Month: October 2008

You may notice a “What I’m Doing” feed from my Twitter account in the sidebar. I’m not sure I love how it looks, but I’ve also been thinking about giving the whole website a makeover. Anywho, you can follow my stray observations and the minutiae of my daily life in the sidebar, some of which I’m sure will wind up posted here in fuller form too, or you can follow me at Twitter.

I’m still treating it as an experiment, but I’ve enjoyed using it thus far.

• I’m really not sure how this works, but it supposedly turns any name into a face. Here’s mine.

• Fringe‘s science consultants don’t have a background in science. Yeah, it shows.
• Tor is offering Brian Francis Slattery’s terrific first novel Spaceman Blues as a free e-book.
• I think I’ve mentioned before how I use Facebook mainly as a Scrabble delivery system. (If you’re online, why not let’s play?) So I found this xkcd cartoon especially funny. But is it wrong that the first thing I thought of was Red Dwarf‘s Committee for the Liberation and Integration of Terrifying Organisms and their Rehabilitation Into Society?
• Speaking of xkcd — which seems like a prerequisite for any internet conversation nowadays — here’s creator Randall Munroe’s Cartoon-Off with The New Yorker. I don’t know about you, but I think he won pretty handily.
• So Pixish is closing. I got some really great artwork out of the one assignment I ran there for Kaleidotrope, but I appreciate the concerns over “spec work” — even if I think my assignment steered well clear of that. I agree that soliciting design from several artists for a specific product, which the artists will not be able sell elsewhere if it’s not accepted, is a pretty crummy thing to do. But I’m not convinced that “design contests,” in which artists submit work they think might be a good fit for a product or publication, are equally underhanded. After all, it’s not considered spec work when a writer submits to a contest, loses, and doesn’t get paid.
• It’s not entirely surprising that the architect of the most virulent Obama smears is sort of a scumbag. It’s just sort of amazing how big of one he is.
• This paperback book lounger looks really cool, but also fairly uncomfortable.
• Neil Patrick Harris read for the part of Simon Tam on Firefly?
• Criminal Minds is “an Arthurian romance and a meditation on the existence and evolution of God”? Wow, That almost makes me want to watch it!
• H.P. Lovecraft: stand-up-comedian? Well, not quite.

John Hodgman on his Daily Show appearances:

The New York Times on the Olsen twins:

Skinny girls with blank expressions and seemingly little inclination to speak have fascinated American culture for so long that their proliferation now, in magazines like Us Weekly and In Touch and shows like “The Hills,” seems less a modern scourge than a historic inevitability.

Last week. This week:

1. “Drowning Man” by U2, guessed by Eric B.
   I’ll cross the sky for your love
2. “Carry That Weight” by the Beatles, guessed by Eric B.
   I only send you my invitation
3. “Flaming Pie” by Paul McCartney, guessed by Eric B.
   Everything I do has a simple explanation
4. “She’s Got You” by Jimmy Buffett (orig. Patsy Cline), guessed by Eric B.
   I’ve got your memory, or has it got me?
5. “Somebody to Love” by Jefferson Airplane, guessed by Eric B.
   But in your head, baby, I’m afraid you don’t know where it is
6. “What’s Really Happening” by David Bowie
   Were we built to last?
7. “Go Speed Racer Go” by Sponge, guessed by Eric B.
   He’s gainin’ on you so you better look alive
8. “Georgia” by Ray Charles, guessed by Eric B.
   Other eyes smile tenderly
9. “Trying to Pull Myself Away” by Glen Hansard
   And the rule of thumb don’t apply anymore
10. “Oxford Comma” by Vampire Weekend
    Why would you lie about something dumb like that?

Same as it ever was. Good luck!