Yahoo! News - Paris Hilton Beats Bush in TV Ratings

Me, I was watching Navy NCIS. But I finally saw a couple of episodes of The Simple Life last night, and if American TV viewers had to choose between shows about rich, clueless people with complete and utter contempt for the ordinary folks around them... well, at least the Paris Hilton thing is more up-front about it.

Denny's Menu

Clearing out a bunch of old email, I realized I had never gone to this site, which a friend had sent me. Check out the one called "Kid's Book."

Peter David - Writer Of Stuff: "THE RETURN OF SPYBOY
For you Spyboy fans, Dark Horse has scheduled a new four-issue 'Spyboy' series for later next year, which I'm in the process of writing. Since I tend to treat every Spyboy outing as if it's the last one (because whoever knows anymore?), this time we're going all out. Time has passed, and this time Alex Fleming (aka Spyboy) will be going to his senior prom, graduating high school, learn the truth behind the identity of his mom, and go head to head with his newest and ultimate opponent: Spyguy.
PAD "

I like Spyboy, so... cool.

The Story of John Titor: "A person going by the name of John Titor and claiming to be a soldier on a mission from 2036 presented a considerable amount of information on the Web beginning around November 2000 about his mission and time travel machine, his perspective on our society, how our society is going wrong, and how society as we know it will end in a very short but massive intercontinental nuclear war in 2015. He's gone now, back to 2036 he said he was going in his last posting on March 24, 2001, and the threads he left across the Web are slowly evaporating. "

Well this is just... odd. And I sort of wish I'd heard about it before now, because it might have been fun to watch unfold.

BBC - Cult - Doctor Who - Scream of the Shalka

Just the usual reminder that the new episode--Episode Five--is now online. Just one more to go...

Here's something for fun: go to Google, type in the words "Miserable Failure," hit the "I'm Feeling Lucky" button, and enjoy the results.

BBC - Cult - Doctor Who - Scream of the Shalka

Just a reminder that the fourth episode is now online...

Misleader.org: Daily Mislead: "More Photographic Dishonesty from President Bush


In the most famous picture from his trip to Baghdad, President Bush had himself artfully photographed to look like he was serving turkey to the troops.1 The image was emblazoned on front pages throughout the country - and now appears to be an entirely false depiction.

According to the Washington Post, Bush was actually holding 'a decoration, not a serving plate.'2 In other words, he was holding a prop, not real food, and thus only pretending for the cameras to be serving up the holiday meal. "

How completely sad and pathetic is this?

American Civil Liberties Union : Louisiana School Punishes 7-Year-Old Boy for Talking About His Lesbian Moms

Just makes me feel all warm and fuzzy about how we treat our children...

Couldn't get to sleep again last night, so I was flipping channels after The Shield. Starz was just beginning to show Punch-Drunk Love, a movie I had wanted to see since it came out in theaters, but quite got around to seeing. (Adam Sandler is hit-or-miss with me, but I've enjoyed all of Paul Thomas Anderson's movies.) So, not wanting to let an opportunity pass, I settled in and kept watching. All I can say is: Sandler is definitely redeemed after the mess that was Eight Crazy Nights, and I can see why his fans stayed away in droves. (Calling this an Adam Sandler movie is like calling Sense & Sensibility an episode of the Star Wars Trilogy.)

You are: THE RIDDLER!


Which Batman Villain Are You?
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Yahoo! News - Woman Knocked Unconscious While Shopping: "ORANGE CITY, Fla. - A mob of shoppers rushing for a sale on DVD players trampled the first woman in line and knocked her unconscious as they scrambled for the shelves at a Wal-Mart Supercenter. "

Can I just say, once again, how embarrassed I am for America?

Hope everyone had a good Thanksgiving. Me, I had dinner with friends, which was nice. Before that, though, I watched the Adam Sandler cartoon Eight Crazy Nights, and I'm not recommending it to anyone. Now, I'm not the biggest Adam Sandler fan in the world, but I usually get a laugh or two out of most of his movies. This one... Got it for free from the library, and I still feel like someone owes me something.

Adding to the revivals mentioned last night: the comics company 88 MPH Studios is bringing back, in comic book form, two more childhood favorite movies: Tron and Ghostbusters...

BBC - Cult - Doctor Who - Scream of the Shalka

Just a reminder that the third episode is available.

And a Happy Thanksgiving to everyone!

It's apparently Nostalgia Month for me. DC Comics is putting out ElfQuest comics again (just reprints for now, but I don't have them any more, and some of this stuff I never read, and there's new stuff coming...). There's a new Sgt Rock graphic novel just out from DC/Vertigo, and it's drawn by Joe Kubert, written by Brian Azarello, and it's really, really good. Dark Horse Comics is starting a new Conan series, and it looks like it'll be pretty good, too. The BBC is bringing back both Doctor Who and Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. And the SciFi channel is bringing back Battlestar: Galactica, a show I was a huge fan of as a kid. Tonight, I caught the "making-of" special on SciFi, to get a taste of what the upcoming (December 8) miniseries would be like.

Apparently--and I already knew this--the new show is a complete reimagining of the concept, starting from scratch instead of continuing where the original left off some twenty-plus years off. Judging from what I've seen online and comments from the show, this has really upset about six people. Me, I'm okay with the changes. When I was a kid, buzzing with excitement from Star Wars and looking for anything similar, the original Battlestar: Galactica was the coolest thing. I've seen reruns of the show more recently, and while I guess I can see where my adolescent mind would have been excited back in the late 1970s, when there was nothing else like it, the show just doesn't seem to have aged well. (Not compared to the timeless qualities of, say, good Doctor Who...) So something that slavishly duplicates the original show wouldn't appeal to me, because the original no longer does. No, I want something that'll excite the mid-thirties me the way the original did the ten-year old me, and it's quite possible this new version might. (Or, at least, it'll be a couple of hours of fun TV, with cool spaceships flying around blowing stuff up and crap like that. And they're continuing the Battlestar: Galactica tradition of Hot Chicks in Space, so I'm all okay with that.)

Thanksgiving in a bottle: Turkey and Gravy soda: "A new Turkey and Gravy Soda tastes, well, pretty much like you would imagine. But that's not stopping people from buying it.
Even the producers of the Thanksgiving-themed beverage at Jones Soda Co. were surprised by the demand. They sold out all 6,000 bottles online within about two hours last week. "

Okay, I'll try just about anything, but...

Gross!

Tim Truman, of Odin the Wanderer, Interview

Always nice to hear that artists I like are working on new stuff...

The TV Drones On -- In a Library, No Less (washingtonpost.com): "The TV Drones On -- In a Library, No Less

By Bob Levey
Thursday, November 13, 2003; Page C11
I hope the hinges on your mouth are in good shape, because your jaw is about to drop open -- wide.


The scene was a public library branch in Silver Spring. As Cathy B. Johnson entered, she was 'astounded' to see a television set in the main lobby. It was muted, but it was very definitely on, and it was spewing pictures as only a TV set can.
Cathy saw red. She marched over to a librarian and asked why library patrons -- and young patrons in particular -- 'couldn't have one place in the world where they were not bombarded by TV.'
According to Cathy, the librarian pointed out that the set was aimed at a waiting area, where people sit until they get a crack at a public computer terminal.
The TV was on, Cathy says the librarian told her, so that those lying in wait 'would have something to do.'
Open mouth.
Gape in astonishment.
As Cathy promptly said to the librarian: 'They couldn't read a book?'
Sorry, your gaping isn't done.
Cathy quotes the librarian as replying: 'Internet users don't like to read.' "

So many possible things to say... I want to believe that nobody in a library would be so stupid and tactless as to say something like that to a patron, but know in my heart it's possible. And who says it was a librarian that this Cathy woman spoke to, anyway? Not everyone who works for a library has their library degree, you know? (I worked hard for mine; let's not just let any circulation assistant claim the same status...) But finally, once again, this is the sort of article written by rich white folks for rich white folks who have computers and the Internet at home, who have probably not set foot in a public library for the last ten to fifteen years, and don't realize what they've become. We aren't the quiet places for books and research and nothing else any more. We're Blockbuster Video for people without money and internet cafes for people who don't shower. You don't like a TV set in the library for people waiting to use the computers? The solution isn't writing a newspaper column bemoaning the fact; the solution is writing a newspaper column urging the rich white voters in your comunities to vote to support their libraries, so they can build more computer centers and buy more computers, so people don't have to wait, and they don't have to find something to do while they're waiting like watch TV. Pay attention and use the goddamn brain in your head, or shut up and go away.

Jeez.

Microsoft fires worker over weblog: "Michael Hanscom began keeping an online journal, commonly known as a weblog, several years ago. He started his job as a contract worker in Microsoft's print shop last year. Last week, he mixed the two.
This week, he's looking for a new job, after becoming an unwilling case study in the fine line walked by corporate employees who write about work in their personal weblogs."

And this would be why I don't usually talk about work (or my personal life) here...