings, I believe they're very dramatically satisfying.

• Yum, baseball stadium food! I didn't know Shea had sushi. Hope Citifield will too.

• You know, when you try to set up your little art exhibit without permission in a vacant store front, it's usually not a good sign. I have no use for the antics of Yazmany Arboleda. There's a fine line between examining racism/sexism and celebrating it, and he totally crossed it. On the other hand, I have nothing but applause for JJ Kissinger's well-planned exhibit about White Privilege (via Jack at Alas). The second-biggest difference between Arboleda and Kissinger, after the former's tone-deaf conflation of examining with celebrating, is that Kissinger involved other folks in his community.

• Lastly, congratulations to Melissa and Iain on six years and counting!

Back to watching more baseball...

Silly Site o' the Day

Check out this Anatomy of a Gummy Bear poster by Jason Freeny at MoistProduction! Rob and I both laughed out loud at its cleverness, although we note that no details were available as to the bear's flavor. Via Emily at Serious Eats.

Silly Site o' the Day

Off to Mom's in a couple of hours. Might do some ComicMix news searching whilst I'm there. Should I include Cracked.com's 20 Insane Supervillain Schemes in Flowchart Form (via David McCandless)?

Friday Cat Blogging (™ Kevin Drum)

It's DC comp box day, hooray!



Somehow the cats don't seem as enthusiastic about the box as I am...

Silly Site o' the Day

Happy Friday the 13th, everyone! I got my orientation package from my new employer today, so I think I'm always going to consider Friday the 13th to be very lucky indeed. I so totally felt like shopping, now that I know I'll have income. I blew $20 on a new pair of shoes and $2 on some nori maki arare (seaweed rice crackers), big spender that I am! Okay, I also bought conveyor belt sushi, plus there was the Tappan Zee Bridge toll. It's nice knowing I'll have a steady income again! And speaking of shopping, I've never watched Sex and the City but, via Matt Tobey at the Comedy Central blog, TV Land has done this screamingly funny parody starring four women (and one guy) famous for appearing in '70s sitcoms.



I think this also answers Mark Evanier's frequent question...

This One's For Steve

Around 20 years ago on this very day, my first husband and I got married. We'd been friends for years before our marriage, and we've now been friends for over a decade since our divorce. Happy "Steve Day" to one of my oldest (erm, that's "of longest standing") and dearest pals.

Gainfully Employed

After almost half a year of unemployment, I am pleased to announce that I have officially been hired for a full-time executive assistant position in midtown Manhattan. I feel like my life can once again begin! I've enjoyed this involuntary six-month vacation, but I'm more than ready for the daily commute again. Spread the word! I begin week after next, so I'm hoping next week will be filled with celebratory lunches with friends.

Silly Site o' the Day

Goal for today: empty all of my email in-boxes! My personal Gmail box is almost cleared out, but I had to take a break to pass along Red State Update, a link I found via Phil Proctor's regular Planet Proctor e-mailings. Now, back to the task at hand (reading the other Planet Proctors)!

Silly Site o' the Day

Glad the heat's broken. Not coincidentally, that's the subject of my ComicMix column this week. With Rob's deadline done, today we shopped for healthier and lighter food, and tomorrow I'm going to try to make a stir fry with tofu for the first time in my life. Then we came home and watched lots of Mika. I'd say this one is my sentimental favorite,



but really I like almost all of his stuff. Gad though, he's so young!! And speaking of big girls being beautiful, why doesn't the Attraction Code generator (via Gerard) take that preference into account?

Silly Site o' the Day

Must pass on this wonderful bit via Jonathan Schwarz at Tom Tomorrow's place: Google News of the world in which we should all be living. And here's the story behind the happy headlines. Well done, Andrea!

MoCCA Art Festival 2008

And about time, too! Thanks for your patience, everyone. It's taken me a long time to recover from this past weekend, in large measure because of the heat. I took over 40 pictures and saved the best 30 or so for this report; hope you like them!



Laurence Klein founded the Museum of Comic and Cartoon Art, and was in town from the Berkshires (where he lives now with his wife and 9-month-old kid) to see what's become of his baby. He does look like a bit of a proud papa, doesn't he?



DC Comics' Fletcher Chu-Fong says hi, along with Friends of Lulu Marion Vitus and Val D'Orazio. My main reason for coming to the con, other than to socialize of course, was to work the FoL booth, as they'd guaranteed me a seat. Val has the pictures to prove it; I'm so glad she got one of me next to Alitha Martinez, as I'd totally spaced out taking a photo of Alitha! I'd also forgotten to snap a shot of Barry Deutsch, Spike, and about a half dozen others. But I'm glad I remembered as many as I did! So here's the thing about the MoCCA Art Fest: if you're not working a table, there's really no place to sit, unless you want to hole yourself away in the makeshift cafeteria for two hours. I can't really stand for that long any more, and the heat kinda gets to me anyway (my face didn't feel as red as it looks in Val's photos, but there you are), so I have to really pace myself at these things.



Three out of the four members of the Comics Bakery: Raina Telgemeier, Dave Roman and Marion again. John Green's off somewhere, perhaps hiding in a Boba Fett suit. (That's an in-joke that goes way, way back.)



Jim Ottaviani had a lovely display up on the 7th floor, which was not air-conditioned. He said this was nothing to him, he gets used to it the way one gets used to pain under morphine. Which led to an interesting story about how he came to be under morphine, which had to do with him falling off a mountain. Next time you see Jim, do ask him about falling off a mountain. Oh, we writers, we're such racounteurs! I fall off my sneakers sometimes.



In the makeshift cafeteria where I'd holed myself away for two hours, Dean Haspiel tells Martha Thomases that, given the conditions upstairs, he might just have to strip off some of his clothing in order to deal with the situation. And a grateful nation sighs.



Jay Lynch remembers me from my INSIDE JOKE days. No, strike that, he remembers me from INSIDE JOKE 1.0, back when it was an Uncle Floyd zine! This was over half my life ago, in the days before I read comics, but I still corresponded with a lot of comics people. Go figure.



Yeah, Barry and I had lunch and I completely spaced on taking his photo. But August Pollak, who was next to him at the Cartoonists With Attitude table, greeted me ebulliently. August being such a happy guy in real life is somewhat scary because he so successfully cultivates a rather punk persona online. He told me about his wonderful new job, about which I can say nothing but congratulations, August! Oh, and I bought his Some Guy With A Website collection. Look at those puppy-dog eyes, could you do any less? I ask you.



Makesha Wood and Abell "Ben" Smith. Ben was one of those people I swore I'd never met but who insisted he knows me. I'm getting this more and more lately. Can I chalk it up to being over 50? I missed Makesha's lovely wife Mikhaela Reid this time, but I'm sure I'll see her 'round again soon. Barry was staying with them this trip, and fortunately his luggage had arrived there by Saturday night.



Jamal and Karine Igle with their new little peanut! Big Daddy and La Mère have arrived!



Catie slept the whole time. Hey, wake up kid, it's your first convention! I sat with Jamal for his signing at the Lulu booth, and he showed me the first few pages of Tangent: Superman's Reign #6, which I dutifully snapped for Robin who was finishing up inking #5. Alas, he can't work from my photos so we'll have to await the arrival of the actual boards.



How cool is this? Randi Mason and John of Comics Oughta Be Fun are an item! From a few little hints here and their on their respective blogs I thought this might be the case, but it's nice to have it officially confirmed. I was surprised at how relatively small Bully is (not to mention his kid sister Marshall). All four of them look unbearably cute together. Le sigh.



And now Bully and Marshall apparently have another friend!



Rafael Kayanan swung by the table to introduce himself! I feel like I've known Rafael for ages, but amazingly we didn't meet until this past weekend. He's doing some really gorgeous stuff over at his art blog, you should totally check it out. His Conan is da shi-- oh, never mind, I just can't get away with saying stuff that younger and hipper people say. His Conan is quite nice.



After meeting Vinnie, Dorian and Shugie for dinner to celebrate Dorian's birthday (we went up to a really lovely deli on 72nd Street, after which they dropped me off back downtown at the MoCCA building) I headed up to attend the Friends of Lulu Awards ceremony and party. I'd been joking with Val for months about how it wouldn't be an official FoL Awards without chocolate-covered strawberries, and look! I feel like she got them just for me! They were delish.



The drop-dead gorgeous Leigh Dragoon was dressed to the nines. So were a number of other folks. I felt like a schlub. On the other hand, I got interviewed by someone named Leah about my old FoL-NY t-shirt, and I got to tell her the story about how those t-shirts came about. Other old-timers will recall that the back of the shirt has an illustration of Leah Adezio's rendition of the organization's mascot reimagined as the Statue of Liberty, holding a brush and pencil in one hand with the other displaying a sketchpad featuring FoL's founding date. Leah A was really the one who got the project going, as she worked at the time for a screen printing place. I really like that shirt, and apparently this "other" Leah did too.



The ceremonies got underway with Marion Vitus introducing emcee Emily Flake.



First up was the Kim Yale award for best newcomer, presented by Rachel Nabors, last year's winner. Rachel was also a total knockout



And the winner was Martina Fugazzotto of gURL.com, which had a sizeable cheering section in the packed-to-capacity room. Rachel generously "crowned" Martina with her lovely tiara, which Martina in turn promised to bestow on 2009's Kim Yale winner. And another Lulu tradition is born!



Heidi MacDonald, who looked so lovely with those highlights in her hair, announced the award for the Woman of Distinction, given for non-creator work in the industry.



Angela Rufino of Vertigo accepts the Woman of Distinction award on Shelly Bond’s behalf.



Abby Denson also looked terrific. I know, it's a broken record, but everyone was dressed so classy and shiny that it really took my breath away.



Val announced that Nell Brinkley was voted into the Women Cartoonists Hall of Fame, and will be receiving a webpage of her own, with lots of input from Brinkley expert and premier comics "herstorian" (and my occasional affectionate "sparring partner") Trina Robbins.

There are lots more photos of the evening at the official Friends of Lulu blog, by the way.



On Sunday I decided to be a bit smarter about things, and didn't show up until shortly before my table shift. Danielle Corsetto, on the other hand, seems to have worked the table just about the entire weekend! It was a real kick watching her draw, and I've just subscribed to Girls with Slingshots.

Paul Curtis was at the table opposite us with his Micro Comics collection.



My fellow ComicMix'ers mix it up! Left to right, Kai Connolly Raub, Martha Thomases, Mike Gold, Rick Marshall and Mike Raub.



Mike, Kai and Rick stop by the table to say hi. Of course, you know ComicMix had lots and lots of articles about MoCCA, don't you?



I invited Jill Friedman to sit at the table as well. We had some great, intense conversations, and I told her I'd add her to my sidebar, so you can now find her blog there.



Anne Bernstein and I go way back as well. She's blogging for Frederator Studios now, and has submitted her own con report.



I was snapping so many photos of friends, I figured, why not a complete stranger as well? Besides, this guy had such a great smile and he bought a sketch from Danielle.



After my shift was over I scampered over to the Bank of America to refill my wallet, as I'd intended on spending the rest of the afternoon buying stuff. I'd really only gotten August's book, a couple minicomics from the Comics Bakery gang, Spike's amazing Templar, Arizona (oh yes, that's now on my Bloglines feeds too, it's kinda like Finder meets Northern Exposure or something) and Karen Luk's Sea Rover mini, when I swung by her table to say hi again to Leigh and Rachel in the hopes of also meeting Theresa Tschetter, so I had a lot of buying to do! As it was, the NY Fire Department had other plans.



A smoke condition in the sub-basement, apparently, which evacuated the entire building. And after watching everyone milling about for nearly half an hour in 90-plus degree heat, I decided it was time to go home. So, not as much stuff purchased as I would have liked, and I missed seeing some folk and missed snapping photos of others, but all in all not too bad. Except that the con and the heat wave have wiped me out to the point where it took me this long to post everything!

Silly Site o' the Day

Not the best day, mainly because of the heat. Naturally, I had an interview at 3:30 PM, at pretty much the height of the swelter. So, no MoCCA pics yet. Tomorrow for sure, since I don't plan on going anywhere in this weather! It's hot enough to cream an egg! Speaking of which, I know Easter's long gone but I couldn't resist passing along this bit from BoingBoing about a Goldbergian machine that... oh, just watch for yourself.



Pretty cool, huh? Speaking of YouTube, it keeps rejecting the video I tried to upload from yesterday's MoCCA madness. I had to upload it to Google:



Hope you like it!

Silly Site o' the Day

Another somewhat eventful day at the MoCCA Art Fest. Believe it or not, a smoke condition evacuated the convention. I had a video uploaded, but YouTube failed to process it. Twice. Still photos of the con coming tomorrow, as I sort through the 40+ shots I took. I'm glad I'm back in the AC, it was a little too toasty today. Speaking of which, how about putting your name on toast? Via the Cool Aggregator.

Silly Site o' the Day

MoCCA was exhausting (as expected) but fun. Saw lots of people, took photos, bought stuff I probably shouldn't have. Lulu Awards ceremony and party was intense and I wish I could have stayed longer but I just got home as it is. Bed now. In honor of all my comic'y friends, have a Speech Bubbler (via Gerard).

Friday Cat Blogging (™ Kevin Drum)

Okay, perhaps this one of Datsa is a little too close up...



I cleaned up around the vanity this past week, so Amy has her "heart" plinth back again...



I've packed my camera and am ready to tackle MoCCA pictorially tomorrow!

Pre-MoCCA Blogaround

Yes, I'll be at MoCCA's Art Fest this weekend, helping out at the Friends of Lulu table during Jamal Igle's signing on Saturday (3-4 PM) and again for an hour (2-3 PM) on Sunday, as well as meeting up with ComicMix colleagues. Robin won't be there, he has work. In the meantime, let's get through some saved bookmarks, shall we?

• Speaking of Jamal, if you have about eight minutes you should really watch this lovely video he put together of his daughter's first six weeks of life. I agree that Catie will probably be way embarrassed in about 13 years or so, but such is life online!

• Two Serious Eats stories that have nothing to do with each other: Jamie Oliver suggests women go the Lysistrata route to get their male significant others to cook; and all hail the advent of Peel 'n Taste.

• Over at HuffPo, Danny Miller reminisces about Laugh-In and Art Levine name-checks the Firesign Theatre.

• I'm jealous that Wil Wheaton got to see Elvis Costello and The Police in concert... but maybe not that jealous.

• If you haven't been reading Melissa Silverstein's terrific work on the double standard surrounding coverage and reviews of the Sex and the City movie, you owe it to yourself to check out her blog. Elsewhere in Hollywood, Nikki Finke reports that, fortunately most of the Universal music library had been moved before last weekend's fire.

• Much amusement and great reading as usual from Melissa McEwan. She's pissed at Spielberg and Lucas; she shakes (pun intended) her head at people who still can't find examples of misogyny against Clinton's campaign when even The Daily Show can run them during segment featuring a mock strip-tease (am I the only one not warming up to this new little-girl-voiced cast member?); she goes the other Melissa (see above) one better re: Sex and the City; and everyone who's anyone has already linked to For The Record, her sum-up of the misogyny in the Democratic race thus far (and be sure and also read the follow-up post to that one). Not for nothing is she one of my blogger heroes. So's Digby, and this blogaround's edition of What Digby Said includes her own sum-up of the Democrats called Photo Finish (let's hope voters never forget how close it was this year!) as well as Unreliable Narrators. Also worth perusing at Hullabaloo, Tristero reviews Nixonland and dday says "media culpa" almost as well as Stephen Colbert.

• Lance has been on fire lately too. Check out his post on the selective myopia of whose who warn about a Clinton dynasty while the Bush dynasty wreaks havoc.

• Interesting analysis by Susie on the culture of winning. I think this is one of the things that drives Washington insiders (and the pundits who cover them), where you can be completely opposed to someone's political views yet you go out for a beer afterwards like it's all some kind of game rather than a position that involves real people's lives. Also via Susie, this terrific video about how check cashing places screw the poor:



• Bully warns us, Everyone's a Skrull!

• Cool, I remember Wacky Packages too. My brother Jay used to collect 'em, and we decorated our dog's bed with them.

• Everything you need to know about element 109 on the periodic table, which is named for a woman. And Fred at Stone Court tells us about Negro League star Mamie "Peanut" Johnson, honored by MLB in this week's amateur draft (even though professional baseball still doesn't allow women).

• Happy belated to Sara Robinson, who is exactly one half year younger than me.

• Echidne has a point about how a survey by a British magazine on the most hated and most loved celebrities wound up with the top five most loved being men and four out of the top five most hated being women, but Heather Mills is a really, really bad example to use here. I'm prepared to give most celebs the benefit of the doubt, and yes, the woman's done some admirable charity work, but the derision against her would seem to be earned. I've sat through videos of her weird-ass press conferences; she's not only dug her own hole and kept digging, but she practically assembled the shovel from scratch in plain sight. Besides, there are lots and lots of reasons Macca comes out #1 by a fairly wide margin, most of which have to do with his continued contributions to British culture, charities, and all that by-the-way stuff about him being one of the people who pretty much changed the world. So, you know.

• What does Marv Wolfman do when he's not writing? He creates Venusian masks!

• When Wampum announced it was winding down, I was so hoping for a follow-up from MB just like this one. I'd love to see this proposed new blog! There totally aren't enough blogs out there with that specific a focus.

Time to get caught up with last year's MoCCA-bought comics before I purchase more tomorrow!

Silly Site o' the Day

Via PSoTD, do let's enter the strange, strange world of Rehab the Crab, shall we?

Silly Site o' the Day

You know, I tend not to be a movie-goer, I usually wait until the DVD, but I am so there for The Seventh Python. I've been a fan of Neil Innes since the days of the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band; I even have some old Bonzo stuff rootling about in our loft somewhere. Also, I'm really, really sorry I missed the Rutles reunion gig and tribute concerts, but I didn't even know about them until now. Oh, and by the way, Innes' message board is surprisingly among the most pitiful I've seen in a long while. One topic, with thousands of messages, and a weird pastel color scheme. Clearly, the man's strong suits are music and comedy, not graphic design.

Silly Site o' the Day

My newest ComicMix column is up. Now will someone please get me away from playing Atlantis Quest so I can finish my blog reading?

Silly Site o' the Day

These new glasses will take a bit of getting used to, particularly for reading, but I love having progressive (no-line) lenses again. And they're terrific for my intermediate vision, which is the one I use the most at the computer. Finally finished my ComicMix column, but I've a long way to go to read through all the blogs, so no playing with stuff like Rum and Monkey's tests and web toys site (via Gerard).

RIP Bo Diddly

Damn. There have been so many celeb deaths lately it's been making my head spin, but for some reason this one got to me a lot.

Silly Site o' the Day

Via Mom in email, Lufthansa wants to know how well you know your European capitals, with this virtual pilot game. At which, of course, I suck.

Silly Site o' the Day

White rabbits! Yeah yeah, blogaround coming. Been preoccupied with personal stuff that isn't going to be blogged about for awhile. But ooh baby, baseball haiku (via Sheila Lennon)! Gotta love it. I might try one of my own:

Poor Nicky Blackburn
Abreu felt so awful!
The ball's at fault, though.