Bloggity-Blog-Blog-Blog Archive 18 Sep 2005 to 24 Sep 2005

Bloggity-Blog-Blog-Blog Archive
Laura "Tegan" Gjovaag

Saturday, September 24, 2005

Review Copy Review - Dorothy IV

Dorothy of Oz IV: "The Fool": Whoa. Just, whoa. I know what I expect from an Oz comic book, even a "dark" comic like this... but whoa. This was not at all what I was expecting. I mean... I was certain it would be intense, and it was. And I was certain it would be fascinating, and oh it was. But this... Whoa. Um... Wow.

Where to start... This issue was incredible. I'm going to have to go back and reread the first three, but this one just took Oz in an entirely different direction than I've ever seen it go before. I think the trade, which as I understand it will end on this issue, will make for very very interesting reading for Oz fans who don't mind re-interpretations of Oz.

In this issue we learn a bit more about the history of the Scarecrow. And this is not the gentle Scarecrow of Baum's tales. At least, his history isn't gentle. He tells Dorothy a story that his maker told to him, apparently not realizing it's his own. And it's brutal and intense and made all the more interesting by the fact that Dorothy is asking only to distract herself from the pain of the injury she sustained in the last issue.

The Scarecrow's malapropisms and made-up words worked nicely in his telling of the story. I liked the way the art blended and seemed a bit less polished and detailed in some parts of the Scarecrows story, while other parts were vividly remembered, like memories that stuck or faded. The only bit that confused me was the part with "Malo", who didn't seem to fit visually into the scene he was in. I think his outfit just didn't fit the "time", which is an odd thing to say considering the weapon he was packing and the enemy he was fighting.

From the first issue, this comic has been consistently good and different. But this issue just cranked it all up a notch, and I'm really eager to see what happens next. I'm really enjoying this version of Oz.

Wiki. NOTE: This comic book is not for children or folks who have a very narrow definition of what Oz ought to be. For everyone else, this is Recommended.

-by Tegan at 11:24 PM Seattle time - Permalink

Random Thoughts (no comics content)

Johnny B's Fearless Pigskin Prognostications. He's 1-1 on Seattle games, so we'll see how he does this week...

Huh. A list of the Top 50 Sci-Fi shows, and Doctor Who is only at number 8?!??? *sigh* Via SlashDot.

If Pirates Ruled The World. I like Arrrrrby's. Via Boing Boing.

Mentos + Soda = EXPLOSION!

YES! Eleven parents of students at a Pennsylvania high school are suing over the school district's decision to include "intelligent design" in the curriculum of ninth-grade biology classes. ID is NOT science and it belongs in CHURCH and NOT in schools (and if you absolutely must teach it in school, it belongs in philosophy class, and not in science class).

I knew it. Guys don't wash their hands. Ug.

Biodiesel cars run on coconuts.

The New York Times has an article on busing for economic integration in Raleigh, NC. This one hit some sore spots with me, as a victim of busing for racial integration when I was in 7th and 8th grades. Seeing the results of the busing, however, made me think hard about what I went through. It still wasn't worth it.

Katrina by the numbers.

How to do triage... what it is and what you need to know if you end up as a first responder.

How bloggers can protect themselves when in areas where they risk being censored.

Billmon explains why he's now in favor of pulling out of Iraq immediately instead of a slow withdrawal. I'm frightened by his reasons, but I cannot fault them.

-by Tegan at 6:14 PM Seattle time - Permalink

Rapid Reviews - 21 September 2005 - Part II

Green Lantern Corps: Recharge #1: "The Gathering": I figured out what was really bothering me about this issue after doing a search for a bio of Guy Gardner. Guy loudly proclaims in this issue that "I'm not a teacher." Except... he is. Was. He was a PE teacher during the time he was a GL. So it just didn't ring true. Training new GLs would be right up Guy's alley. Anyway, despite that off-note, this book was pretty good. I liked the concept and thought it was mostly well-played out. The set-up for future issues was well done, with enough to pull the reader in but not really enough to give it away. The artwork is typical Pat Gleason... which means that it might take some getting used to for some readers. I'm not sure I like his Guardians, but the rest was good. Overall, a pretty solid first issue. Wiki.

Birds of Prey #86: "A Wakeful Time": Three short stories, the first a confusing swirl of the Birds moving into their new digs, the second a hilarious Black Canary adventure, and the third a more serious tale of Helena. I liked each story in different ways, although the first one was hard for me to enjoy in some ways because I just couldn't tell a couple of the characters apart. And I could not for the life of me remember who Renee is (another one for the Wiki?). The second story was silly almost beyond the acceptable levels of silliness, but it worked anyway. The third story was close to my heart thanks to Helena's work as a teacher, and I enjoyed it as Helena learns that beating people up in costume doesn't always solve problems. Overall, a nicely solid issue, if a bit crazy. Wiki.

JSA: Classified #3: "Power Trip Part III of IV": One of my least favorites characters joins with Powergirl in this issue... or rather, Powergirl seeks her out to get some help sorting herself out. Of interest is that Huntress actually experiences the "hallucination" that Powergirl has been dealing with. And the other is that we see more of Psycho-Pirate, and get a major hint as to why he's tormenting her. The artwork is still goofy for the subject matter, but it works well enough. All-in-all, not bad. Wiki.

-by Tegan at 4:39 PM Seattle time - Permalink

Friday, September 23, 2005

Wikimania IV: Attack of the Words

Still working on the Comic Series Wiki. I will point out that David Carter of Yet Another Comics Blog has put in a ton of time and effort and made the Wiki improve on a daily basis. We've also been joined by Nev the Deranged, who really likes Gold Digger. Silentnietzsche and Tangognat have also contributed a lot.

I challenge all you comic book fans to pick out two or three books you love and to take a look at the Wiki for those titles. If there isn't one, make one. If there is one, make sure it's up-to-date and come back and visit it on a regular basis to keep it that way. Editing Wikis is easy, and the only way this thing will become really useful is if people contribute.

I've started to write one paragraph summaries of each issue as I finish reviewing them, so I'll have something to post when the next issue comes out. And I've been adding books as I get them into my hands, as well. But I can only do the books I own...

-by Tegan at 8:45 PM Seattle time - Permalink

Various Thoughts

Still dealing with the Crud. It took all day to get my brain in gear enough to try to post these. I hope I didn't make any major mistakes in the linkage...

Jeff Parker directs us all to The Patcave for some rather intense DragonCon 2005 images. Some folks really shouldn't wear spandex.

From Boing Boing: "I took exactly one comic from my house." Before and after pictures of Katrina's devastation.

Ramblin' with Roger goes into greater detail with hurricane names.

The Howling Curmudgeons ask what superhero could stop a hurricane? No, Aquaman couldn't. Tempest might be able to, but not Aquaman.

The Comic Treadmill provides an incredible review of Aquaman #1 and #2 from 1962. Excellent review in just about every respect.

The Absorbacon doesn't like Peter David's Aquaman. We'll just have to agree to disagree on this one.

People trying to work out what Infinite Crisis is think Aquaman will be replaced. Whatever.

Is Alias comic goin' down? The Beat has a report that makes me wonder just what state they are in. Guess we'll have to wait and see.

The British Library has put up An original Alice Manuscript. This one is for hubby-Eric. Shockwave is required to access the book, and a high-speed connection is recommended.

London Cops Mug Blogger. Because he looked suspicious. At least they didn't shoot him in the head.

Teaching kids to be environment friendly.

Blogs about kids books from TangognaT.

It would be bad enough to be stationed in New Orleans as part of the clean-up, but then to start feeling haunted. Why is it the people who really deserve to be haunted aren't, while the folks who are working hard and trying to save lives end up with all the mental anguish?

Blogging about blogging is boring, but this is important enough to pass along.

-by Tegan at 4:30 PM Seattle time - Permalink

Hurricane News

Got news from my friends who live in the hurricane zone. Although they live 90 miles from the coast, they decided not to risk being without power in a tornado zone for days, especially since Maurine is pregnant. It took them 11 hours to reach San Antonio, usually a 3-3.5 hour drive. They went via backroads and think that if they'd taken the major highways they would still be on the road. They even managed to find gasoline in Shiro, TX, and only had to wait for about 20 minutes to get it. I'll let Andy tell you the rest:

Anyway, we're in the clear and now waiting it out before deciding when to head back. The new track for the hurricane is mixed news for us. The fact that it tracked east means we're on the "clean side" of the storm which is a real blessing for Galveston and the Houston shipping channel. Where our house is we should still get hurricane force winds (at least on the latest track I saw), which isn't good, but it shouldn't last for as long. That being said, the new prediction that it could sit for a couple days and we could get 10 - 20"+ of rain in the next few days may actually be worse news for downtown and the suburbs.

Not much else to say. I've been horrified by the news (evacuation bus burning, levies in NOLA breached again), but I'm glad my friends made it out. I'm worried for all the people who can't get out, but glad that the government is taking this one seriously this time. With half a day left before landfall, I hope the folks that can get out are out, and that everyone else will be safe. Not much else to say. If you are still in the hurricane zone: Good luck and God bless.

-by Tegan at 10:16 AM Seattle time - Permalink

Thursday, September 22, 2005

Hurricane Thoughts

I've learned more about hurricanes in the last few weeks than I even expected to know, living in the Pacific Northwest. I've learned that hurricanes go through phases of weakening and strengthening, and that sometimes predictions about a hurricane's strength are useless because of those phases. I've learned what atmospheric pressure means in relation to the strength of a hurricane. And I've learned that some people actually believe that the Yakuza has a weather control device.

But mostly I've learned that it's impossible to get everyone away. I'm stunned by the fact that thousands of people in Houston simply cannot get out, as seen in this story. Some who have the means just can't get out because of the traffic. Nobody wants to be caught out in the storm in just their car or on foot, so they are actually turning back since the traffic isn't moving at all. After Katrina, everyone is taking Rita seriously, but even when they want to get away, they can't.

To anyone in the hurricane's path: Good luck and God bless. Stay strong. We're thinking of you.

-by Tegan at 10:06 PM Seattle time - Permalink

Rapid Reviews - 21 September 2005 - Part I

Thanks to this Crud I have, my reading comprehension has dropped noticably and my ability to get through even a simple comic book has been hampered. I tried several times today to start reading my comics, and so far I've only managed to get through two of them. If my reading is this slow, I'm not sure how slow my reviewing will be...

Seven Soldiers: Mister Miracle #1: "New Godz": I ordered this before I decided to drop Seven Soldiers, but I wish I hadn't bothered. I've never been a fan of the whole New Gods thing, and this is just a lot of that. There are some nice twists, as is usual with Morrison, but it's still not very appealing to me. Wiki.

Day of Vengeance #6: "Chapter Six: The Death of Magic": This is not how I expected this mini to end. I guess I supposed that it would be a case of the Spectre defeated, or the Spectre winning... but this... is a little different. I finally understand Shazam's role in this. He's the one who explains to the readers what is really happening. And I particularly liked the solution to the Eclipso problem. Definitely better than I expected. Wiki.

-by Tegan at 9:33 PM Seattle time - Permalink

Banned Books Week

ALA Banned Books Week is coming, September 24-October 1 this year. If you are a librarian or want to support the fight against censorship, you can order BBW kits from the ALA. New for this year is a banned books bracelet. The posters for this year feature a lot of quotes, so I'm going to reproduce a few of them from each poster for your edification.

From the Adult Poster:

"Censorship is telling a man he can't have a steak just because a baby can't chew it" - Mark Twain

"Censorship, like charity, should begin at home, but unlike charity, it should end there." - Clare Boothe Luce

From the Young Adult Poster:

"Censorship is crippling, negating, stifling. It should be unthinkable in a country like ours." - Norma Fox Mazer

"If [the] book be false in its facts, disprove them; if false in its reasoning, refute it. But, for God's sake, let us freely hear both sides, if we choose." - Thomas Jefferson

From the Children's Poster:

"If she could have done one thing to make absolutely sure that every single person in this school will read your interview, it was banning it!" - Hermione to Harry in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix by J.K. Rowling

"All the secrets of the world are contained in books. Read at your own risk." - Lemony Snicket

For some more information, including some lists of banned books, go here. I try to read one banned book every year for BBW, and last year I read I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou. I haven't yet decided which one I will read this year, but I'm probably not going to get to it during BBW.

-by Tegan at 11:20 AM Seattle time - Permalink

Wednesday, September 21, 2005

Thoughts

I have a crud, which I apparently caught from Eric (who came down with it on Monday). It spoiled our plans for the evening. And now I want to put a linkblog together, but I'm having a lot of trouble concentrating, so this may not make any sense.

Chris Brown likes Full Moon Fever, and points out that: "It's a book that by the time you finish, you want to talk to someone about it."

Johnny B does another movie stills "quiz". There's no Oz still in this one, unlike his last one.

Mike Sterling on Lex Luthor.

Shane Bailey finds a comic book question on the LSAT.

The Comic Treadmill reviews Dorothy IV.

Chris Reviews... including JLA.

Trash Heap blogs about Steve Jobs, The Buffyverse, and his brother being booted from Australia.

The only thing more boring than blogs are blogs about blogging.

MetaFilter on the Aquatic Ape Theory, which has a very very tiny relationship to Aquaman in my mind. It's an interesting hypothesis, but doesn't have any real facts to back it up.

100 Greatest Mathematical Theorems.

Are you in stiches?

Hurricane Rita is stronger than Katrina. My friends Andy and Maurine have already evacuated with their son from an area in Texas near enough to be in danger.

In case you wanted a list, here are the names for storms. I notice that "Laura" is in there... I suspect Katrina will be retired soon.

Boing Boing Links:

Logo Ripoffs
Authors Guild vs Google Print
Free Culture UK, an attempt to make copyrights reasonable again
More on Authors Guild vs Google Print
Cops harrass journalist

Slashdot Links:

Museum of Hoaxes Links:

Lincoln Death Photo (real)
Guys aim better if there's a fake fly (real)

-by Tegan at 10:40 PM Seattle time - Permalink

Rapid Review - On American Soil

On American Soil: How Justice Became A Casualty Of World War II by Jack Hamann. I can't remember where I got the recommendation to read this book (probably The Daily Show), but I put it on hold at the library immediately and it took awhile to get to me. Once I got into it, I was pulled into a history that I recognized... but from an entirely different point of view. This book took me into a different Seattle of WWII than I'd read about before, and was eye-opening in many more ways than one.

The book starts out as a historical detective story, as Hamann explains how he got interested in the story and how he researched it... and how he learned that most of his previous conclusions were completely wrong. Then Hamann sets the scene for the reader, giving a lot of background information about the times and the people involved in the drama. If I have any complaint, it's that there are too many main characters... but this is real life and Hamann made the choice to tell as much of the truth as he could.

The setting... a coldly racist military and a surprisingly racist Seattle, is hard for me to accept. And yet, I've seen the same attitudes around me all my life, if considerably muted thanks to progress. Knowing that this shameful piece of history happened in my hometown gave me a deep feeling of disgrace. Despite that, I have to thank Hamann for exposing it. The truth is good, even when it hurts like this book does.

After setting the background, he shows us what happened that night, August 14, 1944, when a riot at Fort Lawton resulted in one death and the biggest court martial of the war. Hamann sticks to the facts, he makes it clear throughout that there was so much confusion that night that proving any one person guilty of being involved should have been next to impossible. The storytelling through this section is plain and simple, but gives the reader plenty of information.

Next we get the army's classified investigation into the incident, which came far closer to what might be the truth than the upcoming court martial. This was my favorite section of the book, as Brigadier General Elliot Cooke makes for a good lead, and peering into the past through Hamann's eyes it's hard to not wish that he'd been in charge of the impending court martial against the black soldiers.

The book turns into a courtroom drama next, and that's how it finishes, with a completely unsatisfying verdict (hey, you wanted a happy ending, find a book with a different title!) that should make the modern reader growl in shame and anger. I suppose it's lucky that none of the men found guilty served out their full time, though the story of Luther Larkin is nearly enough to make you cry, as Fate simply wouldn't let the man have a good life.

Hamann does not claim to know who was guilty of the murder of the Italian POW, but he makes it clear who he thinks is guilty, as the man in question had the motive, the means, and the attitude for it. Hamann finishes the book by bringing us up to date on the fates of all the men involved in the trial. I just wish there was more of a sense of closing, as almost none of the men accused of rioting and murder truly got justice in the end, not the guilty and certainly not the innocent.

This book was an excellent read, and a compelling part of history that should not be forgotten. I recommend it to anyone with an interest in history, racism in the military, or WWII Italian prisoners of war.

-by Tegan at 12:22 PM Seattle time - Permalink

Rapid Reviews - 14 September 2005 - Part II

JLA #118: "Crisis of Conscience Part Four": Oh come on. What do you expect me to say? I mean, I'm the biggest Aquaman fan around who blogs... obviously I enjoyed the first half of the story. The second half... well, there was a really good line. But that's about it. I love the return of the gloves. I think it's perfect. After all, Aquaman is busy in Sub Diego with reconstruction efforts, why wouldn't he wear gloves? I just have a bit of an issue with Despero taking out both J'onn and Arthur. Seems unlikely to me... but oh well, if it serves the story... *sigh* Wiki.

JSA #77: "Mixed Signals": Airwave is gonna die, isn't he? The only reason to bring an old minor hero back nowadays is to kill him off. Well, other than that, this was a nicely solid set-up issue. Unfortunately, it doesn't really seem to be setting up anything for the JSA title, just for a bunch of crossover madness. And while the cover indicates that it's a "Day of Vengeance" tie-in, most of the issue seems to tie-in more closely with Rann-Thanagar War and The Return of Donna Troy. Wiki.

Rann/Thanagar War #5: "Betrayed": A bunch of things happened. Characters died. The readers yawned. Only one more issue. Good thing, too. Wiki.

-by Tegan at 10:52 AM Seattle time - Permalink

Tuesday, September 20, 2005

Thoughts, Thoughts, Thoughts...

Comic Books in the comics:

Beetle Bailey
Baldo (started Monday)

Brill Building gives us an Adam West post. Is it true that the Solo cover has been changed? Very odd...

I think that Local was probably sent to every single comic book blogger who has an audience of more than just their mom. Good thing it's a great book, as well.

Local #2 will be solicited in the next Previews mag, so there's plenty of time to still get your hands on the first issue and be in on this one from the start.

More on 52*, this time about giving a break to retailers. I'm still waiting to hear how much it costs before I decide if I'm willing to even consider buying it.

Non-Comics Stuff:

How To Write Sensible E-Mail.

To The Moon! NASA has some plans, and they don't look all that bad.

The World of Warcraft gaming system introduced a plague, but it turned out to be much more contagious and deadly than the programmers had intended, and killed off tons of low-lever players. The Video of gamers spreading the disease is very... compelling. It's a geek plague.

Bobby Henderson, creator of FSM, is interviewed by Gelf Magazine. Choice quotes:
"That is sort of the whole deal with religion�you make an a priori assumption and then challenge people to disprove you. If that's a legit strategy in mainstream religion, and increasingly in the science classroom, then it's legit for FSMism as well."
and
"I think FSM does a better job of explaining what would motivate the creator to go to so much trouble to change our scientific results in order to make the universe appear older than it truly is. Tampering with our radioisotope measurements, geographic observations and, perhaps most impressive, placing individual photons enroute to earth, suitably redshifted, in an effort to mislead us is not only an act of an intelligent maker, but also an anarchistic, mischevious one."

Challenging Medical Wisdom with Experimentation.

The death of Bananas. Again. And Snopes weighs in.

Visiting Jesusland. A trip through the rotting remains of Jim Bakker's theme park.

Terrible story of race and lies. Via MeFi.

More Katrina stories. And still more.

Slashdot notes the Diebold insider who has spoken out. Again, any election using Diebold voting machines cannot be considered valid.

Alaska is in DESPERATE need of two bridges that will serve less than 100 people altogether. At least, that's the situation according to Republican Rep Don Young who absolutely refuses to consider the possibility that the HALF BILLION DOLLARS earmarked for his pork projects might be better spent helping rebuild New Orleans. That's all you need to know about "compassionate" conservatives, right there.

One phone call. Bush wouldn't even have had to interrupt his vacation. Just one phone call and the 1st Cav and 82nd Airborne could have moved in and helped NOLA. When they finally got the orders, they were there in 8 hours. But they had to wait for the "leadership" to get off its collective butt first. One phone call, and Bush could have saved hundreds of lives. But he couldn't even be bothered to do that much. And you wonder why people despise him?

-by Tegan at 9:36 AM Seattle time - Permalink

Monday, September 19, 2005

Hey, I Can Blog About Comics

Keith Giffen on 52* at Newsarama. Count me as one of the skeptical ones. But worse, even if the book is good, we just don't have the money to buy a weekly comic book if the price is the usual for a comic. Adding four or five comics to our monthly bill, just for this event, would probably break the bank.

Speaking of breaking the bank, Mark Evanier has a blog entry about comics as loss-leader. It's really depressing to think that mainstream American comic books can't turn a profit, especially when you look at Manga and some of the indies that must be profitable.

I think that Phil and Kaja Foglio are on to something, as Girl Genius clearly must make money... and see my earlier thoughts entry on my wish to see other books in the Girl Genius format of three new pages a week. Heck, I would love to see some superhero books like that, with collections every few months...

And I'm still really excited that GirlAMatic will soon have a "webcomic" by Rachel Hartman. I hope this will lead to her bringing back Amy Unbounded. She left the last issue on a cliffhanger. At least she can talk like a pirate. Arrr!

Johnny B has a good blog about Brian Clopper's Far-Fetchers: Opening Salvo. Go check it out.

David Hahn is posting sketches on his blog.

Comics Should Be Good tackles DC Solicits by the covers. I like this approach.

However, Kevin Melrose notes in the comments of my last post that the Aquaman cover has THE WRONG HAND as the mystic water hand.

It's Aquaman's left hand, not his right. It's a little difficult to tell if you just glance at the image, but it's definitely wrong. Unless something happens in the next couple of issues to switch him around... I wonder if it will be fixed before the book comes out, and if so, whether it will be recolored or mirrored?

I continue to have fun with Google Print and Aquaman, including learning that Kurt Cobain drew Aquaman as a child (Heavier than Heaven: A Biography of Kurt Cobain), there was a Cartoon Network ad with Aquaman trying to talk to a dead fish in a supermarket (The One Show Annual: Volume 24), and surfers know about Aquaman (Staying on Top and Keeping the Sand Out of Your Pants: A Surfer's Guide to the Good Life (look at the illustrator)).

And lastly, real-life speech balloons.

-by Tegan at 9:46 PM Seattle time - Permalink

DC Solicits for December

Ooops! I almost let the new DC solicits get by me today! It's all because I was caught up reading a book I got from the library, which is turning out to be really interesting (I'm less than halfway in, but I can recommend it to anyone who likes history and detective work), and thus distracted me from the all-important checking of the new solicits.

You can get most of the solicits here at DC Comics' site. You can also find them at Comic Book Resources, Newsarama, and Comixfan.

I'm sure you all want to hear what I think of the latest Aquaman solicit.

Well, let me think...

Not much. It's part of the annoying DC-wide crossover. That alone is enough to irritate me. I guess I'm glad that the Spectre is finally noticing Atlantis, but I kind of wish all that had happened in the mini-series instead of splashing all over the Aquaman title. I'll just have to wait and see if its any good, since my opinions on Arcudi's run are slowly changing.

However, Tales to Mildly Astonish has THE best response to the Aquaman solicit.

As for the rest of DC... I'm not interested in the All-Star stuff. Nice to see that the arc in Detective is finally ending. True Brit is coming out in softcover. Justice #3 just looks good. JLA: Classified gets its own mini-series. I don't know about that. DC making us buy more books, grrr. Solo this time is Teddy Kristiansen, with a Deadman story by Neil Gaiman. Justice League Unlimited is a Christmas special. Second issue of DMZ. DC Direct has Silver Age Superman stuff, including Beppo. There's also some odd Mystery Box set of figures that appear to be annoying if you only want one figure. Good thing there's no Aquaman merchandise this month.

-by Tegan at 7:03 PM Seattle time - Permalink

Shiver me Timbers and Blow the Blog Down

Today is the last day of Holy Pasta Week!

Sep 15-19 is "Holy Pasta Week"

FilkerTom has the song for Talk Like A Pirate Day. And Speed Bump is pirate-related today, too. As is Savage Chickens. Dave has a pirate joke. Polite Scott has a rundown of pirate comic books. Boing Boing walks the plank. Arr. Ramen.

Polite Scott has continued to build up his Comic Book Drug Reference, but I think he's missing at least one Atlantean drug...

One of my favorite comic strips mentions Aquaman, sort of.

Neat promo for Local #1.

Websnark talks about Girl Genius and the incredible success the Foglios have had moving from print to webcomic. Imagine, just for a moment, if some other great comic books moved to the web like Girl Genius has... consistent updates, three pages a week, of your favorite comic books with collections to buy every year. Just imagine how cool that would be.

Hubby-Eric and I had some fun with Google Print by putting in search terms like our last name. I found one book that showed up under both my name and when I searched for "Aquaman", but it wouldn't show me the page that my name was on! Argh!

I forgot to post Johnny B's Fearless Pigskin Prognosications. He was wrong about Seattle this week... barely.

Space Elevator Gets FAA Clearance. Sort of.

Two more Named Storms are out in the Atlantic. Hurricane Philippe and tropical storm Rita. The National Hurricane Center is running out of names.

Millions, perhaps even billions, of dollars have been stolen in Iraq. Money earmarked to rebuild the country. Lovely. Is there anyone in charge over there? Did we ever have any real plan beyond "They will welcome us with flowers in the streets and everyone will live happily ever after"???!?

If you thought the results of the last election were fishy, you aren't alone. As long as Diebold, a completely partisan company that promised to deliver votes to Shrubya, makes voting machines, no election that uses those machines can be considered valid.

-by Tegan at 9:03 AM Seattle time - Permalink

Sunday, September 18, 2005

Arr! Avast ye Pastafarians! Arrr!!!!

Today is the fourth and penultimate day of Holy Pasta Week!

Sep 15-19 is "Holy Pasta Week"

Tomorrow is Talk Like A Pirate Day. And check out this great Evolution FAQ while you are munching on pasta today. Arr. Ramen.

The latest chapter of The Spriggan Mirror has been posted. It's up to 23 chapters out of 28 chapters for the first draft. You can still contribute if you want to support this new mode of publishing.

Google Earth helps a guy discover a Roman ruin in his own backyard. Cool! I wish I had a backyard big enough to hide an ancient ruin in!

Annotated WWII aerial photos, compared with aerial photos from today.

This sounds too good to be true. And, if the folks on MetaFilter are right, it is too good to be true. See also Slashdot and the discussion there.

Profiles of RIAA victims who fought back.

There's a Hunger Strike at Gitmo. It's been going on for weeks. Have you heard about it? Perhaps if the government would actually charge the prisoners with a real crime and allow them to have a trial, instead of just holding them with no hope, the prisoners wouldn't try desperate methods to get the attention of the public.

Collective Sigh on why the blame game is necessary. See also Mark Evanier's recommended reading today.

I voted in the primary today. Mail-in ballot. As has been my practice since the stupid political parties ruined the open primary, I didn't vote in the partisan races. I still think the parties should reimburse the state for the extra money it takes to print out their races on the ballot. Government should be for and by the people, not the parties, and if parties only want party members voting in their primaries they should hold and pay for their own little private elections and not put the burden on the average voter.

-by Tegan at 5:18 PM Seattle time - Permalink

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