I was wandering through Vonda McIntyre’s site the other day, and ran across her list of pitfalls for writers. Then Pat Holt‘s Ten Mistakes Writers Don’t See showed up on Blogdex. Maybe someone’s actually trying to literally tell me something.

I’ve always liked the idea of a hot tub without all the fuss and expense, so had my eye on furo-type heater that can be hooked up to a tank of your choice, such as an affordable stock tank. I don’t know how I feel about the Ikea-like plastic tub-ette, but check out the convection heater! Anybody know how to weld?

Scanner art is cool. And sometimes goofy.

I hadn’t looked at McSweeney’s for a while. Here are some jokes somebody may not have remembered quite right.
For reasons that don’t bear scrutiny, I also found this pretty funny. I found the idea of it even funnier than the execution, though.

The cypherpunks have registered the username/password combination cypherpunks/cypherpunks at a number of places. Feel free to use it and/or register it yourself (the password may be “writecode” if the registration is old enough). If they want an email address, the convention is to use cypherpunks@toad.com.

Spalding Gray has gone missing, under circumstances that don’t foster optimism in me. He has been suicidal recently, and left his home without wallet, baggage, or medication.

All I’m asking for is deli-counter guys with frickin’ lasers on their heads.
Update: for technical specs of the laser (and the disappointing 1mm/sec cutting speed), see the optics.org report.

Today’s Phrase that Pays is “Teriyaki Beef Dippers.”

Alyson Hannigan in When Harry Met Sally. Yes, Luke Perry’s in it, too; but still, Alyson Hannigan!

I hadn’t heard that Brazil has been photographing and fingerprinting US visitors. Chamber of Commerce-types there are unhappy that it might discourage American visitors, but I say more power to them.