Words for the wise from the mouth of a fool.
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The weblog of Seth Johnson -------------- INKSLINGER.ORG -------------- OD ARCHIVES -------------- FEEDS Posts:  Shared Items:
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Friday, August 29, 2003
Jess Nevins and company are at it again, this time providing annotations for Neil Gaiman's 1602. Join the fun in progress--one issue down, seven to go.
UPDATE: After reading the 1602 annotations, I've (again!) spent the night browsing various online annotations and notes. If I might indulge my geekery for a moment, allow me to reprint a section of this page (non-comics fans can probably bow out, if they haven't already; I'll probably lose all but the hardest-core DC fans here):
Justice League #1, May '87
Justice League #1 was the first post-Crisis Justice League, as its membership included Doctor Fate of Earth-2, Captain Marvel of Earth-S, Blue Beetle of Earth-4, the Monitor's creation Doctor Light II, Guy Gardner (who finally got his ring for real during the Crisis), Mister Miracle and Oberon of Kirby's Fourth World (which had never been considered a source for League members before), and former JLA members Martian Manhunter, Black Canary, and Batman. A scant three issues later Booster Gold, the first post-Crisis superhero, was added to the team.
Wow. I have to admit that I had never considered the multi-(Pre-Crisis)-universal makeup of the (then) new Justice League. Interesting.
"It's only when three or four letters are set together that one can start to compare them: `Look, your h is too big alongside the o. Or, `it's too thin' or `it's falling over.' A letter only has properties relative to the letters around it."
Matthew Carter, "elder statesman of type". (via Bookslut)
Via Wired News, Carabella Goes to College, where you guide a blue-skinned college freshman through her first days on campus while protecting her personal privacy.
I note that they don't offer the chance to lie about your real phone number as much as I do in real life. Send me all the junk mail you want. But if you're a phone solicitor dialing my number, you've called down the thunder, my friend.
Of course, you can call me anytime.
Went to the Fair today, and many fine pictures were taken that will need to wait until I reunite with my card reader--cleverly left behind in Madison. Suffice it to say that it is every bit the enjoyable twelve-day lunatic asylum I remembered, with plenty of cullinary oddities waiting to be discovered by anyone with sophisticated sensing equipment (read: eyes.)
I also took a picture of the other fortune telling machine I mentioned earlier this week, the one that tried to kill me.
But that story still has to wait.
Thursday, August 28, 2003
"Go back and watch all The Prisoner episodes from the angle of: if this was a reality show, what elements could we keep, and what would we have to lose? How close it would have to be to the real Prisoner franchise. Could we create a new Village? ... Could we go to the actual location of the Village, which is a hotel in Wales - Hotel Portmeirion, could we take that over, and put real people in that situation? If we did, what would be the rules of the show?"
I'm pretty sure I would have watched a Prisoner reality show... but I'm also pretty sure I wouldn't have enjoyed it much.
Wednesday, August 27, 2003
The dark twin of flashmobbing: flashmugging (via flashhack, as I continue to dig deeper into the surprisingly angry anti-flashmob community.)
Via Buzzmachine, Australian and South African law enforcement teams up to stop an Antarctic crime spree. I wish I knew how to buy movie rights. This has Discovery Channel Original Movie written all over it.
Amazon asked:
What is the LeapPad? Hint: It is not a pad that leaps.
And from the list of options, I selected:
An electronic talking magic map that comes alive.
Chase the dream, that's what I always say.
Via the Jack Kirby tribute thread on Metafilter today, Explore the World of Kamandi, Last Boy on Earth! Sadly, we don't get to see any pictures of the "Orangutan Surfing Civilization".
Tuesday, August 26, 2003
Hey! The Automated Gypsy Fortune Teller shown by Lileks in today's Bleat is the one at the left upper entrance of the State Fair Penny Arcade, where I worked for several years (as did my father before me--and my sister concurrently.)
I remember showing up to help set up for a day before the Fair began one year, and opening the big garage doors to reveal all the old '50s-vintage bomber games and skeeball lanes that had lain dormant since last year. There she was, right inside the door, where she hat sat since someone turned off the power the year before. And, as Lileks notes, likely since the time my dad worked at the arcade. And likely until the time my kid works there. I'm surprised to see a button from this century on her sweater--I would have put hard money on whether or not in the last couple years anybody ever opened that case to even clean her, let alone add new accessories.
At home, somewhere, I have one of the fortunes she would spit out. I'll see if I can find it and scan it in. If not, I have a great story related to one of the other fortune telling machines at the Arcade.
Ah, the Fair. I may have to go when I'm up in the Cities next weekend...
Via Boing Boing, amazing pictures of a 737 that flew into a storm and got hammered by 10-inch hail. Frightening pictures, but it's reassuring that a plane can take so much damage and come through to land safely.
There have been whispers on the wind for months about tensions between CrossGen and freelancers. Now Newsarama has posted a lengthy summary of the story to date.
"Herry was sort of scary in the beginning days of Sesame Street. He was always going on about how strong he was, and he liked to prove it by picking up cars and other heavy objects. I definitely didn't want to mess with him as a kid... He seemed like a monster on the edge. However, I'm not convinced that this monster is actually Herry. That looks more like Herry's cousin who is either a) experiencing a psychotic break, b) has taken some bad LSD, or c) has just gotten out of prison after serving most of his term."
"The Trouble with Herry and the Epistemology of Betty Lou", over on the Tough Pigs Muppet Book Club, featuring Sherlock Hemlock and the Great Twiddlebug Mystery and the Club's commentary.
"I think Prairie Dawn and Betty Lou are just two different versions of the little-girl Anything Muppet, who originally didn't have a consistent voice or characterization. They were the Schrodinger's Cat of Sesame characters -- both Prairie Dawn and Betty Lou at the same time. When they started doing the Sesame Street Pageant sketches, they discovered that the Prairie Dawn character worked -- so the Betty/Prairie waveform collapsed, and from then on we only had Prairie Dawn. So not only does Betty Lou not exist, but echoes from the collapsing waveform rippled backwards through space-time, so in fact Betty Lou has never existed. I challenge you to prove otherwise."
Monday, August 25, 2003
"House Hunters is starting to get promoted, and believe me, there’s more action in the promo than in a week’s worth of episodes."
Heh. I hope more people are starting to read Lisa's Media Rants & Raves.
JP and I have been replaying Deus Ex recently, doing some Very Bad Things. He passes along a link to Sunglasses at Night to provide comfort that we aren't the first to come up with this idea--though perhaps others haven't pursued it with quite such dedication (just wait until you see JP's kill list....)
(Note that the preceeding links may not make much sense if you haven't played DX. In which case you should go do so immediately.)
UPDATED to add a link to JP's assiduously compiled Deus Ex Kill List.
If you're a fan of 24 or are perhaps considering becoming one, you might want to track down the free preview disc I found at Best Buy this afternoon--including the full first two hours of Season Two. Not that you should watch them until you've watched all of Season One...
The World War I Document Archive (via Metafilter)--lots of great stuff, from guidelines for Army veterinarians (back in an era where horses were still widely employed in combat) to a nice photo archive.
I have enough trouble keeping up with the mailing lists I'm already on, but I admit to being tempted to sign up for a few off Kevin Kelly's List of Lists.
Sunday, August 24, 2003
Discover exactly how quickly the value of brains would skyrocket in an apocalypse in progress with this zombie infection spread simulation (via Incoming Signals, as is this comprehensive Superman site, including many classic issues.)
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