Silly Site o' the Day

Via my ex-husband, starring everyone's favorite Proctorologist:



This was a total surprise to me, which obviously means I need to stick around a little longer every week on Firesign chats. I have yet to figure out what reaction I'm going to email to Phil.

Friday Cat Blogging (™ Kevin Drum)

Yes Amy, now that your "dad's" wallet has been found he'll play with you again!



Apparently she felt ill-used earlier when Rob was searching under the bed and dressers with the torch (British for "flashlight") instead of playing "catch the beam of light" with her.

Silly Site o' the Day

And a hell of a day it was! First my mammogram results finally came in, after some nail-biting during the two weeks since my multiple x-rays, and everything's normal/negative/woo-hoo! Then Rob called, having misplaced his wallet, and we went over all sorts of mental machinations of how we were going to deal with replacing some pretty valuable stuff until the evening, when it was relocated and retrieved. Now we're waiting for our celebratory Indian dinner, including a Flying Horse, a beer so powerful (at least last time I had it) that it near to knocked me over. Speaking of which:



The Lego Beer song is via Robyn at Serious Eats, quickly becoming one of my favorite go-to sites for silly stuff involving food.

Silly Site o' the Day

Rest assured, dear readers, that the main reason I'm not really in blogland that much any more is because I'm having so much fun at work doing my actual day job. I'm quite serious, I'm really enjoying this job, and they love me right back. My supervisor suggested today that I stop acting like I'm waiting for the other shoe to drop, it ain't gonna happen. Not sure I'm able to do that, but it's nice to know I can! And I felt so good after getting so much stuff done today that I took Robin out to dinner, only there was a half hour wait so we wound up getting KFC. Ah well, sometimes in life you just have to settle. At least we're not stocking up on divorce cakes (via Serious Eats)!

Silly Site o' the Day

Hope nobody out there is giving up Pen-Elayne for Lent. Speaking of which, via Susie, it's Christwire! Now I'm going to go worship Carla in the Top Chef finale...

Silly Site o' the Day

Laissez les bon temps roulez! Why do all the New Orleans live cams have ear-splitting sound when you click on the pages?

Silly Site o' the Day

Ugh, winter lingers on. At least there's England to look forward to! And cuteness. There's always cuteness.



Via, where else, Cute Overload.

Silly Site o' the Day

It's Oscar time! We've laid in our snackies and I'm ready to view some impossibly beautiful women (and men)! Speaking of which, thank the deities for Sarah Haskins!



As if I wouldn't link to my hero Sarah...

Belated Friday Cat Blogging (™ Kevin Drum)

The cold has gotten to me again. A ton of ironing to do, and no energy with which to do it. I slept most of the morning away; at least today my ankle felt better (I'd moved it funny yesterday morning at work and wound up hobbling about for much of the rest of the day). Anyway, the ironing board awaits me, but I don't think I'll have the energy until tomorrow. Funny thing, though, there's this bit of string hanging from the front of the new ironing board cover:



Yes, that's right, they both bat at the string at the same time. Pretty hilarious, especially weekday mornings when I'm trying to concentrate on doing the little bit of blog-stuff I can get done before going to work.

Silly Site o' the Day

Via Tom Gedwillo on Facebook, it's Crummy Church Signs!

Silly Site o' the Day

Friday Cat Blogging later, naturally. But in the meantime, have some Яolcats, via BoingBoing, described as "English translations of Eastern Bloc Lolcats." Nasdrovya!

Silly Site o' the Day

I doubt we'll be spending any time near Abbey Road when we're in England next month but, via Cory at BoingBoing, the famous zebra crossing certainly isn't short on tourism:



I wonder if any of them suspected they were being filmed?

Silly Site o' the Day

Sometimes it's just too easy. Like today's column from Mark Morford, about how it's just too easy sometimes. He's actually got a brilliant idea, this Geekamania, and I don't doubt there will be people taking him up on it. (Of course you can't, the site's a goof, but I still think it's a good idea.) The rest of us will just go, as I have done re many Web 2.0 things, "Oh well, I don't have the time or inclination to blog and go on social-networking sites like I used to, I'll just cut down, something has to give."

Off Across The Pond!

In exactly four weeks from today, Robin and I will be taking our first vacation outside of New York since, well, since a pretty long time. We'll be headed out to England again, at last! We're mostly going to see Rob's Dad (a faithful Pen-Elayne reader; hi Dad!), with whom we're staying, and hope to see his sisters as well (hi Carol! I remember you read Pen-Elayne too!). We're also tentatively planning a day in London, since I will go a teensy bit nuts if I have a week of countryside with no city in between to break it up. :) This time we're renting a car, and I'm a bit nervous about driving on the left side of the road, but my brother and sis-in-law (who have experience with same from when they visited the Caymans) have calmed me down a bit there.

Here's the thing, though -- I do expect to try to update Pen-Elayne daily, but I wouldn't mind a guest host during the time we're out. Anyone want the keys to the blog? As y'all know, it's not like I've been posting a great deal of late as is, so your participation can only improve the amount of new content here! Let me know in the comments.

I'm very excited about going back to see my husband's family again, and am also looking quite forward to shopping in Boots and taking in the view of all the Easter sweets sure to be on display at Tesco.

Silly Site o' the Day

So, now that the whole Christian Bale temper thing seems to have died down, did everyone see this on Leigh's site? The comics geek in me loved it.

Silly Site o' the Day

Via just about everyone, but I first saw it on BoingBoing, it's the Life of Christ in Cats.

Glyph Awards Press Release

Whew, I made it! Submitted my nominations right at the deadline! Here's what I and the other judges decided.

-----------

THE 2009 GLYPH COMICS AWARDS NOMINEES ARE NAMED;
THE FAN AWARD POLL IS OPEN

Now in its fourth successful year, the Glyph Comics Awards (GCA) continue to honor the best in black comics and creators. Many new faces are among this year’s nominees, as well as some old familiar ones.

The nominees for 2009 are:

Story of the Year
Bayou - Jeremy Love, writer and artist
Incognegro - Mat Johnson, writer; Warren Pleece, artist
Justice League of America: The Second Coming< - Dwayne McDuffie, writer; Ed Benes, artist Pilot Season: Genius -Marc Bernardin & Adam Freeman, writers; Afua Richardson, artist
Presidential Material: Barack Obama - Jeff Mariotte, writer; Tom Morgan, artist

Best Writer
Marc Bernardin & Adam Freeman, Genius
Mat Johnson, Incognegro
Jeremy Love, Bayou
Jeff Mariotte, Presidential Material: Barack Obama
Dwayne McDuffie, Justice League of America

Best Artist
Jamal Igle, Supergirl
Jeremy Love, Bayou
Warren Pleece, Incognegro
Afua Richardson, Pilot Season: Genius
Larry Stroman, Black Panther Annual #1

Best Male Character
Black Lightning, Final Crisis: Submit; Grant Morrison, writer, Matthew Clark, Norm Rapmund, Rob Hunter & Don Ho, artists; created by Tony Isabella & Trevor von Eeden
Black Panther, Black Panther Annual #1; Reginald Hudlin, writer, Larry Stroman & Ken Lashley, artists; created by Stan Lee & Jack Kirby
Lwanga Moses, Unknown Soldier; Joshua Dysart, writer, Alberto Ponticelli, artist; inspired by the character created by Robert Kanigher and Joe Kubert
The Spectre, Final Crisis: Revelations; Greg Rucka, writer, Philip Tan, Jeff de los Santos & Jonathan Glapion, artists; inspired by the character created by Jerry Siegel & Bernard Bailey
Zane Pinchback, Incognegro; created by Mat Johnson, writer, and Warren Pleece, artist

Best Female Character
Destiny Ajaye, Pilot Season: Genius; created by Marc Bernardin & Adam Freeman, writers, Afua Richardson, artist
Lee Wagstaff, Bayou; created by Jeremy Love, writer and artist
Storm, X-Men: Worlds Apart; Christopher Yost, writer, Diogenes Neves, artist; created by Len Wein & Dave Cockrum
Vielle, Fungus Grotto; created by Shatia Hamilton, writer and artist
Vixen, Vixen: Return of the Lion; G. Willow Wilson, writer, Cafu, artist; created by Gerry Conway & Bob Oksner

Rising Star Award
Jennifer Crute, Jennifer’s Journal
Damian Duffy & John Jennings, The Hole: Consumer Culture
Charlie Goubile, Blackbird
Starline X. Hodge, Candi
Ashley Woods, Millennia War

Best Reprint Collection
Aya of Yop City, Drawn & Quarterly
Me and the Devil Blues V1, Del Rey
Nat Turner HC, Abrams

Best Cover
Final Crisis: Submit, Matthew Clark & Norm Rapmund, artists; Richard & Tonya Horie, colors
The Hole: Consumer Culture; John Jennings, illustrator
Pilot Season: Genius, Afua Richardson, illustrator
Unknown Soldier #1, Igor Kordey, illustrator
Vixen: Return of the Lion #1; Josh Middleton, illustrator

Best Comic Strip
Bayou, Jeremy Love, writer and artist
Café con Leche; Charlos Gary, writer and artist
Fungus Grotto, Shatia Hamilton, writer and art ist
“Jefferson Jacks” from Crankshaft; Tom Batiuk & Tony Isabella, writers, Chuck Ayers, artist
The K Chronicles, Keith Knight, writer and artist

Fan Award for Best Comic
Iron Man: Director of SHIELD #33-35; Christos Gage, writer, Sean Chen & Sandu Florea, artists
Pilot Season: Genius; Marc Bernardin & Adam Freeman, writers, Afua Richardson, artist
Presidential Material: Barack Obama; Jeff Mariotte, writer, Tom Morgan, artist
Vixen: Return of the Lion; G. Willow Wilson, writer, Cafu, artist
Young Avengers Presents #1; Ed Brubaker, writer, Paco Medina, artist

The judges for the 2009 competition are: Valerie D’Orazio, president, Friends of Lulu; Mathan Erhardt, writer, Comics Nexus; Ed Mathews, columnist, Pop Image; Tim O’Shea, writer/interviewer, TalkingWithTim.com; and Elayne Riggs, comics reviewer and commentator.

The ballot for the Fan Award for Best Comic is now open at the website for the East Coast Black Age of Comics Convention (ECBACC), and will remain open through March 31, 2009. Write-in selections can be e-mailed to GCA Committee Chair Rich Watson. IMPORTANT: Write-in selections are ONLY for choices not on the online ballot. ANY WRITE-IN SELECTIONS FOR CHOICES ALREADY ON THE ONLINE BALLOT WILL NOT BE COUNTED AND WILL BE DISCARDED.

The 2009 GCA ceremony will be held May 15, 2009, in the Skyline Room of the Free Library of Philadelphia, Park Central branch, as part of ECBACC, which will take place at the Crown Plaza Philadelphia Center City, May 16, 2009.

About the Glyph Comics Awards:
The Glyph Comics Awards recognize the best in comics made by, for, and about people of color from the preceding calendar year. While it is not exclusive to black creators, it does strive to honor those who have made the greatest contributions to the comics medium in terms of both critical and commercial impact. By doing so, the goal is to encourage more diverse and high quality work across the board and to inspire new creators to add their voices to the fie ld.

The awards are named for the blog Glyphs: The Language of the Black Comics Community, started in 2005 by comics journalist Rich Watson as a means to provide news and commentary of comics with black themes, as well as tangential topics in the fields of black science-fiction/fantasy and animation.

About ECBACC:
The East Coast Black Age of Comics Convention (www.ecbacc.com/wordpress) is an annual gathering of comic book creators and retailers who create and sell material that caters to black readers of all ages. In addition to selling their work, they also take part in panel discussi ons and self-publishing workshops for aspiring creators. The show is held in Philadelphia each May. There is also a pre-show reception held the night before the show. ECBACC is an outgrowth of the original Black Age of Comics Convention in Chicago, founded by Turtel Onli.

For more information about ECBACC, contact event coordinator Maurice Waters.

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I'm glad so many of my choices made it in! As this was my first time judging, I didn't know that you could nominate white creators in the creator categories (writer, artist, cover); I guess I just assumed those were meant for black creators, not creators who worked on black characters as well. I also wish I'd had more time to read stuff, but at least I got through all the actual submissions!

Silly Site o' the Day

Because you deserve it, oh yes you do! Another Sarah Haskins, especially for Valentine's Day, all about Online Dating!:



Does meeting one's future husband on Usenet constitute online dating?

Silly Site o' the Day

It's Valentine's Day, so what better video to link to than my hero Sarah Haskins' latest diatribe, on Chocolate?:



I love Cara's remarks about this.

Friday Cat Blogging (™ Kevin Drum)

The Dreaded Lurgy didn't improve overnight, and I'm home sick today mainlining throat lozenges to clear my sinuses. That means I was around for the feeding of the cats, which Rob usually handles during my daily commute. So I ran for the camera when both of them were eating from their respective sides of the bowl, but came back just a little too late:



Datsa had taken a break, and Amy was still eating, which is fairly unusual as she's usually the first to abandon the food bowl.



He was being a good boy, just licking his tongue in anticipation of Round Two.



Then, of course, he had a turn on her side of the bowl. All very peaceful-like, probably because I was watching.



Finally, they come into this room to see me, wondering why I'm still home when I really ought to be at work. Not with this lurgy, kitties!

Kitties are very therapeutic when you're sick. Even the black ones on Friday the 13th...

Silly Site o' the Day

While most people today will be concerned with the relative luck or lack thereof associated with Friday the 13th, the geek contingent will be counting down to Epoch Time. Here's the explanation, and here's a handy full-screen countdown (or "count-up") clock to later on today when the epoch time reaches the magical 1234567890 at 23:31:30 UTC!

Silly Site o' the Day

Even sicker than I was. Going to bed soon. Don't even have the presence of mind to figure out whether Hero on the Hudson (via Sheila) is exploitive...

Silly Site o' the Day

Well, the dreaded lurgy has caught up with both me and Robin. We're both so sniffly and stuffed up that we couldn't even enjoy the springlike weather. Hope we're better by Saturday, if not before. Speaking of Saturday:



ACME Heart Maker via Sheila Lennon.

Con Photos at Last

So, so tired. As promised, photos of friends from this past weekend's convention.



Colleen Doran was wearing about three layers including this heavy coat. She was colder than the tasty refrigerated pickles that I have from her garden. I hope she warmed up by Sunday!



Ramona Fradon has one of the nicest smiles anywhere.



Lulu panel! Packed! ACK! Couldn't breathe, move or otherwise enjoy anything! Sucky photo, I know, I know!



Phyllis Novin, looking very spiffy indeed in her hat and other acoutrements.



So, of course, I had to put my hat on as well and vogue (such as it was). It was definitely a Jaunty Hat day for many of us who didn't wear all-out costumes.



Leonard Kirk no longer has to shovel the massive Canadian snow now that he's back in an apartment. Can his landlord come down and do our steps when it snows?



Fellow ComicMix survivor Andrew Pepoy who, even so, still lost that knife fight to Robin all those years ago...



Jamal Igle, showing off photos of Catie on his phone. He promised to send me larger versions.



Bob Almond with his Inkwell Awards banner. Don't talk to me about the Inkwells, I'm still slogging through the Glyphs...



Kath and Caroline David. Caroline refused to look at the camera, for whatever reason. She was selling drawings for a buck. She's a total cherub. I'm grateful that I'm friends with her mom and dad.



Billy Tucci in the foreground, crowd in the background. I had to delete a few shots like this of various pros, as the camera wasn't able to pick out foreground from background very well. Or I was tired. Or both.



Amanda Conner. Hats, I'm telling ya, hats.



Me and Naomi Basner, probably the youngest woman ever to write for Marvel back in the bullpen days. And she's still younger than me. How'd that happen?

Silly Site o' the Day

Con photos uploaded tonight for sure! And speaking of comic'y things, Cathie and lots of others are talking about the Duck Family Trees site. Because I guess someone had to. I'd like to note it's pretty much the only time I've ever seen female members of the Disney Duck family.

Silly Site o' the Day

I'm afraid I'm too otherwise-occupied even to figure out why Pen-Elayne from the side looks like Detention. I will, however, blame the side-view generator on Gerard.

Belated Friday Cat Blogging (™ Kevin Drum)

Yeah yeah, I'm getting further and further behind. Blogging's just not my priority right now, sorry. Maybe that'll change after the Glyphs nominating is done. Here's Datsa in a sunbeam:



See, the Aero-Garden and first DC comp box of 2009 are just sitting there. I have lots and lots to do, and just not the time nor werewithall in which to do it yet...

Silly Site o' the Day

Well, I'm afraid I blew off the convention today in favor of rest and relaxation. I'll put up some photos later, I took about a dozen of friends and exactly zero of voguing be'costumed fanboys and fangirls. When it comes to navigating the exhibition hall floor, this is, apparently, the newest twist on oblivious con-goers with backpacks -- which, alas, are still with us. Needless to say, between the near-impossibility of navigating yesterday's sold-out crowds and getting through the previous week of below-freezing temps, we just couldn't physically manage more than a few hours, and gave up on the idea of attending today. So I'm sitting in the living room now, with suddenly mild temperatures inspiring Robin to open all the windows on our floor of the house, having had a decent morning's lie-in, just relaxing and watching DVR'ed shows and doing some Glyphs reading. If only there were baseball on TV it would seem like a perfect spring day. And no, I don't care if that sounds too corny; if y'all aren't careful I could cornify it even more with unicorns puking rainbows (cornifier via Patrick at Making Light).

Silly Site o' the Day

Off to the Comic Con in just a bit, but first, Malaise de L'Orange:



Via Erin at Serious Eats, and I'll need the iPod on the bus into the city just to get rid of "Perhaps, Perhaps, Perhaps" from my head...

CPT as Racism?

It's almost quitting time, I'm just waiting for Rob to call from the convention so we can plan our evening. But speaking of time, a visibly upset coworker just came up to me and asked me whether I found this FoxNews article's first sentence to be racist code. We can easily acknowledge that Fox has a history of this sort of thing, and my coworker asserted that "Obama time" was code for this. I must confess, this is the first time I've ever come across this expression. Anyone else think it's a deliberate "subtle" smear?

Silly Site o' the Day

Ohhh, there will be fans in abundance this weekend, including Harry Potter aficionados. Wonder how many would appreciate this?



Via Cool Aggregator, and I'll have to ask Val this weekend why she hasn't been posting there lately, it was a, well, cool site...

Conned

The New York Comic Con is at the Javits Center this weekend, and I couldn't be less ready. Robin's planning to be there this afternoon, weather and weather-related exhaustion permitting; no way I'm taking the day off from my job. However, both the forecast and my mood are scheduled to improve tomorrow, so you can find me attending various panels including tomorrow's "Representations of Women in Comics" discussion sponsored by Friends of Lulu (12:15 PM start time, room 1A18) and Sunday's "Jews in Space and Comics: A Cottage Industry" panel (same start time and room as the Saturday panel). Beyond those, we're playing things by ear. Rob was on the waitlist for an Artists Alley table but none ever materialized, and as I'm no longer working with ComicMix I don't have a homebase either. I've made a list of must-see Artists Alley folks and will have my camera but probably not my sketchbook. I'm very glad the convention is going to be in October from next year onward, that's my high-energy season and I can think and plan a lot more easily. Hope to see some of you this weekend!

Silly Site o' the Day

Via Mark Evanier, this one made me LOL:



Frankie did seem to get shorter as he filled out and aged, didn't he? Most film footage I see of him nowadays is from old musicals, so I tend to forget...

Silly Site o' the Day

Via Adam at Hobotopia (home of the Laugh Out Loud Cats), and later Heidi who gives a more thorough background, all or most episodes of the brilliant BBC series Look Around You are on YouTube. As a product of English state schools, Rob assures me they have the educational film thing down pat.

Silly Site o' the Day

Back to sub-freezing temps, although the next big snow hasn't started here yet (and it could be worse, we could be in England now). Rob cleared a bigger path straight to the sidewalk, so at least I don't have to put on the boots for my morning commute! Neither will I layer; I'm just too exhausted. The way I look at it, the cold will keep me awake enough to walk to work, in between the subway and bus of course. Speaking of which:



Bus sign generator via Gerard.

Silly Site o' the Day

Leaving the house this morning before I find out whether the nation's various official groundhogs see their shadows, meaning six more weeks of an icy driveway (at least the NYC Sanitation Department emailed me back saying they'd look into the situation, which I'm sure they'll do by May), but at least it's above freezing today so I'm only dressing in three layers instead of four. Woo-hoo! This one's for Mom, whom I wish had DSL instead of dial-up so she could see Old Jews Telling Jokes (via Xeni at BoingBoing)...

Well, That Was Surprising

The Riggs Residence has officially declared the Super Bowl game itself to be, on the whole, better than the ads. And we pretty much watch primarily for the ads.

Silly Site o' the Day

White Rabbits! Oh, what a cool tool to play with - the P22 Music Text Composition Generator (thanks Gerard)! You can make it play your text in all kinds of piano instrumentation as well as a few percussive bits! I feel like playing with this for a long, long time, but I have so many other things to do (including blog catch-up, comics reading and a start on the Glyphs submissions)...