Robin's finished work for the week and is mostly crashing today. My sciatica isn't too bad and I want to go to Ikea. We'll see who wins out this afternoon. Last night we watched a very funny show, which the Beeb first ran four years ago but which has apparently just made it to this side of the pond (at least on PBS, we're in the cable region that BBC America forgot), called Posh Nosh. It's screamingly funny. Here's a Wikipage about it. It was created by and co-stars Arabella Weir, who is precisely four days younger than me and precisely four years older than Robin. I'd never previously heard of her but I adore her already. Apparently she once played The Doctor! Was that the eighth-and-a-half incarnation or something? David Tennant even had a role in that piece. Anyway, Weir doesn't seem to have a website, but I'd love to be corrected if anyone knows of one.
Saturday, June 30, 2007
Friday, June 29, 2007
Quote of the Day
"No blogging on the stairs! You'll hurt yourself!"
- Said by an Apple Store employee to CNET's Caroline McCarthy
"No blogging on the stairs! You'll hurt yourself!"
- Said by an Apple Store employee to CNET's Caroline McCarthy
Maintenance Note
Apparently LiveJournal has now changed its default site feed to Atom, and of course Bloglines doesn't automatically redirect stuff like that. So I've been spending the last hour or so searching all the LiveJournal blogs to which I subscribe and changing the feed addresses. New feeds should read as follows:
http://USERNAME.livejournal.com/data/atom
So therefore my alternate site feed, in case the Blogger one isn't working, is
http://penelayne.livejournal.com/data/atom
Please adjust your newsreaders accordingly. There's a hitch, as four LiveJournal blogs on my must-read list -- Budgie, Julia, Kaja Foglio and Kevin Moore -- don't seem to have working feeds at all, which breaks my heart particularly in the case of Budgie and Julia who are personal as well as online friends, but at least I'm glad I can read all the others again.
Silly Site o' the Day
Wow, that final Studio 60 live-blogging party at Lance's place was a blast! At first I didn't think I was going to bother, I was pretty beat after being on the computer all day and my sciatica wasn't giving me any breathing room for even simple tasks like washing dishes, but Robin decided he wanted to watch it "live" so I figured, what the heck. And I had a blast! Besides, I'm a sap for happy endings so, even though I'd long since stopped believing most of the characters on Studio 60 acted like real adults, it still left me with the warm and fuzzies. And I had such a great time bantering with Ken Houghton that I've now added his and Tom Bozzo's Marginal Utility to my sidebar blogroll under Dynamic Duos. Say, have I ever mentioned that there's an Omnificent English Dictionary In Limerick Form? Well, there is. Via PZ Myers.
Thursday, June 28, 2007
Blogaround Placeholder
Now that my long-ass MoCCA con report is done, I'm not only blogging stuff I've liked from the past week, but also stuff I want to blog on ComicMix so I'll remember:
• Mark Evanier has some interesting thoughts on how and why some people have responded as they have in presidential popularity polls.
• Lisa at Sequentially Speaking wants to implement a gameplan for the new P.O.W.E.R. in Comics Forum. On Independence Day members are invited to create "a list of recommended independent comics/graphic novels we like, created by women and minorites. These should be comics/graphic novels that are still in print and readily available. We would then take the list and publish it on our blogs, send it to our local newspapers and some of the internet news sites, give it to local comic book and book stores and libraries and suggest that they dedicate an endcap or display to these great independent comics and comic creators for the week of Independence Day." I still want to Blog Against Theocracy in my Independence Day ComicMix column, but I'm tempted to do this as well.
• Speaking of Independence Day, Karen McLaughlan informs us the annual hot dog eating contest won't be the same this year, as champ Takeru "Tsunami" Kobayashi has suffered a severe jaw injury "due to his rigorous training." You can't make this stuff up.
• Hey, check it out, Val D'Orazio says the new Mother Jones will have an article on women's activism vis a vis the Big Two comics companies! Not online yet but I may just grab it on a Manhattan newsstand for this one. I haven't subscribed to Mother Jones in at least a decade.
• Over at Hobotopia, Ape Lad has upped the ante regarding the ancient origins of LOLCats. I love LOLCats, they get me through my day.
• Tom Russell at Monitor Duty pens a really sweet ode to Big Ethel from the Archie comics, who he says has sadly undergone a personality-ectomy in recent years.
• I've finally added Kate Harding to my sidebar, as she comes up with another couple of great posts -- an open letter to NAAFA about their website which is very much the kind of thing I'd like to say to Friends of Lulu about the WDC site I used to maintain, and a look at health care which hits very close to home for me.
• Yes Susie, I have a problem with logging in to comment on your blog. I can even log into my own WordPress blog, which I don't even use, but I've tried about six different ways to log into yours for commenting and WordPress is not accepting any of my login names or passwords. Thanks for the item about aspartame, by the way. I don't touch the stuff, myself. I love this quote from you: "Personally, I don't eat things made from petroleum byproducts if I can avoid it. And I'd like to point out here that a teaspoon of sugar has only 15 calories…"
• Juan Cole notes how many people are deliberately mistranslating Mahmud Ahmadinejad to further their own agendas. I don't have much use for Ahmadinejad, but he did not say anything about wiping Israel off the face of the earth -- "He quoted an old saying of Ayatollah Khomeini calling for 'this occupation regime over Jerusalem' to 'vanish from the page of time'," and that's very different. I had no love for Khomeini either, but I admit I am also in favor of the occupation vanishing.
• Lastly, Kevin Drum is confused by the post office having different rates for letters and flats. As my office's mailroom, I was also surprised when I printed out the new Pitney Bowes rate chart (PDF) in prep for updating the postage machine, until I realized the old rate chart had the same separation of letters and flats, and I'd probably been getting away with sending flats at letter-rate for a couple years. I think it actually works out cheaper for offices like mine that send a lot of flats, since the additional-ounce rates have been reduced.
And with that, it's time to get caught up on blog reading (and work!) again...
• Mark Evanier has some interesting thoughts on how and why some people have responded as they have in presidential popularity polls.
• Lisa at Sequentially Speaking wants to implement a gameplan for the new P.O.W.E.R. in Comics Forum. On Independence Day members are invited to create "a list of recommended independent comics/graphic novels we like, created by women and minorites. These should be comics/graphic novels that are still in print and readily available. We would then take the list and publish it on our blogs, send it to our local newspapers and some of the internet news sites, give it to local comic book and book stores and libraries and suggest that they dedicate an endcap or display to these great independent comics and comic creators for the week of Independence Day." I still want to Blog Against Theocracy in my Independence Day ComicMix column, but I'm tempted to do this as well.
• Speaking of Independence Day, Karen McLaughlan informs us the annual hot dog eating contest won't be the same this year, as champ Takeru "Tsunami" Kobayashi has suffered a severe jaw injury "due to his rigorous training." You can't make this stuff up.
• Hey, check it out, Val D'Orazio says the new Mother Jones will have an article on women's activism vis a vis the Big Two comics companies! Not online yet but I may just grab it on a Manhattan newsstand for this one. I haven't subscribed to Mother Jones in at least a decade.
• Over at Hobotopia, Ape Lad has upped the ante regarding the ancient origins of LOLCats. I love LOLCats, they get me through my day.
• Tom Russell at Monitor Duty pens a really sweet ode to Big Ethel from the Archie comics, who he says has sadly undergone a personality-ectomy in recent years.
• I've finally added Kate Harding to my sidebar, as she comes up with another couple of great posts -- an open letter to NAAFA about their website which is very much the kind of thing I'd like to say to Friends of Lulu about the WDC site I used to maintain, and a look at health care which hits very close to home for me.
• Yes Susie, I have a problem with logging in to comment on your blog. I can even log into my own WordPress blog, which I don't even use, but I've tried about six different ways to log into yours for commenting and WordPress is not accepting any of my login names or passwords. Thanks for the item about aspartame, by the way. I don't touch the stuff, myself. I love this quote from you: "Personally, I don't eat things made from petroleum byproducts if I can avoid it. And I'd like to point out here that a teaspoon of sugar has only 15 calories…"
• Juan Cole notes how many people are deliberately mistranslating Mahmud Ahmadinejad to further their own agendas. I don't have much use for Ahmadinejad, but he did not say anything about wiping Israel off the face of the earth -- "He quoted an old saying of Ayatollah Khomeini calling for 'this occupation regime over Jerusalem' to 'vanish from the page of time'," and that's very different. I had no love for Khomeini either, but I admit I am also in favor of the occupation vanishing.
• Lastly, Kevin Drum is confused by the post office having different rates for letters and flats. As my office's mailroom, I was also surprised when I printed out the new Pitney Bowes rate chart (PDF) in prep for updating the postage machine, until I realized the old rate chart had the same separation of letters and flats, and I'd probably been getting away with sending flats at letter-rate for a couple years. I think it actually works out cheaper for offices like mine that send a lot of flats, since the additional-ounce rates have been reduced.
And with that, it's time to get caught up on blog reading (and work!) again...
Silly Site o' the Day
Wow, bit of a nasty storm last night, and we're scheduled for more today. If it cools down like it's supposed to tomorrow I may take the walking stick and stroll with Robin down to the sushi place again, although I'm inclined to cheat and look for a parking spot halfway between our house and the restaurant, as that walk was still a bit much last week considering the sciatica. At least my antibiotic regimen is done and I can once more cut down to 2 to 3 16-ounce glasses of water a day rather than the 6 to 8 I've tried to do this past week. Gah, growing older can suck sometimes. Mostly it's the energy I miss, but that's probably job-related. The place where I interviewed last week sent me a very cordial rejection letter, and my boss is back in two weeks, so I'm once again stuck here through the summer.
If I can wake up enough today I'll finish my MoCCA 2007 con report for ComicMix; the photos area already uploaded and I've schlepped my notes and purchased items to the office with me, so we'll see. Oh, and my weekly column went up there yesterday; please go there and comment! It actually turned out to be my warm-up (along with John Ostrander's column today) for my contribution to the annual Blog Against Theocracy project next week. And speaking of John, the pages from the first issue of his Suicide Squad miniseries are looking terrific; Javi's work is still as nicely streamlined as ever, but the composition and storytelling have gotten even stronger than they were on Manhunter. Robin's having a great time inking those pencils.
Oh yeah, a Silly Site. Well, I'm in a dogma-mocking mood thanks to John, so how about the "Thank God I..." series? As Lindsay Robertson of the Comedy Central Insider says, "this site is a treasure trove of unintentional comedy... I mean, I get 'Thank God I Was Suicidal,' but 'Thank God I AM Suicidal' is a bit of a stretch..."
If I can wake up enough today I'll finish my MoCCA 2007 con report for ComicMix; the photos area already uploaded and I've schlepped my notes and purchased items to the office with me, so we'll see. Oh, and my weekly column went up there yesterday; please go there and comment! It actually turned out to be my warm-up (along with John Ostrander's column today) for my contribution to the annual Blog Against Theocracy project next week. And speaking of John, the pages from the first issue of his Suicide Squad miniseries are looking terrific; Javi's work is still as nicely streamlined as ever, but the composition and storytelling have gotten even stronger than they were on Manhunter. Robin's having a great time inking those pencils.
Oh yeah, a Silly Site. Well, I'm in a dogma-mocking mood thanks to John, so how about the "Thank God I..." series? As Lindsay Robertson of the Comedy Central Insider says, "this site is a treasure trove of unintentional comedy... I mean, I get 'Thank God I Was Suicidal,' but 'Thank God I AM Suicidal' is a bit of a stretch..."
Wednesday, June 27, 2007
Silly Sites o' the Day
With increased wifi availability, blogging at events has now become de riguer. In the comments section, The Constructivist directs us to his or her project to Take Your Blog to the US Women's Open. And let me ask you something: how can you make enough money to retire from highway maintenance work at age 43? Because I gotta wonder how Greg Packer does it. Outed by Ann Coulter, of all "people," for being more or less a professional first-in-line guy (and thus getting interviewed repeatedly by one of her many imagined nemeses, the NY Times), Packer's latest is First in Line for iPhone, which so far has had over 33,000 hits. I now don't feel nearly as sorry for folks who queue up in this kind of heat for overhyped events as I used to.
Tuesday, June 26, 2007
Silly Site o' the Day
Still no time to blog for ComicMix, so all the photos I took at MoCCA on Saturday remain on my camera. With any luck I'll have enough energy to upload them tonight. Physical therapy starts next Monday. The Huge-Ass Project plods along, it won't be nearly done by my boss' return but at least I think I'll have finished Phase I by then. All in a day's work for Ran Enling! According to this Chinese name generator, "en" means "kindness, mercy, charity" and "ling" means "spirit, soul; spiritual world." Here's how it looks in Mandarin characters:

The Mandarin Tools website is via Xan at Corrente.

The Mandarin Tools website is via Xan at Corrente.
Monday, June 25, 2007
Silly Site o' the Day
When you read blogs via a site feed reader like Bloglines, and especially when life intrudes and you fall behind in your reading, you often miss all the hubbub surrounding a site until everyone else in the blogosphere has already informed you. So, for the few liberal bloggers who might not yet know, I just found out that Shakesville is under a denial of service attack, and the site's unavailable at the moment. Mustang Bobby has continuing details here and here and here. Melissa's own site, Shakespeare's Sister, is still available for expressions of support, if you don't mind wading through 100+ comments. Most of us content ourselves to note that We Are All Shakesville or something like that. Meanwhile, I'd like to offer Melissa and Iain and all their friends and fans the Zaporozhye. I don't know why, I just do. Blame Ann Bartow for that one.
Sunday, June 24, 2007
Quote of the Day
One of the great advances of our civilization is the recognition that the line between good and evil is not between one group and another group; the line between good and evil lies inside every human being.Ladies and gentlemen, this has been today's edition of What Digby Said. Hey, I'm nothing if not a bandwagon-jumper. (Am I the only one reading Digby far more attentively now that I know what she looks like?)
Silly Site o' the Day
I give up. I was absolutely planning to attend both days of the MoCCA Art Fest, but I hadn't counted on (a) the "1" train being subject to track work around my area, leading to a 2-hour commute home yesterday on two subways and a looong bus ride, standing throughout much of it; and (b) my inability to walk and stand very well, which got the better of me as MoCCA is very much a "stand around and chat" kind of con with almost no places to sit. So I'm skipping the trek in today. Even were I to take the express bus into Manhattan, I'd still have to contend with subway stairs, and that's just too much for me at this point, even with the walking stick. And even if Sunday's the best day to actually take a car into the Village/NoHo/SoHo area of Manhattan, Gay Pride Sunday isn't. Sorry PJ and Val (I was going to wear the Occasional Superheroine t-shirt) and everyone else! I had a great time yesterday, and I really did want to go in again today, but to tell the truth I burned out by about 4:30 and the two extra hours waiting for the ComicMix staff dinner (plus the aforementioned commute home) done me in. So today I shall rest at home and remain Queen of All I Survey:

Personalized playing card generator via Gerard.

Personalized playing card generator via Gerard.
Saturday, June 23, 2007
Silly Site o' the Day
Robin and I did the .8-mile walk to and from the sushi place last night. Pretty easy walking there, very tough getting back as it was almost all on an incline, and no matter how gentle the slope my back always, always seizes up walking uphill. Let's hope the physical therapy folks can help cure that. My BP reading was admirably low, and I'm not feeling any ill effects this morning in terms of body aches. In fact, I'm all showered and ready to head out to the MoCCA Art Fest in about an hour. Not too much time to read too many blogs, but I always peruse my Top Six, and thus found a new game via Mark Evanier called WordBreaker. My brain hurts already.
Friday, June 22, 2007
Silly Site o' the Day
Yesterday was so emotionally draining, between having to go on a new antibiotic regimen for an infection that the fatphobic doctor insists is obesity-related just she thinks like every single damn thing is obesity-related (no matter how many times I say, "Doctor. FOUR POUNDS. That's IT between last year and this year. That's not what's made a difference in my readings. I know what's caused the difference. Enforced inactivity due to pain is what's caused the difference. That's why I asked for the PT referral. The pain eases, I start walking and exercising again, the readings get better. It's. Not. A. Weight. Issue." it's of no avail) and spending over half a day on changing my boss' and his wife's flights (I should be grateful, it means three more days of them not being around) and taking care of other unpaid perso-- gah, I sound like a broken record. Yesterday wasn't a good day. It was a good evening, though, as always I had a great time live-blogging at Lance's place while Robin kibbitzed. I just wish there hadn't been at least four commercials and one post intro that made me cringe at their probably-unintended sexism. Maybe I'm just being oversensitive. Yeah, that's never happened before!
Anyway, it looks to be an absolutely gorgeous weekend, and to kick it off I'm going to attempt to spite the sciatica, walking stick on one side and linking with Robin's arm on the other, by strolling to the all-you-can-eat sushi place after I get home. It's about three quarters of a mile each way, only a 3-minute drive but in my condition probably 15-20 minutes of walking there and a half hour back, as the return trip is mostly uphill and I'll be, um, full of sushi. That should prepare me for walking around MoCCA this weekend. Wish I had the wherewithall to go to the Mermaid Parade as well tomorrow, but that'd be way pushing it. Hope y'all have some nice weekend plans! Maybe you can become a Paloozahead performer (via Gerard)...
Anyway, it looks to be an absolutely gorgeous weekend, and to kick it off I'm going to attempt to spite the sciatica, walking stick on one side and linking with Robin's arm on the other, by strolling to the all-you-can-eat sushi place after I get home. It's about three quarters of a mile each way, only a 3-minute drive but in my condition probably 15-20 minutes of walking there and a half hour back, as the return trip is mostly uphill and I'll be, um, full of sushi. That should prepare me for walking around MoCCA this weekend. Wish I had the wherewithall to go to the Mermaid Parade as well tomorrow, but that'd be way pushing it. Hope y'all have some nice weekend plans! Maybe you can become a Paloozahead performer (via Gerard)...
Thursday, June 21, 2007
Silly Site o' the Day
I knew there was a reason my blood pressure was so high last night. I usually get premonitions the night before that I'm going to have a particularly rough time of it the following day. Yesterday brought not only the higher BP but insomnia, and today was a doozy. I had to go back and forth trying to change international airfares, which still hasn't been accomplished as one of them required the change request going into a queue because it wasn't for imminent travel. Then finally, when half my day was shot doing unpaid personal work for my boss (and property management issues) instead of the stuff for which I'm actually qualified and earning a salary, my doctor called to give me another hefty dose of scare-story fatphobia. I really don't have the time nor the inclination to get a second opinion, but I suppose I'm overdue to find a non-fatphobic doctor closer to our house than to my workplace anyway. If my current doc insists on being this prejudicial to begin with, how can I trust anything she says? It just makes me want to tiptoe through the skulls at Skull-A-Day (via Jen Sorensen), that's all. Don't forget to go to Chez Mannion around 9:45 and catch my live-blogging, which I plan to do in between glasses of water (the doc I don't trust said I need to increase my intake, which sounds like a good idea anyway in spite of her).
Wednesday, June 20, 2007
Silly Site o' the Day
Back from visiting with Mom and both brothers; photos to follow if they've come out okay. Came back to some wonderful emails from folks coming in for this weekend's MoCCA art fest, so I'll have company and possibly dinner companions both days. It's infinitely better to walk around a con like that with company rather than alone! Plus, Lance wants me to do another Studio 60 live-blogging at his place tomorrow (second week running!), and I said yes. And one of my totally favorite bloggers wrote (privately and publicly) that she really liked my ComicMix piece this week, so I'm pretty happy. Here, have some generator fun at Chimpagne (via Gerard)!
We Are All Digby
Well, the big news in the liberal blogosphere is that Digby has been outed, so to speak. And she is indeed female, which I never suspected but which most of Julia's NY BBQ crowd did. And she's beautiful! She's how I want to look. She's how I almost DO look. You can see the video of her accepting an award on behalf of the A-list liberal blogosphere (you know, the ones who still, for instance, praise Jane Hamsher with nary a mention of blackface or the co-opting Clinton lunch) just about everywhere on the A-list liberal blogosphere, as apparently most of the A-list political blogosphere is attending a conference called Take Back America. I do hope when they take back America they may decide to include some of us who aren't A-listers. In any case, as a member of the C-list-at-best liberal blogosphere, I did want to say how delighted I was to finally see what Digby looked like, and that now more than ever, blinders or no blinders, she's pretty much the kind of political writer I wish I could be, if I had more passion and focus and less tendency to burn out.
In her acceptance speech Digby mentioned the late Steve Gilliard, who seemed to hate me for no apparent reason (whenever he thought of me at all) until the day he died, and while I don't particularly miss that vitriol a lot of folks in, again, the A-list blogophere do. And there's been a bit of a dust-up in the wake of some idiot saying stupid things about him and that statement being reproed elsewhere with no comment (like a simple "this is what some idiot said") and then some other folks piling on the non-commenter and... well, Donna has this to say about that, and the fallout includes one of my favorite writers Zuzu leaving the blogosphere (she has an open invite to post here any time she wants, but of course since I'm not an A-lister there's probably little incentive) and Ilyka taking her blog members-only and Chris Clarke shutting down altogether and Jesus' General going on a brief hiatus (he's just returned) and, oh, I can't make sense of any of it, especially after reading this Sadly, No! entry. All I know is that lots of writers I admire are at odds with each other, and I hope time helps heal whatever wounds have been inflicted and that they all return to blogging full-time as soon as they're comfortable. We need all the powerful progressive writers we can retain, especially when one of our number leaves this mortal plane forever.
And speaking of powerful voices, no better way to segue into a long-overdue blogaround of posts I liked from the past week:
• Two terrific posts (among many) from Amanda Marcotte caught my eye, one about yet another Nice Guy® whine and the other about the symbology of engagement rings. I've never had an engagement ring, but Robin had wanted to buy me a Legion of Super-Heroes ring (it's kind of the weight of a class ring) and, geek that I am, that turned into my de facto engagement ring even though it's a bit too big for most of my fingers (and barely fits on Robin's pinky) so I've never actually worn it regularly.
• Arianna Huffington is launching a new citizen journalism project. Sounds interesting, and I hope it includes bloggers who aren't A-listers. (Yeah yeah, I'll give it a rest now.)
• Mario Batali talks about why he hates food bloggers... okay, not exactly hate, but frustration. It's mostly an anonymity and accountability issue, but his real beef (mmm, real beef) seems to be that a food blogger referenced an item from the legitimate press written by someone "who has hated me for as long as I can remember, not that he has any value to journalism anyway" -- so isn't his real problem with this so-called legitimate (and non-anonymous) journalist, not the blogosphere?
• Terrance has a dream, which we hope to someday see become a reality year-round and not just expressed by many during Gay Pride month.
• Terry Jones looks on the bright side of the Iraqi occupation, where mercenaries and Cheney-connected corporations are making money hand over fist. I couldn't help hearing his cadence as I read this, having just watched a Medieval Lives marathon.
• Roy Edroso visits Coney Island during the last summer before Astroland is torn down. Breaks my heart, it does. No more "Winnah Winnah WINNAH!" cries from the ripoff carnival game stands, no more noises of chaotic happiness, no more cute kiddy rides... I don't think they're touching my favorite parts of Coney Island, like the Cyclone and the carousel across the street (it has brass rings! I love riding that sucker) and Richard Eagan's baby whose name keeps changing all the time (spookhouse? funhouse?). Speaking of which, this Saturday marks the silver anniversary of the Coney Island Mermaid Parade, for anyone interested in cutting out of MoCCA for a few hours and heading down to the edge of Brooklyn. (PJ's definitely going.) Steve and I used to go to the Mermaid Parade every year, and I fondly remember Richard's young daughter Daisy heading it up one year after her triumphant Broadway work in Les Mis; I feel ever so old now finding out that she's been married for four years! In any case, if you want to know more about the area, the Coney Island History Project is invaluable. One thing is certain, the area has evolved countless times in the last century and a half, and most of those evolutions seem to have been met with initial skepticism giving way to acceptance and even affection.
• Speaking of evolutions and landmarks, Bully gives the London Eye the eye, and David Byrne extols the beauty of bike-riding in NYC.
• Cheryl Lynn gives a quick tutorial on how to draw hairstyles for black women. This would come in very handy for my artist if I ever decide to write that Anissa Pierce/Natasha Irons team-up story...
• Tamora Pierce takes the words right out of my mouth. Well, not my mouth, precisely, as there are certain words which make me uncomfortable so I don't put them in my mouth, for exactly the reasons she describes. Way I figure it, I have a big enough vocab that I don't miss not using them any more than I'd miss not using racial slurs.
• Lance has some good observations about our cell phone culture and how it's not really as postmodern as all that.
• I wonder what kind of messages the Big Two comics companies are sending to non-readers when culturally-astute PZ Myers doesn't even recognize Mary Marvel.
• .com/blog/2007/06/my_first_novel_.html">Congratulations, Trish!
• Lastly, a couple short maintenance notes. Melanie McBride is now blogging , and I've restored her in the Kultcha Gals section of my sidebar. Siva has announced that he's moving to VA with his bridge Melissa and will be taking Sivacracy.net to a new address soon, so stay tuned!
In a few minutes I leave for my youngest brother's house, as our other brother is visiting from CA and this is the only day he can see us when he's not otherwise occupied. I'm expecting a weirdly emotional day, so I'm glad I have this off my plate. Oh, and my latest ComicMix column is up, dealing with prejudice who look like Digby and with Ann Coulter and female magicians and like that; please go there and comment so I'll feel somewhat less alone...
In her acceptance speech Digby mentioned the late Steve Gilliard, who seemed to hate me for no apparent reason (whenever he thought of me at all) until the day he died, and while I don't particularly miss that vitriol a lot of folks in, again, the A-list blogophere do. And there's been a bit of a dust-up in the wake of some idiot saying stupid things about him and that statement being reproed elsewhere with no comment (like a simple "this is what some idiot said") and then some other folks piling on the non-commenter and... well, Donna has this to say about that, and the fallout includes one of my favorite writers Zuzu leaving the blogosphere (she has an open invite to post here any time she wants, but of course since I'm not an A-lister there's probably little incentive) and Ilyka taking her blog members-only and Chris Clarke shutting down altogether and Jesus' General going on a brief hiatus (he's just returned) and, oh, I can't make sense of any of it, especially after reading this Sadly, No! entry. All I know is that lots of writers I admire are at odds with each other, and I hope time helps heal whatever wounds have been inflicted and that they all return to blogging full-time as soon as they're comfortable. We need all the powerful progressive writers we can retain, especially when one of our number leaves this mortal plane forever.
And speaking of powerful voices, no better way to segue into a long-overdue blogaround of posts I liked from the past week:
• Two terrific posts (among many) from Amanda Marcotte caught my eye, one about yet another Nice Guy® whine and the other about the symbology of engagement rings. I've never had an engagement ring, but Robin had wanted to buy me a Legion of Super-Heroes ring (it's kind of the weight of a class ring) and, geek that I am, that turned into my de facto engagement ring even though it's a bit too big for most of my fingers (and barely fits on Robin's pinky) so I've never actually worn it regularly.
• Arianna Huffington is launching a new citizen journalism project. Sounds interesting, and I hope it includes bloggers who aren't A-listers. (Yeah yeah, I'll give it a rest now.)
• Mario Batali talks about why he hates food bloggers... okay, not exactly hate, but frustration. It's mostly an anonymity and accountability issue, but his real beef (mmm, real beef) seems to be that a food blogger referenced an item from the legitimate press written by someone "who has hated me for as long as I can remember, not that he has any value to journalism anyway" -- so isn't his real problem with this so-called legitimate (and non-anonymous) journalist, not the blogosphere?
• Terrance has a dream, which we hope to someday see become a reality year-round and not just expressed by many during Gay Pride month.
• Terry Jones looks on the bright side of the Iraqi occupation, where mercenaries and Cheney-connected corporations are making money hand over fist. I couldn't help hearing his cadence as I read this, having just watched a Medieval Lives marathon.
• Roy Edroso visits Coney Island during the last summer before Astroland is torn down. Breaks my heart, it does. No more "Winnah Winnah WINNAH!" cries from the ripoff carnival game stands, no more noises of chaotic happiness, no more cute kiddy rides... I don't think they're touching my favorite parts of Coney Island, like the Cyclone and the carousel across the street (it has brass rings! I love riding that sucker) and Richard Eagan's baby whose name keeps changing all the time (spookhouse? funhouse?). Speaking of which, this Saturday marks the silver anniversary of the Coney Island Mermaid Parade, for anyone interested in cutting out of MoCCA for a few hours and heading down to the edge of Brooklyn. (PJ's definitely going.) Steve and I used to go to the Mermaid Parade every year, and I fondly remember Richard's young daughter Daisy heading it up one year after her triumphant Broadway work in Les Mis; I feel ever so old now finding out that she's been married for four years! In any case, if you want to know more about the area, the Coney Island History Project is invaluable. One thing is certain, the area has evolved countless times in the last century and a half, and most of those evolutions seem to have been met with initial skepticism giving way to acceptance and even affection.
• Speaking of evolutions and landmarks, Bully gives the London Eye the eye, and David Byrne extols the beauty of bike-riding in NYC.
• Cheryl Lynn gives a quick tutorial on how to draw hairstyles for black women. This would come in very handy for my artist if I ever decide to write that Anissa Pierce/Natasha Irons team-up story...
• Tamora Pierce takes the words right out of my mouth. Well, not my mouth, precisely, as there are certain words which make me uncomfortable so I don't put them in my mouth, for exactly the reasons she describes. Way I figure it, I have a big enough vocab that I don't miss not using them any more than I'd miss not using racial slurs.
• Lance has some good observations about our cell phone culture and how it's not really as postmodern as all that.
• I wonder what kind of messages the Big Two comics companies are sending to non-readers when culturally-astute PZ Myers doesn't even recognize Mary Marvel.
• .com/blog/2007/06/my_first_novel_.html">Congratulations, Trish!
• Lastly, a couple short maintenance notes. Melanie McBride is now blogging , and I've restored her in the Kultcha Gals section of my sidebar. Siva has announced that he's moving to VA with his bridge Melissa and will be taking Sivacracy.net to a new address soon, so stay tuned!
In a few minutes I leave for my youngest brother's house, as our other brother is visiting from CA and this is the only day he can see us when he's not otherwise occupied. I'm expecting a weirdly emotional day, so I'm glad I have this off my plate. Oh, and my latest ComicMix column is up, dealing with prejudice who look like Digby and with Ann Coulter and female magicians and like that; please go there and comment so I'll feel somewhat less alone...
Tuesday, June 19, 2007
Silly Site o' the Day
Well, it's after 4 PM again and I'm just catching my breath. It wouldn't be so bad if I were actually doing exec assistant stuff, but most of my workweek, as well as that of my coworkers, seems to be taken up with "servant stuff," and that's really draining. It wouldn't be so bad if I'd actually WANTED to be a personal assistant and servant, but that's not why I was initially employed and, even with my most recent raise, I still make a heck of a lot less than most PAs. Oh shut up, Elayne, enough bitching! After all, I'm taking tomorrow off to see my brother who's visiting from CA, so I'm pleased about that. And hey, I still have my health! I could have, let's see...
Compulsive Defiant Speaking Syndrome With Behavioral Disturbance (CDSSWBD)
CDSSWBD is primarily characterized by involuntary behavioral urges characterized by the presence of extreme anger towards authority figures during verbal expression, combined with erratic, unpredictable behavioral irregularities.
Source: Page 1255 of the DSM-IV-FESo there. Hey wait, I might actually have this. Damn my hypochondria, anyway! Disease Mongering Engine via Gerard.
Monday, June 18, 2007
Silly Site o' the Day
The good news is a clean bill of health from my primary care physician, plus referrals for physical therapy and renewed prescriptions for my heart and BP meds (one of which is for an even lower dosage than the mild strength I'd been taking, woo-hoo!). The bad news is that, with one thing and another including long-distance tasks for my boss, I didn't really move forward on the Huge-Ass Project until around 3:30, so blogging was pretty much out of the question. I would have liked to have wished Alan Davis a happy birthday and he and his wife Heather a happy anniversary, as well as wishing a happy birthday to Pat Prentice (who reads this blog) and Paul McCartney (who does not), but all those Brits are probably now in bed and it's already tomorrow there, so I'm a bit bummed. Ah well, can't be helped. I can only hope they enjoy their belated Pen-Elayne gift, since it encompasses both shapes and colours: the Sculpture Generator (via Gerard)!
Sunday, June 17, 2007
Robin's New Assignment
It's official at last. DC made the solicits available to retailers on Friday and to Newsarama today, and tomorrow I guess they release it on their own site. Robin and Javi Pina (whom he inked on Manhunter) have been announced as the art team for the latest revival of Suicide Squad, an 8-issue miniseries written once again by our friend (and my ComicMix colleague) John Ostrander. Yes, I'm a very happy camper, why do you ask?
Silly Site o' the Day
The less said about Father's Day this year, the better. If Robin can accompany me in a few hours and not be too wiped to work this afternoon, today is veggie-shopping day, then blogaround catchup day, then ComicMix column writing day. I think. We'll see how it goes. As it is I'm not even sure I can get through Wheel of Fortune-style crossword puzzles (via Hanan)...
Saturday, June 16, 2007
Silly Site o' the Day
Well, even though we hadn't the money or time or invite or wherewithall to get to any conventions this weekend, we still wound up spending more than we'd anticipated. When we took Datsa in this morning the vet tried again, as he did last year, to convince us to let him do the cat's teeth and gums. Datsa has had bad teeth and gums his entire life, all his canines have fallen out by now, and yes, we knew he had infections which were hazardous to the rest of his health. But he's 14 and I just didn't want him anesthetized. Long and short, the doctor convinced me that kitty anesthesia has really come a long way these past few years, that he'd only be under a very short time, just long enough to clean his mouth out, and that we could pick him up in another hour so he wouldn't have to stay overnight or anything. That last assurance sealed the deal, and so I spent the extra money on something he's long, desperately needed, as opposed to the other would-be vet who wanted money sight-unseen to do questionable and probably unnecessary procedures.
And I spent the rest of the day at home, mostly watching the Yankees-Mets game and keeping him company, and we've just given him and Amy dinner (she's not thrilled with his vet-office smell, but once that fades I think she'll be a lot happier to be near a cat who no longer has the odor of gum disease), and I'm sure his mouth is sore but he seems happier than he's been in awhile. So no forward movement in terms of writing and blogging, but I have a healthy 14-year-old kitty so I'm content.
Okay, so today's site is one that supposedly takes your Visual DNA (via Patia). Seems harmless enough, but my answers keep changing all the time...
And I spent the rest of the day at home, mostly watching the Yankees-Mets game and keeping him company, and we've just given him and Amy dinner (she's not thrilled with his vet-office smell, but once that fades I think she'll be a lot happier to be near a cat who no longer has the odor of gum disease), and I'm sure his mouth is sore but he seems happier than he's been in awhile. So no forward movement in terms of writing and blogging, but I have a healthy 14-year-old kitty so I'm content.
Okay, so today's site is one that supposedly takes your Visual DNA (via Patia). Seems harmless enough, but my answers keep changing all the time...
Friday, June 15, 2007
Friday Cat Blogging (™ Kevin Drum)
Everyone who's anyone in the comics biz seems to be either in Philadelphia or Charlotte this weekend. But as nobody sprang for transportation or hotel costs for me or Robin, we're holding down the fort in NY, with him working and me trying not to overuse my pained left leg. Hunkering down under the comforter with kitties always helps. Here are a couple nice close-ups of their bundlenesses:

Taken whilst Amy was in my lap.

A bit dark, but it's a miracle I can get Datsa to look at the camera at all.
Taken whilst Amy was in my lap.
A bit dark, but it's a miracle I can get Datsa to look at the camera at all.
Silly Site o' the Day
Back to work for one day, then the weekend, for which we've nothing planned save Datsa's checkup and a trip to the fruit and veg place. Next week will also be broken up as I'm taking Wednesday off for a family get-together as brother Gene is visiting from El-Lay. Still haven't done that blogaround, but maybe if my work goes quickly today I'll sneak it in. As it is, I'm once again way behind in blog-reading, having only just gotten to the Top Six again and found a nifty site via Wil Wheaton -- the Random Treknobabble Generator! Wonder if Peter or Keith contributed to this one; I love how Wil used it to create his own story intro. Makes me wish he wrote Trek books too.
Thursday, June 14, 2007
Silly Site o' the Day
The job interview went -- neither badly or tremendously, I couldn't really get a reading. I think they're still at the winnowing-out phase, so it may be another month or so before I hear from them again. In any case, it sounds like exactly the kind of thing I'd really like -- it's in Manhattan and easily accessible from the express bus, it's a non-profit, it's my salary range, it's straight exec-assistant stuff (no personal crap, no prop management, nothing but what I actually like to do and am good at doing), it requires writing skills (hooray!), and it appeals to me culturally. Dress seems to be a bit more formal than I'm used to, but that's easily taken care of. In any case, I'm hanging fire until I hear from them, as this will probably be my only interview until my boss returns and I'm trapped again until autumn. And I'm hanging out for the next couple hours until I have my cardio appointment, so wasn't it nice of the Yankees to play this afternoon just for me? Switching to the living room laptop right after I finish this post. Oh, don't forget I'm at Lance's place tonight, live-blogging Studio 60 starting slightly before 10 PM Eastern. And here's a job I absolutely don't want, mainly because they only feature one body type (and annoying music, etc.) -- the virtual editorial assistant game, via NY Mag's Daily Intelligencer.
Wednesday, June 13, 2007
Silly Site o' the Day
My latest column is up at ComicMix and available for comments. It's not really about Paris Hilton, so I only have to hang my head in shame a wee bit. It's more about what Bernie Taupin was saying in VH1's Classic Albums series about "Candle in the Wind," the idea of the media feeding frenzy that chews up and spits out celebrities. After all, all the papers had to say was that Anna Nicole was found in the nude...
Anyway, lots of links to talk about, lots of blogospheric goings-on in the wake of the wake, as 'twere, but nothing I can discuss right now as I'm neck-deep in organizing medical claims for my boss' family. That's right, I process their personal medical claims for them. Le sigh. After that it's back to full-speed on the Huge-Ass Project for the rest of the day, as I'm in Manhattan (twice) tomorrow. I've cancelled Datsa's mid-day appointment, the more money the vet's office told me they wanted up-front, the more suspicion they aroused. I'm not paying $250 to take a perfectly healthy (and on meds that keep him that way) cat for an annual checkup just because he has a "pre-existing condition" and "the doctor wants to do blood work." All this sight-unseen, from a vet we've never even met! Sheer lunacy. So he's going back to the vet around the corner, who isn't all that thorough but at least can give him his annual shots and renew his prescriptions.
Oh yeah, a silly site. How about, "Porn Star or My Little Pony?" That takes care of both Mademoiselle Hilton (sort of) and blogosphere in-jokes (kinda). Via Lis Riba.
Anyway, lots of links to talk about, lots of blogospheric goings-on in the wake of the wake, as 'twere, but nothing I can discuss right now as I'm neck-deep in organizing medical claims for my boss' family. That's right, I process their personal medical claims for them. Le sigh. After that it's back to full-speed on the Huge-Ass Project for the rest of the day, as I'm in Manhattan (twice) tomorrow. I've cancelled Datsa's mid-day appointment, the more money the vet's office told me they wanted up-front, the more suspicion they aroused. I'm not paying $250 to take a perfectly healthy (and on meds that keep him that way) cat for an annual checkup just because he has a "pre-existing condition" and "the doctor wants to do blood work." All this sight-unseen, from a vet we've never even met! Sheer lunacy. So he's going back to the vet around the corner, who isn't all that thorough but at least can give him his annual shots and renew his prescriptions.
Oh yeah, a silly site. How about, "Porn Star or My Little Pony?" That takes care of both Mademoiselle Hilton (sort of) and blogosphere in-jokes (kinda). Via Lis Riba.
Tuesday, June 12, 2007
He Knows Why
Melissa blogged about her and Iain's anniversary, which reminds me to say hello to Steve.
Silly Site o' the Day
No sooner did I finally get through yesterday's workload and onto Google Reader to check the source feeds I glean for ComicMix news items, than Google decided to disappear them. All of them. I thought they were lost completely. They returned this morning, way too late for me to do anything about them since I'm back on the Huge-Ass Project again (not to mention other servant-type stuff), but let that be a warning -- always make a list of your feeds (or at least what you've named the feeds so you can relocate them) just in case. In other news, my sciatica seems to have gotten worse, with sudden shooting pains all down my left side that come and go for no apparent reason, so thank goodness I'll finally be seeing my primary care physician next Monday morning so I can get a referral for physical therapy and a renewal prescription for my blood pressure meds. I really want to get back into the kind of shape where I'm capable of moving without pain. Speaking of which, via Karen McLaughlan, here's a calculator designed to answer the question, How far did the Earth move for you?
Monday, June 11, 2007
Silly Site o' the Day
The personal stuff for my boss that had been weighing on the back of my mind all weekend was taken care of well before 9 this morning, and I actually seem to be in good shape except for the Huge-Ass Project; hoping to finish proofing the 10,000 lines by mid-afternoon so I can go back to the four letters where I had to gather info using a different radius, which data constitutes another two reams or so (the "S" names alone take up one ream). I was hoping to have Phase I completely out of the way at least two weeks ago so I can start on Phase II (doing the whole project all over again with a different carrier) but such is life. Not going to worry. I'm more concerned at this point with my Thursday scheduling madness -- Mahattan job interview in the morning, Datsa's new vet visit (local) around noon, cardio visit (again in Manhattan) late afternoon, Studio 60 live-blogging at Lance's place (from home) in the evening. Busy day planned; I hope I mapped it all out okay. Scratch message, what do you think?
Scratch message generator via Gerard.
Scratch message generator via Gerard.
Sunday, June 10, 2007
Overdue Blogaround
Aren't they all?
• Oh my goodness, I have to follow that? Wish me luck on Thursday. I'm taking the afternoon off -- no, not for that, I have a cardio appointment (wish me luck on that too)...
• Have I mentioned how much Donna's posts blow me away? This one is all about historical trauma and so much more.
• Curt Schilling blogs about his almost-perfect game. Even though I'm not as up on the technicalities as the more fanatic baseball aficionados among us, and even though Schilling seems to lean toward the right politically and religiously, I find myself really enjoying his blog.
• Hey look, David Levin has a new neighbor!
• Oh dear, first Paul Dini rips into Geena Davis and now his wifeZatanna Misty Lee, as Tamora Pierce reports, insists that the "strongest and loudest protest over sexy things come from ugly fat girls." Perhaps the strongest and loudest inability to distinguish between "sexy" and "sexist" comes from body-insecure Californians? In any case, if even Mrs. Dini has these kinds of blinders on, it doesn't bode well for Countdown.
• Fortunately there are still allies, both female and male, who know where certain lines should be drawn. Among them are Jerry Ordway and Mike Wieringo. Thank goodness common sense isn't a thing of the past everywhere.
• And last but by no means least, Kevin Church finds a secret Food Network internal memo in their dumpster. Hey, I'd probably watch half those shows...
Okay, baseball games are over. Yanks won big in New York, Detroit and their birds won big over the Mets. Seriously, those birds totally creeped me out, what's up with that?
• Oh my goodness, I have to follow that? Wish me luck on Thursday. I'm taking the afternoon off -- no, not for that, I have a cardio appointment (wish me luck on that too)...
• Have I mentioned how much Donna's posts blow me away? This one is all about historical trauma and so much more.
• Curt Schilling blogs about his almost-perfect game. Even though I'm not as up on the technicalities as the more fanatic baseball aficionados among us, and even though Schilling seems to lean toward the right politically and religiously, I find myself really enjoying his blog.
• Hey look, David Levin has a new neighbor!
• Oh dear, first Paul Dini rips into Geena Davis and now his wife
• Fortunately there are still allies, both female and male, who know where certain lines should be drawn. Among them are Jerry Ordway and Mike Wieringo. Thank goodness common sense isn't a thing of the past everywhere.
• And last but by no means least, Kevin Church finds a secret Food Network internal memo in their dumpster. Hey, I'd probably watch half those shows...
Okay, baseball games are over. Yanks won big in New York, Detroit and their birds won big over the Mets. Seriously, those birds totally creeped me out, what's up with that?
Silly Site o' the Day
Weird, restless dreams, some comic book convention in upstate NY and we couldn't find our car to go home and a sudden snowstorm came up and the cats, the cats, the cats kept waking us up in real life. Robin more than me. But I got up an hour ago to pill Datsa and feed them, and Datsa's still meowing at me, so I'm still up hoping Robin can sleep, as he has more work to do today. Gerard found a generator that I hope doesn't render Rob's job obsolete:

Clicking on the above sketch takes you directly to the Instant Sketch generator.
Clicking on the above sketch takes you directly to the Instant Sketch generator.
Saturday, June 09, 2007
Silly Site o' the Day
My quarterly oil change and biweekly car wash/dry cleaning pick-up are done, and I'm now prepared to stay home for the rest of the weekend attempting to catch up on blog reading, ComicMix column writing (my queendom for a topic!) and perhaps some actual housework -- which at the Riggs Residence usually amounts to "putting stuff away and straightening up." In between baseball games, of course. Hey, have you Hunted for the Higgs yet? What are you waiting for? Via JoAnne at Cosmic Variance.
Friday, June 08, 2007
Silly Site o' the Day
After almost half a year, Phase I of the Huge-Ass Project was completed this morning, and I started going through the 10,000+ entries to winnow out duplicates and make sure everything was checked off in the correct columns before beginning Phase I-and-a-half. Naturally there were tons of interruptions -- at one point I had to stop doing unpaid personal work for my boss' family so I could do more "important" unpaid personal work for his family -- so I only got through "H" by day's end. Now my coworkers are starting to complain about their tremendous backlog brought on by the fact that I can no longer do secretarial stuff for them, so that means yet another workload increase for me, and brings my posting time during the day to near-zero. Don't expect much more from me in the next month than daily Silly Sites here and my weekly column at ComicMix. I miss y'all too, believe me. I know I no longer have the head for even ordinary activity, but do y'all have the head for these difficult analytical puzzles (via Hanan)?
Thursday, June 07, 2007
From LOLCats to Llamas
I Has A Tardis has done a Doctor Who takeoff on the Llama Song, in which I played a minor role.

If the animation doesn't work right, you can see it by clicking on the above link. Come on, sing along, you know you want to.
If the animation doesn't work right, you can see it by clicking on the above link. Come on, sing along, you know you want to.
Wednesday, June 06, 2007
Quote of the Day
"We can’t focus our irritation at the lack of diversity in the media, since that’s a negative target, so instead we focus our anger on a single product for being what it is and not something else. Which is the first step down the road to aesthetic stalinism, because once you focus on this book or that movie for being what it is and not being the book or movie that you want, you are in essence arguing against the existence of the book or movie that’s come into your sites." - Amanda Marcotte, who totally encapsulates a lot of what's wrong with the "entitlement mentality" of much fandom. Oh, and I'm not exempting myself, I often fall into this trap as well.
Silly Site o' the Day
Well, it looks like Robin's straightened out most of the kinks remaining after our switch from Verizon DSL to the Optonline cable modem. He's particularly pleased with the speed increase -- here's a comparison:

And I'm happy we'll be saving money over the old arrangement, at least for the next year or so. But there were definitely glitches; whilst he was involved in a large download on Monday night I was trying to finish up my latest ComicMix column (please feel free to go there and comment on it!), perhaps foolishly typing it directly into the online edit window, and I got disconnected and lost about three paragraphs of the first draft. We think that's now been resolved by Robin plugging in a signal-boosting device in the computer room (the actual modem's in his studio as we mostly use the laptop in the living room).
He was also able to hook up the cable to the TV correctly after we discovered the technician hadn't done it correctly, and I swear we have a better picture now than we did before. And we have Optonline email addresses but so far can't figure out how to set it up on my Outlook (which hasn't worked right for at least two years thanks to a Verizon screwup) as Robin can't find any POP information on their website, so I'll probably wind up using Outlook for my personal Gmail account (as opposed to the ComicMix Gmail account I use when I'm away from the laptop) instead.
But I digress. Via my ex-husband comes this extremely amusing Japanese site. I have no idea what it's for, but the essence of a Silly Site is that sometimes that doesn't matter. It took about a minute and a half to load with Verizon; with our cable modem it was about a second or two. :)

And I'm happy we'll be saving money over the old arrangement, at least for the next year or so. But there were definitely glitches; whilst he was involved in a large download on Monday night I was trying to finish up my latest ComicMix column (please feel free to go there and comment on it!), perhaps foolishly typing it directly into the online edit window, and I got disconnected and lost about three paragraphs of the first draft. We think that's now been resolved by Robin plugging in a signal-boosting device in the computer room (the actual modem's in his studio as we mostly use the laptop in the living room).
He was also able to hook up the cable to the TV correctly after we discovered the technician hadn't done it correctly, and I swear we have a better picture now than we did before. And we have Optonline email addresses but so far can't figure out how to set it up on my Outlook (which hasn't worked right for at least two years thanks to a Verizon screwup) as Robin can't find any POP information on their website, so I'll probably wind up using Outlook for my personal Gmail account (as opposed to the ComicMix Gmail account I use when I'm away from the laptop) instead.
But I digress. Via my ex-husband comes this extremely amusing Japanese site. I have no idea what it's for, but the essence of a Silly Site is that sometimes that doesn't matter. It took about a minute and a half to load with Verizon; with our cable modem it was about a second or two. :)
Tuesday, June 05, 2007
Silly Sites o' the Day
Dang, damn and drat again! I can't believe I missed the premiere of the series based on Nick Park's brilliant Creature Comforts short! My friend Jan and I still do the "I need eh-SPESS..." running gag from the original zoo episode:
While looking for that clip, I found lots more British episodes, although at this point I have no idea how much involvement Nick Park may or may not have had with them. Here's At the Circus:
Here's Impressions:
This one's called Animals in the 'Hood:
And here's Sport!:
If you want to know more about the Aardman Americans working on the new CBS series, here's their blog, Eyeballs and Fishlips. Cool beans!
While looking for that clip, I found lots more British episodes, although at this point I have no idea how much involvement Nick Park may or may not have had with them. Here's At the Circus:
Here's Impressions:
This one's called Animals in the 'Hood:
And here's Sport!:
If you want to know more about the Aardman Americans working on the new CBS series, here's their blog, Eyeballs and Fishlips. Cool beans!
Monday, June 04, 2007
Silly Site o' the Day
Today's the day we're supposed to switch from DSL to cable modem (and switch our land-line phone service as well), so I'm crossing my fingers all will go well and I'll still be able to post stuff when I get home. Meanwhile, the rain is making me logy so I can't really decide on which saved Silly Site to use. How about this Google video from the "U.S. Department of Normal Values and Clean Morals" courtesy of Liza? That'll tide you over for awhile...
Sunday, June 03, 2007
Silly Site o' the Day
Via Cute Overload, it's PawSense, the "cat-like typing" detector. As far as I can tell this is real, not a parody. Oh, and Datsa's stopped meowing. Even though he didn't have his afternoon pill, I opened up another can of food and dumped the contents in their bowl, justifying it by reasoning that he and Amy didn't eat most of their their breakfast - for some reason they suddenly hate tuna-flavored Fancy Feast - so the odd can (I usually buy two of each flavor as we give them a can each in the mornings, but this one was an "orphan") can serve as sort of a light lunch/snack and I'll just push their dinner back an hour or so. And it worked, and Robin's once more napping peacefully.
Transitional Blogaround
It's a weird day -- the air is kind of stormy, Datsa won't stop meowing whilst Robin is trying to nap, I'm still really beat from yesterday at BEA, and it seems like every blog I read is mourning the untimely passing of someone who inexplicably loathed me, although that feeling was never mutual. I'll simply say I'm relieved his suffering is over and move on to a few of the posts I enjoyed reading this past week:
• Aidan Brooks takes a jaundiced look at the newest celeb/chef pairing.
• Rachel Edidin is pumped up on community after WisCon.
• PJ gets an A+ on his kitty math.
• Apparently last Wednesday was another Manhattanhenge, and as we were in the city on Thursday we missed it by just one day (but I'm never in the city for sunset any more anyway).
Back with a Silly Site shortly.
• Aidan Brooks takes a jaundiced look at the newest celeb/chef pairing.
• Rachel Edidin is pumped up on community after WisCon.
• PJ gets an A+ on his kitty math.
• Apparently last Wednesday was another Manhattanhenge, and as we were in the city on Thursday we missed it by just one day (but I'm never in the city for sunset any more anyway).
Back with a Silly Site shortly.
Saturday, June 02, 2007
Silly Site o' the Day
Exhausting day at BEA -- okay, exhausting three hours. I'm not moving around very well. But I picked up at least one free book I like, and saw the ComicMix folk, who hadn't yet greenlit my Cockrum tribute post, but I now see it finally went up a few minutes ago. So, as promised, today's Silly Site is Wax Hoff (via Melissa)! I really don't get why David Hasselhoff is suddenly popular again... well, popular enough to host one of those reality show thingies. Was it the chandelier severing his tendon, or the weird drunk episodes? Is he like turning into the male Anna Nicole or what?
Friday, June 01, 2007
Silly Site o' the Day
White Rabbits! Here's a game you can play in which you "operate" on a toy bunny. Awww. Via Cory at BoingBoing.
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