ForcedPerspective

The early shopper's guide... to me!

Hey, does anyone want to buy me this for Xmas? It has ninjas!

More organizing ideas

Given the number of items on this time-saver list that we already implement with some success, maybe there are other things we should consider. Having the kids pitch in caught my eye on Lifehacker.

Salty licorice

Further information on salty licorice: some other names for it, such as salmiakki, leading to the discovery of more places to score salty licorice gum!

Have I mentioned that I'm Spartacus?

Seniors protest the bullying of a grade 9 student in cool and entertaining way. This is them in grade 9, baby.

Don't swallow any alginate

Who'd have thought NCIS would have been on the right track?

Oh, my cursèd fate, that I was born too late

Not just dumber and less successful, but shorter than if I'd been an earlier child. Sigh.

Two greats great together

The Onion A/V Club interviews Seth Green.

A geek moment

Watching Miss Potter last night, I had a geek "that's not right!" moment: while a young Beatrix Potter is telling the story of the Two Bad Mice she says that the food in the doll house was porcelain. I said "but wasn't it a plaster ham?" Upon checking today, yes, it was indeed a plaster ham.

Also, Beatrix wasn't the overly delicate little girl decrying her brother's collection of pinned moths: she and her brother skinned various animals to see their muscle and bone structure. Apparently, she also studied fungi in later life. Cool.

Quite the nerd

Largely self-reported (I didn't have to prove that I could produce a map of the ancient world within a few seconds), but I'm a bit of a nerd:

Another market data source

The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority has launched a free market data service. I don't see anything compellingly different from what's available at Yahoo! finance, but that's probably because I have all the Yahoo! ads blocked.

What if it was for more than city government?

An article on the 311 operators in San Francisco: it's a single phone number for questions about all city services. And SF seems to have a lot of city services. I was thinking it would be even more useful in my area, where there are overlapping city, county, and state jurisdictions for similar services. But if there was more than one jurisdiction, how ever would one fund it?

Many of the questions seem very familiar from library work.

Also unwilling to read ahead

"including... what would happen if Captain Jack met Captain Reynolds."

I'll be in my bunk.

For future reference

I'm not reading the whole article yet, but some Torchwood writers (including the actor who played Mickey the idiot) attended Comic-Con this year and talked about stuff, including (according to Whedonesque) what would happen if Captain Jack met Captain Reynolds.
Two items I did note: Torchwood starts this weekend on BBC America, and Russell Davies was not mentioned among the first set of named SDCC attendees.
I'll read the whole article after I've seen some Torchwood.

August Reading

The Plain Janes, Castellucci and Rugg (Y)
Wow, if this is indicative of the quality of the new Minx line of graphic novels for girls, then we are truly in for an excellent new world. Jane ends up in a new high school, looking for her tribe and aspiring to save herself and others through art, like her mysterious John Doe did. Four stars.

Nextwave, agents of H.A.T.E. Vol. 1, This is what they want, Warren Ellis
Another boffo graphic novel. The title of the first issue captures some of the essence: Healing America by Beating People Up. Great sense of humor and lots of kicking people. Five stars and I'm waiting for volume 2.

Demonkeeper, Buckingham (Y)
Apprentice demonkeeper Nat is on his own after the death of his mentor, left to keep (fed, from harm, and from harming others) demons in a 1901 house on Queen Anne in Seattle. But The Beast that his mentor kept in the basement has escaped, and must be captured again before The Thin Man gets it... woo! Fun and fast-paced. A great first novel. Four stars.

Evil Genius, Jinks (Y)
Cadel is certainly a genius (with an interest in computers and systems) but it is only his therapist (to whom he was referred after getting caught hacking at 7) who suggests turning an interest in train schedules into an interest in crippling the train system (the only way to know if your knowledge is complete is to find the weak spots, you know...). Great and hidden criminal forces are at work to make Cadel an Evil Genius. Quite thrilling and fun read, and I was wondering how the whole thing would be wrapped up with so many twists and competing baddies. Well, it was only kind of wrapped up and then left open for a sequel. A little disappointing after 486 (!!) pages. Four stars.

Astonishing X Men: Torn, Whedon
I still love Whedon, but I'm getting tired of waiting so very long between such slender books. I'm sure it would be worse if I was reading them in comic form, where it seems like it's only a few pages each. The books are at least 40 pages, but so little actual stuff happens in the panel format. Well, so my complaint is that there isn't enough (and you kinda have to know more of the background than I do, but I mostly guess from context). Four stars.

Core memory: a visual survey of vintage computers featuring machines from the computer history museum
Very cool to get to peer at nice, detailed, big color photos of various vintage computers. Fun coffee table book. Three stars.

The ghost map: the story of London's most terrifying epidemic-- and how it changed science, cities, and the modern world, Johnson
Well written and compelling, the structure was well done to get all of the information across to lay a good foundation for his arguments about mapping and about cities. Four stars.

Ocean, Ellis
Warren Ellis is a very good storyteller. This is a standalone book, which is a nice change from the episodic volumes I've been reading, nice to go from beginning to end in one go. UN Weapons Inspector Nathan Kane is an ultra-cool hero. Also, the future! Space! Evil corporations! Cool scientists! Four stars!

All over the world, and other stories, Ellis
In the Planetary series, the stories are fairly standalone, with some mysterious arc storyline elements. I like that the team is on the side of maintaining strangeness in our world. Again, very fond of Ellis. Four stars.

Crooked Little Vein, Ellis
It's an Ellis-y kind of month, because of this book. It got a rave review on BoingBoing, so I read some other Ellis books while waiting for this to arrive. Slam-bang nonstop gonzo detective adventure. Many excellent turns of phrase. Plot elements set up and executed with grace and elegance. Wow. Five stars.

The Silenced, DeVita (Y)
Well-constructed and well-thought-out dystopia taking place in present day US. The author really got all of the details in there, not just oppression, but newspeak-ish slang, the rise of underqualified people due to party adherence, the reformation or elimination of those who don't cooperate, and the metaphors of fascism. The author based some of the storyline on resistance under Nazi-ism (specifically the White Rose), but there is much more in here than that. Not perfect, but very well done. Four stars.

Ultimate Galactus, Ellis
This one was less entertaining, maybe just because it was in the middle of a story. Three stars.

Fell. Volume 1, Feral city, written by Warren Ellis, illustrated by Ben Templesmith
This was a super-good one, and Templesmith's illustrations made it even better. Incredibly satisfying and well-structured on all levels. It felt done at the end, but I definitely hope for a Volume 2. Five stars.