Yes, it's 3/14. I hope you all have your pies ready!

I think I've exhausted the bruise topic, although I'll throw in one more of how pretty my left arm has become. The right is just kind of wider and duller, not nearly as exciting.

American Gods

So says Neil Gaiman: "For the next month, your free copy of American Gods is waiting for you at http://tiny.cc/WRiXE

"Feel free to spread the link as widely as possible around the web. If it works, and people read it, then a) we may be able to put up another book and b) sooner or later they'll simply let us give away the book in electronic form...."

The Twenty Science Fiction Novels that Will Change Your Life

This is in case you needed more to read. You'll probably have to buy the books off that list, though.

My Own Kind of Freedom, A Firefly Novel by Steven Brust

But this one is free. Says the site: "My Own Kind of Freedom has been released under a creative commons license. You are free to download it and share it with your friends as long as it is not used for commercial purposes."

fandom---feminism tagged entries

Not a book, just a lot of blogs I have running into my rss reader.

"But sarudy, reading is haaard..."

Fine, then, you can always watch

• Star Trek: The Original Series (all three seasons), or
• MacGyver (first season), or
• Venus Rise - An Original Sci-Fi Vidcast Series by J.G.Birdsall

There. That should keep you busy for a while.

We found a home for the kitty.

We found a relative of a co-worker who'd just lost a cat to old age and could use a kitten to comfort. I believe he has been named 'Morris'.

Faster Than Parked Is Fast Enough To Kill

An important lesson to take home from "Abstinence-Only Drivers' Ed."

Oh, hey, Hero Sixth Edition is scheduled for Summer 2009

They also licensed the Champions Universe to Cryptic in order to make Champions Online, a MMORPG.

aiskon and I were going to see Center of Sleep Thursday night

There's a 7:30 showing and a 9:30 showing. Given the time it takes to get to the city after work, we'll probably aim for the 9:30. Any city folks interested?

Found at Occasional Superherioine.

The animation and voice acting is reminiscent of the X-Men: Evolution series, but I'm not sure if it's meant to be in the same continuity.

Bill would make it illegal to feed the obese (USA Today)

House Bill No. 282, which was introduced this month, says:

Any food establishment to which this section applies shall not be allowed to serve food to any person who is obese, based on criteria prescribed by the State Department of Health after consultation with the Mississippi Council on Obesity Prevention and Management established under Section 41-101-1 or its successor. The State Department of Health shall prepare written materials that describe and explain the criteria for determining whether a person is obese, and shall provide those materials to all food establishments to which this section applies. A food establishment shall be entitled to rely on the criteria for obesity in those written materials when determining whether or not it is allowed to serve food to any person.

Mississipi Lawmakers Propose Banning Fat People From Restaurants (Alas, a blog)

Mississippi legislators seek to bar restaurants from serving fat people (Feministe)

IMG_8961
Originally uploaded by ntkriced

Yeah, like I'd make this up.

Valentine's Day at the Castle

A Lovely White Castle Valentine's (Gothamist, 2006)

Love, American Cheese Style (Thighs Wide Shut, 2007)

As Romantic as a New Iron (Benjamin Kepple, 2007)

Valentine's Day 2006 (photset at Flickr. 2006)

In other news, I just got hit by The Great Hatsby. It probably would have been funnier if I hadn't decided to Google 'i say, old bean, have you seen my hat?' after I replied. I figured it out before my confused 'partner' replied.

Pixel Cookies

Requires a play-doh extruder, but how hard could it be to lay hand on one of those.

Those aliens from Space Invaders would be perfect for this.

It's the Far Future of 1992 and Hot, Dominant Women Rule the World!

Not too terribly NSFW for images, but rather for textual content.

A writeup of a 1970's novel "The Feminists". The comments are worth perusing, too.

Chain Factor

It's a little web-based game. Nice and addictive. It's tetris-like, but turn based rather than timed, which makes it easy to leave in the background.

Compact Calendar

This is my favorite calendar for year-at-a-glance on my cubicle wall. I actually modify mine in Excel and print it out anew periodically. Basically, I shade in days when the office is closed in one color, and vacation/floating days in another, and bold the dates for events I won't be missing work for, but may need to schedule around. Then on the side, I count down remaining vacation/floating/sick days. (This is what my current one looks like.)

Oh, hey, see that bottom line, where it says "1 floating, 0 vacation"? That means I still have one floating day I need to pin down...
 

(There's a poll below)

I figure asking for tomorrow is kind of cruel short notice, so I'm starting the poll for the day after tomorrow. Listed are all of the possible dates. I'm already taking Monday the 18th because it's the last full day Dad'll be in NJ. I've also already put in for all off Christmas week and the Monday before New Year's (I am so surprised they didn't just put Dec 31 on the 2008 holiday schedule, but, hey, I have the vacation time to use up anyway.)

Friday the 14th would make a nice long weekend, but it's also the day of our free holiday hot breakfast. Friday the 21st would make for a longer break, but I bet it's going to be a short day anyway. I probably should not take Wednesday the 12th, because we have an after-work dinner thingy that day. Hm.
 

Christmas Gifts

I'll bite the bullet for the adults on my list, but now I need to get gifts for a 3-year old (male), a 3-and-a-half-year-old (female), and a 5-and-a-half year old (male). Both boys are in the same household, and will have their stuff mailed to them. Ideas?

When should I take my last floating day?

This local story needs no embellishment:

Flaming squirrel ignites car in Bayonne

by N. Clark Judd
Thursday October 18, 2007, 7:29 PM

A kamikaze squirrel fell from the sky and detonated a Bayonne woman's car yesterday, police said today.

Lindsey Millar, 23, and her brother, Tony, 22, were both home Wednesday at about 12:45 p.m. when Lindsey's car suddenly started burning outside their 42nd Street home.

Tony Millar said firefighters told them it was the work of a buck-toothed saboteur that had been gnawing on overhead power lines connected to a transformer directly above the 2006 Toyota Camry.

"The squirrel chewed through the wire, was set on fire, fell down directly to where the car was," Tony Millar said. "The squirrel, on fire, slid into the engine compartment and blew up the car.

"They're always coming around here, chewing through the garbage," he added.

Tony Millar says his sister was fully insured.

"It's something to laugh about once she has a new car," he said. "It's not funny yet."

Police said there were no injuries -- except for the squirrel, that is, which is dead.

The Millars' home is decorated for Halloween, complete with a tiny plastic tombstone on their front lawn. Tony Millar said the family will consider dedicating the tombstone to the squirrel, who was not named.

You can't make this stuff up!

We've actually had two squirrels kill themselves in a similar manner outside our house, causing blackouts. We've found their charred little bodies in the street afterwards. Apparently I need to remember to never park underneath that transformer!

ETA: OK, because I always seem to go through this, I have an announcement. Most theaters announce their weekend showtimes (which includes Friday night) on Thursday. This means, that, before Thursday, I do not know the showtimes for planned Friday excursions. Clear?

I've added two theaters to the Theater Map Thing I have.

There's the Dunellan Theater and Cinema Cafe: I haven't been, but their special looks interesting... The Cinema Cafe Pizza Special - $22.75 includes 2 movies tickets (Adult, Child, or Senior), large pizza, pitcher of beer or soda which is also available for all showings; The Cinema Cafe has double spaced seating with tables, so you can enjoy your meal during the show.

There's also the AMC Aviation 12 which is right by the Linden Airport. It seems to have only just opened. Tremendously convenient to Harlock House and Strikeforce Moriarty, it looks like - on Rte 1/9 a little north of the Woodbridge Mall.

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix opens this weekend.

The Dunellen Theater page says they'll have it, and I have to assume the other major theaters will have it as well (see poll, below).

I found Spongebob fruit at the market yesterday.

I have to give them credit for hawking something better than the usual overprocessed garbage. They lose some points for the wasteful packaging, though. I had to take the picture just to document the oddness.

I'm not going to call off Monday's game

ellindsey says he can make it after all.

What theater would you like to see HP:OotP at?

All of the Coins in my Purse, Sorted

Look, Pennies:

Nickels:

Dimes:

Quarters:

Cerise, May 2007 issue

At its core, Cerise is a resource by and for women gamers. We are dedicated to increasing the voices of underrepresented identities in the game develop industries and in gamer communities.Cerise is a resource by and for women gamers. ... Cerise is a monthly publication released in the form on an online magazine that covers video games, tabletop games, and live action role-playing.

I'm thinking of writing up Attack of the Beautiful Princesses for this, or possible a catalog of my experiences running it at conventions.

Idealizing Fantasy Bodies

Sexual dimorphism in World of Warcraft avatars. An academic paper presented at Wiscon 31.

Inside Out

It's a bird... It's a dame... It's a woman in comics!

The Hathor Legacy

the search for good women characters

I originally thought all the daemons must be ocelots, but I put in a bunch on not-me answers and managed a shrew, so there are others. This is an extra fussy version of the meme where you all have ten days to vote on whether my answers were right before the daemon commits to its shape.

Hooray for complexity.

Pirates of the Caribbean
1 & 2
in 30 Seconds
(And Re-enacted by Bunnies)

Just, you know, in case any of you were interested.

I Don't Care What the Judge Said! by Joel Turtel
How Jury Nullification Can End the Sick War on Drugs

...I don't care what the judge said. I happen to know for a fact that a jury has the right to judge the law. Jury nullification has a long history in this country. A jury has the right to judge the law, not just the facts.

I find this most interesting in that it shows up on a website called "The Conservative Voice

Project Linus

Project Linus is a 100% volunteer non-profit organization with a two-fold mission.

• First, it is our mission to provide love, a sense of security, warmth and comfort to children who are seriously ill, traumatized, or otherwise in need through the gifts of new, handmade blankets and afghans, lovingly created by volunteer "blanketeers".
• Second, it is our mission to provide a rewarding and fun service opportunity for interested individuals and groups in local communities, for the benefit of children.

This seems like a really sweet project. The testimonials page is good for tear-jerking, too.

Jim Freund's Public Gallery » Fannish 70s

I don't remember precisely where/when I took these, but they appear to be from a couple of sf cons in the early-mid 70s -- Mostly from a Lunacon, an early Star Trek con, possubly a Fanoclasts meeting, and the last two at a cultish place calling itself The Foundation Church.

Come on, you have to enjoy photos of vintage geekery.

Watch Episodes of Drive Online

This isn't a questionable copyright thing. Fox is doing some sort of partnership with MySpace and is streaming some of its shows online.

This is cool for me, since I am not around Monday nights, and originally thought the premise sounded stupid anyway. I caught enough squee'ing at Television Without Pity that I decided to give it a shot. I caught up with the three episodes that already aired, and am hooked enough to keep following the show. It's funny; I also usually miss Heroes on Monday nights, and NBC streams Heroes episodes, too. Convenient. NBC's has between-chapter ads, and Fox's interface doesn't.

Excursion Map (I needed a header link)

The next movie expedition is likely to be Spiderman in two weeks. Still too early for details. I might be willing to see Hot Fuzz this weekend though.

We did a pretty successful excursion to The Dynasty for dim sum a while back. If we do something like that again, I was thinking of Makeda (Ethiopian | New Brunswick) or maybe The Melting Pot (fondue | Somerville). No hard plans. Just putting it out there.

ETA: Aha! I found the blog post that mentioned me.

I got a little email note the other day from J. Random Person on Upcoming.org saying "I found your stuff on Yahoo Underground. Very cool! Thanks for sharing."

*blink* Found what on the where now? I do an obsessive convention listing on upcoming, but I'd never heard of this Yahoo Underground thing.

So, um, Yahoo Underground, which appears to have launched on April Fools Day, but is not an April Fools joke. I looked around. Aha - there's a link to "Upcoming.org group, belonging to this thebradmiskell person, who popped up as a friend a while back and joined the Fandom Conventions group.

Well, that explains... that explains...

Yahoo is trying to sponsor a counterculture blog? Um, okay then.

On the plus-ish, side, there is this introductory video about Worldcon LA (Earth to Sci-Fi Fandom), which is amusing...

Google Maps just rolled out a new "My Maps" thingy that lets you annotate maps.

In the course of playing with the new toy, I worked up a map of theaters we hit for movie excursions. My place gets a dot thingy instead of a house icon, 'cause it's my map.

It kind of gives you an idea why aiskon and I sometimes complain a bit about so many of these movie nights winding up at the Regal Commerce Center (and why the resident of "Five Corners (of Doom)" complains when its anyplace else.) cptsarcasm does not have a sourcepoint, because he won't tell us where he lives. (Those of you who know the exact addresses of the sourcepoints will notice I moved them a bit, for, like, privacy reasons.)

The next movie I'm sufficiently interested in to trigger movie excursion will be Spiderman, on Friday the 4th of May. There are no screentimes available, yet, of course, so the actual logistics won't be worked out until a few days before. (Not feeling geeky enough? Apparently the City of New York and Columbia Pictures have decided that the week of April 30 through May 6 will be "Spider-Man Week In NYC. That has a map, too.")

When I got home yesterday, I had a package from my brother (the one in MI). In it was a quick note and a pair of unfingered gloves, knitted by my sister-in-law. Yay!

They look like this:

(These are fuzzy cameraphone pics, so I used the eentsy size - you can still see what they are...)

I have them at work now, as it's often cold at the office, but I can't type with gloves on. They work ok.

I Can Has Cheezburger?

Cat Macros.

If that will not suffice, there is always also cat_macros

HTML Tags illustrated

These photos are from the collection HTML jokes

Vintage Paperbacks & Digests

Book covers. I love pulp art.

Adobe Photoshop: Online Edition

Adobe plans to release a free, ad supported online version of Photoshop in six months.

Henry the Hand: Champion Handwasher

Suitable for posting at conventions.

Magenta Ain't A Colour

Apparently we've been imagining it the whole time.

10 Things Every Parent, Teenager Or Teacher Should Know About Marijuana

"Prohibition... goes beyond the bounds of reason in that it attempts to control a man's appetite by legislation and makes a crime out of things that are not crimes. A prohibition law strikes a blow at the very principles upon which our government was founded." -- Abraham Lincoln December, 1840

Steampunk Star Wars

I especially like Mr. Chewbacca's hat.

Cat Meets Laser Pointer

Hilarity ensues.

Doctor's Girls

Timeline of female companions. Scroll all the way over to the right - it's worth it.

Marvel's Civil War in 30 Seconds

Not renacted by bunnies though. Just illustrated.

About sums the whole thing up, though.

Some spoilers for CW #7.

New York Comic Con is this weekend

Online tickets seem to be sold out.

Don't know if I will, but persons of my acquaintance may be going.

I'm still keeping Fandom Conventions list going

Fear the power of my latent OCD!

In the course of updating, I found a new anime convention.

Tandokucon runs in Philly come November.

Still haven't seen Ghost Rider

'cause I was at KatsuCon last week.

grandbuddha did though, and kind of liked it.

ellindsey was kind of interested in doing an excursion.

If we do it tonight, that's kind of last minute though. Timing is totally up in the air.

I think Bridge to Terabithia was maybe on the table, too