• The Never-Ending Bloga

    Avatar Adventures

    Originally found at Learning Moveable Type, revisited via ***DDtB: Portrait Illustration Maker – Let’s make an original icon!! I actually find this “self-image” slightly disturbing, so I added the headset and optional cat to make it less so. It must be the “uncanny valley” thing people were talking about when comparing photo-realist “The Polar Express” to shiny-fantastic “The Incredibles.” As previously mentioned around here somewhere, it’s possible to set a gravatar that shows up when you comment on blogs that have enabled this feature. Choosing the “face” shown on the Internets is tricky – should one go with reality, or…

  • Politics, Schmolitics

    Draft Dean

    WASHINGTON — Liberal powerhouse MoveOn has a message for the “professional election losers” who run the Democratic Party: “We bought it, we own it, we’re going to take it back.” A scathing e-mail from the head of MoveOn’s political action committee to the group’s supporters yesterday targets outgoing Democratic National Committee chairman Terry McAuliffe as a tool of corporate donors who alienated both traditional and progressive Democrats. “For years, the party has been led by elite Washington insiders who are closer to corporate lobbyists than they are to the Democratic base,” said the e-mail from MoveOn PAC’s Eli Pariser. “But…

  • Clan: McTiVo

    The Memory of Shadows

    my husband David says he didn’t know about this: Production Weekly reported that a feature film set in J. Michael Straczynski’s Babylon 5 universe will begin production in April in the United Kingdom. Straczynski wrote the film, The Memory of Shadows, which will be directed by Steven Beck (Ghost Ship), the publication reported. But I remember hearing about this because I posted about it back in February, when the project was mysteriously known as “B5:TMoS” and a list of likely and unlikely titles was bandied about. My favorite is still “The Memory of Spoo,” so I’m quite disappointed. And now…

  • Good and Joyful Things

    NZ: Very Civil Union Law

    BBC NEWS | Asia-Pacific | NZ recognises same-sex unions Short, simple, and to the point. How refreshing, eh? However, not without controversy. The radical religious fringe chose to send “gifts” to a couple of MPs: a jar of poop and a castration kit. That’s living your faith.

  • Hot Off The Presses

    Why

    “Why do we soldiers have to dig through local landfills for pieces of scrap metal and compromised ballistic glass to uparmour our vehicles?” Army Spc Thomas Wilson asked. Why, indeed? Good for you, Army Spc Wilson.

  • Clan: McTiVo

    It’s Go Time

    The four lead teams start off with a colossal blunder in which they learn the lesson that you never know the operating hours until you look at them. Fortunately (because some of them are teams I like), they hit the airport bunch, at which point we’re off to Dakar, where things look a little different than they do in Scandinavia. Kendra adjusts not-so-nicely to her surroundings, while Kris and Jon, predictably, think it’s kind of cool. The Detour offers a choice between catching fish and arranging fish, and for some reason, Gus and Hera and Don and MJ conclude that…

  • Moblog

    Smaller Scale Xmess

    The Big House O’ Inflatables is slowly ramping up the holiday spirit – it’s hard to tell here but there are “only 6” inflatables thus far. The trend in the neighborhood (oy, an inflatables trend) this year is for bigger, multiple-unit tableaux (such as Santa/sleigh/Rudolph or a snowperson family unit). Also, the BHOI is using lower-wattage bulbs than they have in the past, so there’s not as much light (thus cutting down on the garishness factor). Mornings in Burbclavia are very tawdry – all the white-plastic deer and spiral Xmess trees look cheap and nasty, and the inflatables get turned…

  • Clan: McTiVo

    Amazing Race/Blog Abroad

    StudyAbroad.com Launches World’s First Online Interactive Reality Show Here we go. It’s billed as a mixture of Amazing Race and blogging – 3 college students are actually studying abroad, but they are given tasks to complete and they blog about their experiences. The blogging software is Mindsay.com‘s, which as it happens I’ve used off and on. Currently, half of the Gus Overshaw whale-killing journal crew have blogs there, since it’s a little more fun and interactive than Tripod, Gus’ main provider. Also, you have to log in to read Mindsay blogs, and you can set your posts to be read…

  • SABRE2th Tigress: Book 'em, Dano.

    7 Habits of Highly Annoying People

    It’s the time of year when sales reps for various travel vendors bring treats and meals in, and the time of year when some people start to trot out their holiday decorations, and the time of year when people are selling crap for fundraisers. For example, right now we have one of the most annoying types of salespeople evarrrr in our break room. In order to pump up enthusiasm for his hotels’ breakfast-pizza-and-sales peptalk, he bellows “welcome to the break room! yeah!” and claps his hands enthusiastically EVERY TIME SOMEONE WALKS IN. Also, they’ve got a boom box playing bad…