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Thursday, May 15th, 2008
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11:16 am - Gay Marriage: Legal in California
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| Wednesday, May 7th, 2008
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11:58 am - Bush's Approval Rating
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| Tuesday, May 6th, 2008
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11:16 am - Little Brother
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Little Brother, by Cory Doctorow, is an amazing book.
Not only good and fun, but important in a way that whatever fun-but-meaningless sci-fi novel just isn't.
This is a book about life under surveillance. This is a book about the war on terror.
This is 1984, only set 15 minutes from now and in my backyard.
And it's a young adult novel.
It's a free download, available here. When I downloaded it, I found myself resenting the need to get up and use the bathroom, eat food, or sleep, because it meant I'd have to stop reading. It's that good.
current mood:  giddy
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(comment on this)
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| Saturday, May 3rd, 2008
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9:51 am - Speaking of Comics . . .
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| Friday, May 2nd, 2008
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6:19 pm - Storytelling Engines
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I just wanted to link here to Fraggmented, a blog primarily about the 'Storytelling Engines' of comic books, including a 3-part series on Spider Man, and many other popular heroes.
The author, John Seavey, explains just what a Storytelling Engine is here.
current mood:  tired
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(comment on this)
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1:47 pm - Barnaby In Exile
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I know I'm 2 years late to comment on it, but I'm listening to all of the Escape Pod/Pseudo Pod/Pod Castle back episodes, and I just listened to Escape Pod #73: Barnaby In Exile.
It made me blubber like a baby.
Holy crap. If you ever need to cry, this should do it.
current mood:  sad
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(3 comments | comment on this)
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| Thursday, April 24th, 2008
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11:22 pm - I just saw the most recent episode of Lost
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| Monday, April 21st, 2008
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9:49 am - For Ari
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8:37 am - My Dream
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Last night I had a dream that my buddy John came to me and our mutual friend Mike for advice after having sex with a woman named Tracy at a gaming convention and contracting a case of gonorrhea.
We told him about getting tested and taking antibiotics, and he calmed down a bit.
I was worried that his fiancee, Ashley, would be (understandably) upset, and asked if he'd told her yet. John explained that he told her, and that she was upset about the gonorrhea, but not the sex, since the 'Tracy' in question was Tracy Hickman, who co-wrote the Dragonlance series of novels, so it was understandable that John would have sex with her.
Except, as I realized on waking (and as those of you who checked the link know), Tracy Hickman isn't a woman. He's a guy. Also, Mormon.
Weird.
current mood: awake
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(comment on this)
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| Tuesday, April 15th, 2008
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10:12 pm - XKCD nails it.
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| Tuesday, April 8th, 2008
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9:46 am - If you like Harry Potter and Pirates . . . .
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Then you desperately need to go here and grab a free download of "Hey, it's Can(n)on," a song about the odd fact that Hermione Granger's birthday is September 19 . . . Talk Like A Pirate Day.
And, if you don't like either the Potter mythos or pirates, then you're dumb, so no worries!
current mood: awake
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(2 comments | comment on this)
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| Monday, April 7th, 2008
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6:43 pm - Last.fm
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Last.fm is amazingly cool.
Sign up, damn you!
I am 'Talespinner'.
Friend me.
current mood:  nerdy
current music: Razor Valentine - Thea Gilmore
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(13 comments | comment on this)
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| Thursday, April 3rd, 2008
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3:04 pm - Happy Birthday
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Happy Birthday to you,
Happy Birthday to you,
Happy Birthday, dear Ariiiiiiii,
Happy Birthday to you!
current mood:  energetic
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(comment on this)
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| Tuesday, April 1st, 2008
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8:41 am - Watchman Pix!
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Finally, we have some character pictures from the upcoming Watchmen film. Zack Snyder has decided to go kind of an unusual direction with these designs, and I think a lot of people will be upset, but I'm going to try to reserve judgment until I see the film.
current mood: geeky
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(4 comments | comment on this)
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| Thursday, March 20th, 2008
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4:27 pm - Comic Books Are Awesome
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So after a conversation with ![[info]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) jarysm about how he is too allowed to dislike Neil Gaiman (I took the is not position, since I believe Gaiman is easily the #2 person writing comic books within the last 20 years), I wanted to ask people: What's your favorite comic book, and why?
This could be one issue, one 'run' (frex: "issues 19-25 of Amaxing X-Men . . . you know, the ones where Wolverine cuts things with his claws and Phoenix dies"), or one trade paperback.
Mine is easily The Watchmen. I know, I know, it's not any sort of inspired, contrarian choice, it's just the first book I ever read that treated super-heroes like actual people with actual problems whose actions have actual consequences. Plus, in 12 issues, Alan Moore crammed in more symbolism, moral quandry, and humanity than almost any comic before or since.
Moore's real genius, of course, was that in making heroes people, he made the people heroes. That is: it costs Batman, Spiderman, Superman, or Wolverine just about nothing to go fight crime. Oh, sure, Spiderman occasionally has family problems and Batman's all angsty and fucked in the head, but in the end, they're larger-than-life figures on a larger-than-life stage. Their scale matches their problems. Thus, when they do big heroic stuff . . . ehh . . . it's no big deal. I mean, if you can punch the moon out of orbit, it's not really that cool when you save that falling plane, you know?
In The Watchmen, the characters are not (with one notable exception) larger than life, so when they put it all on the line to do the right thing, you know what they're risking, and it's the same thing you or I would be risking. Our family, our money, our homes, our lives.
Really, my only criticism of The Watchmen is what came after . . . a decade or more of bullshit grimmer-than-grim gritty-ass 'realistic' heroes who learned Moore's lesson about being a little messed up to want to go out at night and beat people up, but who utterly ignored his lesson about how sad that is.*
* See Also: Wolverine . . . or Lobo. Same thing, really.
current mood:  thoughtful
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(8 comments | comment on this)
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| Monday, March 17th, 2008
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7:55 pm - Oh Danny Boy!
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| Wednesday, March 5th, 2008
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6:31 pm - A Gentleman of Leisure
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As of today, dear friends, corporate restructuring at my erstwhile place of employment has rendered me temporarily at loose ends.
God DAMN it.
current mood:  melancholy
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(10 comments | comment on this)
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| Tuesday, March 4th, 2008
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1:00 pm - R.I.P. Gary Gygax
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Yep, E. Gary Gygax, the father of Dungeons and Dragons (and by extension, role-playing games in general) has passed away. It's a damn shame. So much of the fun I've had in my life is owed to this man.
More here and here.
current mood:  bummed
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(comment on this)
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| Monday, March 3rd, 2008
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8:21 pm - Yay!
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I am tipsy right now!
And we had a great game this weekend, which ended with scary cliffhangers for everyone!
And Jarys looked like porn!
Yay!
(I realize that this is neither 1. a substantive post about my life and the many trials and tribulations thereof, nor 2. an interesting examination of the many political issues endemic to our modern life, but hey, what the hell).
current mood:  tipsy
current music: Natalie Merchant - After the Gold Rush
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(6 comments | comment on this)
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| Wednesday, February 27th, 2008
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9:41 am - So long, Bill Buckley
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“The central question that emerges…is whether the White community in the South is entitled to take such measures as are necessary to prevail, politically and culturally, in areas where it does not predominate numerically? The sobering answer is Yes—the White community is so entitled because, for the time being, it is the advanced race.”
—William F. Buckley, National Review, August 24, 1957
Yeah, I feel pretty bad about his death.
PS. Wonkette gets in what is likely to be the very best headline on the topic: "Elegant, Witty Conservative Writer William F. Buckley Jr. Dies, Leaving No Intellectual Heirs". Snerk.
PPS. He also advocated the forcible tattooing of AIDS victims.
current mood:  busy
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(31 comments | comment on this)
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shocked
mischievous
full