Tuesday
Not as bad as yesterday. Which I consider a good thing.

After work we came home and mowed the jungle. We borrowed a mower from a friend on the way in… and I managed to get our mower working after we got here. Two mowers! Front and back lawns! This was perfect! We could knock them out in no time at all!

What I hadn’t taken into account was three weeks’ growth. Even the most stout-hearted of lawnmowers would be sorely pressed to stand up to the challenge. But we charged bravely forward!

And back.
And forward again.
And restarted the mowers when the grass got too thick.

And then we pressed forward again.
And back. Again.
And restarted, as necessary.

Forty-five minutes later, we prevailed! Both lawns are cut. And all was good. But, I think that I might have to consult with on the joys and benefits of xeriscaping the parking strip.

We celebrated our victory with dinner at Cheers. joined us. And I made a new shake: Peanut Butter Cup. And it was pretty damned tasty, too.

News Stories
Talk of the Nation: Lewis Black on the Democratic Convention (Funny!)
Talk of the Nation: ‘An Alchemy of Mind’
All Things Considered: Creative Spaces: Artist James Prosek’s Studio
All Things Considered: Chicago Lures Commuters into Cycling
All Things Considered: Canada Holds First Gay Divorce Proceeding

Stray Toasters

  • I let my inner kid play on the Interweb this afternoon. As a result, I am now subscribed to LEGO Magazine! For two years! For free!!!
  • Sandy Collora, the man behind Batman: Dead End, has done it again: World’s Finest.
  • Do you have any idea how amusing it is to get emails from “postmaster” or “noreply” of your own domain – or to have “bounced” emails from other (non-existent) users of said domain – when you are the mail admin for the domain? After you get past the “It’s *#$& spam” part, it’s actually pretty funny.

  • Catwoman qualifies as top-grade catnip for connoisseurs of trashy camp. But that’s not to say that this batty extravaganza won’t find an audience, that it isn’t watchable (at your peril), or that Halle Berry doesn’t give her heedless all to the cause of feline femininity.

    She plays Patience Philips, a graphics designer who spends most of the first tedious hour tiptoeing through her life as a timid wage slave ­ she’s Mousewoman, really. Then something very silly happens ­ I won’t tell you what, but Andrew Lloyd Weber shouldn’t eat his heart out ­ and Patience turns into a lip-glossing, hip-tossing, bike-riding, whip-cracking dominatrix who’s clad (sparsely) in black leather bra and slinky pants, with a helmet that suggests something between medieval executioner and Mouseketeer.

    This nice-but-nasty temptress represents a radical break with the DC Comics character played by, among others, Michelle Pfeiffer, Julie Newmar and Eartha Kitt. But the movie wants us to take Patience and her halter ego semi-seriously, as before-and-after poster persons for women’s lib “Catwomen are not contained by the rules of society”, Patience is told by Ophelia Powers, a reclusive cat lady played by Frances Conroy. For that matter, Catwoman’s director, a visual-effects specialist named Pitof, is not contained by the rules of filmmaking. Scenes that make sense? Nonsense. Characters with inner lives? Completely passe. Pitof sells his scenes as point-of-purchase displays featuring assorted emotions.

    Still, Catwoman is not all about leather. There is a plot, and it involves the despicable husband-and-wife directors of a cosmetic company, and a beauty cream that rots the skin on women’s faces. The husband is played by Lambert Wilson in a cheeky bid for the title of Worst Acting Job Of the Year, and the wife is embodied by Sharon Stone. Shrewd lady that she is, Stone protects herself from ridicule by striking ethereal poses that haven’t been seen on the silver screen since Falconetti played Joan of Arc.

  • From ThinkGeek: Homer Simpson Cubicle Tin Signs
  • posted an interesting quiz in his journal this afternoon. Curiosity got the better of me… and I took it.
    The Hub
    Category I – The Hub

    You’re a ‘people person’. Networking runs in your
    blood. Consequently, you can move through most
    social circles with ease.

    What Type of Social Entity are You?
    brought to you by Quizilla

  • Another X-23 pic: The cover of Uncanny X-Men #451
  • By way of Slashdot: Patriot Act Used to Enforce Copyright Law?
  • Also gleaned from Slashdot: SpaceShipOne and Wild Fire to Go for the Gold
  • I’m sure that many of you have seen the Bush/Kerry “This Land Is Your Land” parody on JibJab. According to this story, The Richmond Organization (who own the copyright to the original Woody Guthrie song) have sent in the lawyers.

    “This puts a completely different spin on the song,” said Kathryn Ostien, director of copyright licensing for the publisher. “The damage to the song is huge.”

    TRO believes that the Jibjab creation threatens to corrupt Guthrie’s classic — an icon of Americana — by tying it to a political joke; upon hearing the music people would think about the yucks, not Guthrie’s unifying message. The publisher wants Jibjab to stop distribution of the flash movie.

  • If you haven’t seen the trailer for The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy yet: AVI or RealMedia. I laughed. I knew what was coming (to a point), but it made me laugh. If the movie is done as well as the trailer, the late Douglas Adams’ fans should have nothing to worry about.
  • Courtney Love (yes, that Courtney Love) collaborated on a concept for a manga (def.) called Princess Ai. I’ve read a part of the story, thanks to a TokyoPop sampler that got for me at a trade show that she attended. According to Broken Frontier: “Entertaining stuff with a story that actually holds its own; Princess Ai is certainly worth a look at.”
  • : I know that we’re only issues away from the newest reboot/retcon, but I thought that you might be interested in this.
  • Jess just sent me a message saying that the kittens are wound up. This is decidedly not the kind of thing that one wishes to hear before retiring for the evening.

With a tip of the hat and a smile, he strolled across the room and out the door…

Namaste.