Randomness for 3/19

3) South Dakota legislators pass bill requiring schools to teach that global warming is partly caused by “astrological” forces.

4) The Twilight Drinking Game.

5) Contact lenses of the future! via SeattleGeekly

6) Obviously fake, but still funny.

7) A picture of Hugo Gernsback sporting the look that kicked off a thousand “parents’ basement” jokes.

Randomness for 3/17

1) My son’s latest Lego stop-motion movie. Actually, it’s part one of a longer story, and yeah, I provide voiceover work. (But just a little).

2) Margaret Atwood sings!

3) Did you know that Amazon.com sells cans of uranium ore? Here’s one of the customer reviews: “I purchased this product 4.47 Billion Years ago and when I opened it today, it was half empty.”

4) Teal and Orange – Hollywood, Please Stop the Madness!

5) Rob Liefeld’s Dreams Are One Step Closer To Reality “You know, I really like shooting this machine gun, but I really wish I could be shooting another gun at the same time,”

6) “Die Hard in a tattoo” Someone’s a little crazy for that movie.

7) Dan Savage talks to the young woman at the center of the “Lesbians made us cancel the prom!” scandal. Also, you can find ways to help at the end of the article.

Two cool videos my son found online

Both, of course, having to do with Legos

Randomness for 3/10

1) For once, it’s a good idea to read the comments: “Dear Prudence” gives some unfortunate advice about a sexual fetish, and readers take her to task.

2) A woman enters a comic book shop and asks for recommendations…

3) Venus de Slusho. That snow woman give me impure thoughts.

4) Bayonet 2.0

Godzilla Haiku

6) Social networking site allows you to register a credit card number and automatically post every purchase (with the price!) online. In other news, satire passed away quietly at home surrounded by loved ones. Next month: a 3G toilet that automatically tweets every time you flush.

7) xkcd makes me laugh out loud. Don’t forget to mouseover the comic to read the second punchline.

Watch the green lava!

I did my first voice-over job today. The writer/director trusted me quite a bit when he gave me this role, and I hope I did a good job.

My son made his first Lego stop-motion animation all by himself. He even did the editing; I’m planning to ask him for tips on using iMovie later. Comments on YouTube are disabled because he’s eight, but any kind words would be welcome here.

Randomness for 3/3

1) I wish someone could explain to me the causes of the great Balloons Monkey War. Added later: Ah! It was unprovoked Monkey aggression.

2) Five links about selling books.

3) The Venn Diagram of Monsters.

4) Now that Harriet the Spy is being updated as Harriet the blogger, Jezebel.com offers other classics of children’s lit that could be updated for modern times.

5) What Science TV is like. via nihilistic_kid

6) Math A Capella (the internet triples its total nerdiness with one video)

7) If Pitagora Suichi made a music video. Yeah, this one is seriously cool, possibly the coolest thing I’ve linked to in a long time. Don’t skip it.

It can finally be announced, Part 2!

My franchise agreement with the Lego Corporation continues to be a fruitful source of revenue for both of us. The Child of Fire Lego set sold well beyond expectations, and they’re coming back for another round (naturally).

Here’s the cover for the new novel, coming out in August:

And here, revealed to you for the first time ever, is the early concept art for the box the Game of Cages Lego Set will ship in:

I like how they made the lightning shoot sideways, like it’s coming out of the house, although I *told* their designers last time that they had Ray’s hair color wrong, but did they remember to change it?

Ah well.

The good news is, this deal is making me filthy rich, and pretty soon I’m going take of from rainy, miserable Seattle and settle down with my family in an Italian vila. Mediterranean, here I come!
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
Once again, just joshin’. This image was created with Lego Digital Designer, a CAD program (of sorts) that lets you design a Lego model virtually, then upload it to their site and have the pieces mailed to you. The nice thing about the LDD joke for this second book is that I’m such a big cheese writer now that I can offshore the actual creation of the image to ~~South Korea~~ my 8-year-old son. He did a great job, and it would have taken me hours to do it myself.

Randomness for 2/22

1) Part two of the screenwriter stalker story! with bonus Brad Pitt at a urinal. And here’s Part 3. (Here’s part 1, in case you missed it.)

2) More OKCupid data crunching: this time about “older” women.

3) Remember the American version of Godzilla from 1998? Well, an early draft of the script was written by Ted Elliott and Terry Rossio, the guys who wrote PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN, SHREK, MASK OF ZORRO and ALADDIN, among others. Although their script was very different from the version that was filmed and released, some elements were kept and they ended up with credit. Sometime in the last 12 years, they posted their final draft online so people could compare the work they did with the finished movie. Well, someone has taken it upon themselves to turn that script into a webcomic. It’s not finished, but it is pretty cool.

4) Hot dog salad dressing??? 20 Unholy Recipes, Dishes So Awful We Had To Make Them. via Jay Lake

5) An insider’s guide to writing for Mills & Boon. Interesting stuff.

6) That “Ten Rules For Writing” article in the Guardian Part one, Part two. Those are fun to read, even the ones I disagree with.

7) Bertie Wooster as Bruce Wayne.