Random-ish Thoughts

Salgood Sam links to an article about comic books in Newsweek. While it's not a horrible article, it makes the stupid beginner's mistake of referring to comic books as a genre instead of a medium, and it spits on superhero comics throughout. Your mileage may vary.

Pal Dorian vents. I like his observations. I wonder if I fall into "hyper-sensitive thin-skinned" or "self-appointed arbiters of merit"? I can see both categories in myself at times. When I fall into those traps I have to remind myself repeatedly that I'm doing this whole blogging thing for myself... calm down and enjoy it or stop doing it. At times, that is the hardest thing in the world. Once you think you have an audience, you feel desperate to keep them happy.

Augie linkdumps again, and his link to 7 Mistakes for Your First Week of Blogging caught my eye. Personally, the biggest piece of advice I'd give a new blogger is to decide from the get-go how often you want to update, and then stick to it. I may not be the best person to take advice from, however, as I was more worried that I would blog too much than too little. Still, my second blog, Gjoblaag celebrates one year today, so I think I know a little about regular blogging, even if I know nothing about good blogging.

Wired covers Brickfest. I winced when I read about the model that got taken apart by airport security. Ouch. In other news, LEGO rep Jake McKee gave some new information about upcoming projects during his keynote address. In short, LEGO is going customizable. People can design their own sets.

Did you miss the Perseids? Here's a little animated GIF showing some of the action.

Ever wondered how touchscreens work? Well, wonder no more.

Home Depot and historical recreation. How to make corsets out of plastic cable ties.

Wow. A net.kook has actually been institutionalized. That kind of gives me hope for future fights against my own net.kook/stalker. Maybe that's why I haven't heard from him in a couple of months.

I've seen some really nasty American propaganda from WWII... but here's something I've never seen: Japanese propaganda from WWII. I knew it must exist, but this is the first time I've seen it. The "Farewell, American Soldier" pamphlet is particularly nasty.

Babies shouldn't fly. Or something like that.

Peter David has uncovered the real reason the Iraqi constitution was delayed.

Talkleft links to a really frightening analysis of dear leader's behavior that I really hope is wild, completely untrue, rumor.

The Washington state Democrats and Republicans are both in really bad financial shape after the contested governor's race... so they send out fundraising letters. What a contrast in styles. Via Evergreen Politics.

An apparently pro-Bush driver ran over white crosses and American flags that represent fallen soldiers in the Iraq war. The police caught the guy, so maybe we'll find out why he hates the troops so much.
Update: Yup, pro-Bush and Republican. Larry Northern hates this country and the troops enough that he attached pipes and chains to his pickup truck to assist in destroying the war memorial and desecrating the U.S. flags attached to the crosses. Note that Kos has pictures of the destroyed crosses and flags, and also points out that counter-protesters left flowers and flags, even though they disagreed with the people who put the crosses up.

Chilling recordings of 9/11.