No Mod Required

Yes.

Great xkcd:

If I had more time today I’d grab a photo of Feynman and do a Photoshopped version :). No such luck today though- I’m a weekend behind on freelance work and am still knee deep in day job.

I have just finished reading The Baroque Cycle of Neal Stephenson, and feel like giving up writing entirely.

Twitter / Warren Ellis: I have just finished reading…

And again he mentions it on his blog, with an even better quote:

Which meant I finally got to finish reading the last of Neal Stephenson´s Baroque Cycle. I´d never normally recommend you read a 3000-page work, but the Cycle is just a towering piece of work, and I think you should read it before you die. A hundred pages from the end, I got that terrible longing sadness, the one that comes when you realise youŕe near the end of something and you´ĺl never have the joy of reading this in the same way again.

I felt the same way. I both devoured and dreaded the end. It was as satisfying an ending as Stephenson has ever managed, but there was still a part of me that was made empty by reading those last few pages. I’d been reading the books as they came out so it had been a two year journey for me- the gaps heightening my anticipation and, likely, my enjoyment. To finally say good bye to Eliza, Daniel Waterhouse and, most importantly, Jack Shaftoe felt like real loss.

Warren Ellis » And Even More Still Offline

“FREAKANGELS is a free, weekly, ongoing comic written by Warren Ellis and illustrated by Paul Duffield. Drop by the Whitechapel Forum to discuss this week’s installment.”

FreakAngels

A great XKCD:

Maybe not the funniest, but this one makes me say “fuck yeah”

Pete LePage and the rest of the Comic Book club crew get the treatment in the NYT:

Comic Book Club

I went down last year and did a night. It was a lot of fun. If you’re in the city and like comics it’s a no-brainer…

Indie Rock Pete’s shining moment.

I’m so indie rock, I only listen to voicemail on the original vinyl

Anime

The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya I don’t buy anime series very often (Cowboy Bebop is the only one i own), but this one is going into the permanent vaults here at the Rob React manor. It’s really that good. It’s funny, immensely clever and has an infectious tone that works its way into the brain. I’m glad I randomly took the plunge on this one.

Books

Against the Day. Yeah, I’m reading Pynchon’s latest. We’ll see how that goes. I had a bunch of lighter fare to choose from and I still stuck my hand down to the middle of the pile to pull out that roach killer. What’s annoying is, I bought it ages ago- in hardcover and never got around to reading it until now. Now, when there’s a much lighter (and cheaper) softcover version available. Oh well. At least it’s impressive on the train.

Oh wait, I drive to work

*grumble*

oh! and I’m sorely tempted by this:
New Bedford Whaling Museum Programs Music Through Time Folk Series Moby Dick Reading Marathon

Movies

Paris, Je T’Aime is next up on the Netflix queue. I’ve been waiting for that one for a while since so many of the people involved are interesting and I, too, love Paris. I can’t wait.

Following that, I’ll be getting ready for the Blade Runner Final Cut at the Brattle next month by watching the old Director’s Cut at least once next week. Other than that it seems like as good a time as any to play catch up with Hong Kong cinema. I’m probably two years behind right now so I’m going to see what can eke out of Netflix and then maybe hit Chinatown to see what’s out there that I haven’t seen. Fun times.

Web Technology

I’m getting myself revved up to take the Omniture Certified Professional: Implementation test.

Other than that I’ve been writing a lot of how-to documentation for my job. It’s been fun to do, but a lot of that impetus has left me by the time I leave work so I’ve done very little of that sort of writing for this place. Maybe when I start back in on client work I’ll return to writing up tricks, tips and techniques here. I actually have a half-written article on using JSON with eval() that I should (hopefully?) publish this week, so maybe that will spur me on to bigger and better things.

As for client work, I’m finally getting back to being billable at work, so I’ll have some fun stuff to show at some point over the next couple of months. At least it looks like it will be fun right now. This is a client I’ve done cool things for only to have them killed at the last minute. Here’s hoping that doesn’t happen again.

Music

Nothing of note.

No, really.

Sure I’m still listening to a bunch of music but there’s absolutely no clear #1 on my personal hit parade at the present time. Where is the new audio crack?

Comics

Am I more excited about picking up The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: The Black Dossier or Scott Pilgrim, Vol 4: Scott Pilgrim Gets It Together?

I have no answer to that question. Too close to call. I will say I have high hopes for both and both are waiting for me at the shop, so we’ll see soon enough which one wins the battle of execution.

Photographer Elena Dorfman examines cosplay:

Statement of Purpose

Elena Dorfman’s prior body of work, Still Lovers, focuses on the relationship between silicone sex dolls and their owners. Explorations of identity through portraiture are at the forefront of Dorfman’s work. In her most recent series, Re-Anime: Photographs of Fandom, Dorfman explores the pop-cultural phenomenon of “cosplay.” Cosplayers dress up in costumes that represent characters from video games, animated films, and the Japanese graphic novels. This exploding subculture, adapted from the Japanese “geek” craze, flourishes at convention centers, college dorms, private clubs, and homes across the country, every day of the year. It is a private world that continues to grow.

I’ve seen a lot of that stuff from the front lines. I could dig up literally dozens of photos I’ve taken from behind the table at comic shows of people dressed up as everyone from Spider-Man to Naruto. For me, sitting behind a table slinging my comics wares it actually livens up the day. Sometimes the costumes are stunningly good, other times they’re stunningly bad or just ill-conceived (think skin tight costumes on “fat flash”, “fat green lantern”, or “fat wonder woman.”) Regardless of the way they go they’re always interesting.

Anyway, the photos in the above link are fascinating to me because they separate the cosplayers from their environment. Which brings a different feel to them. It’s one thing to see Sailor Moon or Naruto or whoever in a convention hall filled with 60,000 geeks. It’s quite another to show them completely stripped of context like they are in the photos. There’s something about it I like a lot both visually and intellectually (although it’ll take me a bit to clarfiy what exactly)- hence me linking to it.

THE SPIRIT site is live. If you’re not familiar with The Spirit, then we’ve got nothing else to talk about until you’ve gone out, grabbed something like The Best of the Spirit and read some of the best comics ever made.

The 100 Artists Project is a charity endeavor created to help raise money for the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund and The Hero Initiative. Anyone can participate. The project assembles artwork into sketchbooks and mails sketchbooks to participants and the completed books are auctioned and then later published. All proceeds go to the funds.

The 100 Artists Project