internet

I return

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My plane got in last night, and far from the cool summer of the Pac NW I was expecting, we had temps in the 90s. Today we’re supposed to be in the triple digits, which is rare stuff for this part of the world. Sitting around the table with my family last night at 10 pm, sweat was running down my face.

Luckily I’m currently at work, where we have “air conditioning.”

And! To commemorate my return, I give you a pair of links: Maker Time and Manager Time and the Freakonomics blog entry on the article. Personally, I think you can train yourself to enter maker time in short bursts. It’s not easy and it’s not optimal, but it works (and has worked for me).

I’ll never catch up with my whole friend’s list, but I’m reviewing it. If there’s something you think I should know about, let me know.

Finally, my weirdest moment at Comic-Con: I was signing books at the Del Rey booth, and a father brought his son to the table for a signed copy of my book. I’m terrible at guessing ages, but I’d say he was 8-10 years old–imo, way to young for the book I wrote.

His father had a copy of his own, though. Would he read it himself first? It’s not really my place to make that decision for them. I just signed the book and handed it over. Still, it felt wee erd.

I can not be trusted

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When City of Heroes was released… was it five years ago? (Hmm. Wikipedia says it’s four) I was very very close to buying it for myself. Very very close. I love superhero stories, and everything I heard about the game suggested they did away with most of the level-grinding I’d experienced with Dark Age of Camelot.

I decided against it, though, for one reason–a reason I love very much.

But here I am in Studio City in my friend’s apartment, having created a character on his account, and I played for hours last night. I was up until 3 am playing. And I dreamed about it, too. I woke before he and his girlfriend did and would have been back online finishing missions this morning if I knew the password for his account.

Yikes. I can not buy this thing.

I fly home tonight. It’s been too long since I was with my wife and son.

This is beautiful

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Click on a color.  In fact, click on several.

I created a new tag for this one.

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Order of the Stick makes me laugh and cringe.

For them what don’t know, OOTS is a funny webcomic in which the stick figure characters live in a D&D universe–which sounds dreadful, but isn’t.

This. Is. Awesome.

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Turn fast food take out into beautiful food!

seen via blackhanddpants

Changing the (pop) culture

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A Hollywood producer writes–undercover of anonymity–about sexism in her industry. It’s interesting stuff, but here’s one of the many money quotes:

I heard a male agent once say that if the heroine of a script didn’t face higher stakes, he couldn’t see how someone would emotionally invest in her. OK, so the character is never chased to the edge of a cliff or anything, but plenty of successful movies exist with mediocre stakes.

Was anyone ever truly emotionally invested in whether Owen Wilson got it together in “Wedding Crashers”? It could be argued that the stakes of our movie were at least as high as learning to act like a grown man when you are one, so what gives?

Women in Film — We’re Not There Yet (Don’t bother with the comments.)

Transitions are for the weak!

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Chat rooms: are they relics of a bygone age or are they still kicky fun?

God, I’m so fucking stupid

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Why do I have to post these things?  Christ. I’m such an idiot.

Three visual items

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First:  Seattle pranksters/vandals have been altering billboards around town.  For instance:

Hee.  See more.

Second, Jonathan King, the director behind the hilarious and underrated BLACK SHEEP, has a new movie coming out.  Check out the trailer.

Third, a buddy dropped me an email pointing me toward these short romantic comedies.  The series is called Turbo Dates, and they’re terrifically funny.  Start with “Potion.”  Seriously.

I have one Dreamwidth invite code

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First person to ask for it can have it.

(I know.  How very March ’09 of me.)

edited to add: It’s been claimed!