via flickr.com
He may not have the radioactive blue glow of Dr. Manhattan but perhaps have other powers in compensation, as shown here. Plus this way he gets to drive a car.
Roman numeral
via flickr.com
Book title: Ten Years of Silk, for a personal memoir of a voyage of personal discovery along the danger-filled roads of central Asia
Series we never wrapped our heads around
This is the genre that can never let a story go. Scan the shelves of the section-and this isn’t even the special section most major bookstores devote to series such as Star Trek/Star Wars and Bionicle-and half of the titles will have subtitles like “Book 9 in the Shards of Treacle series.”
via citypaper.com
Shards of Treacle is good, particularly in this country where just about nobody knows precisely what treacle is like. Along those lines, I could envision a medical horror series called Panels of Death, a martial fantasy line referred to by its setting in Stemwinder’s Redoubt, and macho thrillers following the missions of the special-ops team Cadre Dropsy Azure.
Th’ expanse of asphalt
Title for a documentary: My Shameful Carbon Footprint
We had contractors come in yesterday to do our driveway, courtesy of our next-door neighbors whose construction had busted the concrete up somewhat. We are not advised to park on the blacktop for a couple of days.
That’s a whole lot of petrochemical there.Another punk, with trademark infringement to boot
Duncan Doenitz
See previous. An stand-up undersea punk who puts up a mean cup of coffee.
Though in fairness I note that Google shows a couple hundred sightings of this name already, perhaps by individuals who would guard their handle with some degree of jealousy.
Filling a need for the aspiring action-adventure author
Literary juggernaut Dan Brown has the following passage in chapter 49 of his book Digital Fortress.
Becker dragged himself off the floor of the bus and collapsed in an empty seat.
“Nice move, dipshit.” The kid with the three spikes sneered. Becker squinted in the stark lighting. It was the kid he’d chased onto the bus. He glumly surveyed the sea of red, white, and blue coiffures.
“What’s with the hair?” Becker moaned, motioning to the others. “It’s all…”
“Red, white, and blue?” the kid offered.
Becker nodded, trying not to stare at the infected perforation in the kid’s upper lip.
“Judas Taboo,” the kid said matter-of-factly.
Becker looked bewildered.
The punk spat in the aisle, obviously disgusted with Becker’s ignorance. “Judas Taboo? Greatest punk since Sid Vicious? Blew his head off here a year ago today. It’s his anniversary.” This suggests two observations: the first being that when one is in need for a generator of fictional punk rock musician names, one could use the algorithm of taking the first word of a multiword metal (not punk) band name for the first name, and a single word Hasbro board game name for the last name. For future reference, here are the corresponding lists one could employ. Multiword metal band names, first word only
“Nice move, dipshit.” The kid with the three spikes sneered. Becker squinted in the stark lighting. It was the kid he’d chased onto the bus. He glumly surveyed the sea of red, white, and blue coiffures.
“What’s with the hair?” Becker moaned, motioning to the others. “It’s all…”
“Red, white, and blue?” the kid offered.
Becker nodded, trying not to stare at the infected perforation in the kid’s upper lip.
“Judas Taboo,” the kid said matter-of-factly.
Becker looked bewildered.
The punk spat in the aisle, obviously disgusted with Becker’s ignorance. “Judas Taboo? Greatest punk since Sid Vicious? Blew his head off here a year ago today. It’s his anniversary.” This suggests two observations: the first being that when one is in need for a generator of fictional punk rock musician names, one could use the algorithm of taking the first word of a multiword metal (not punk) band name for the first name, and a single word Hasbro board game name for the last name. For future reference, here are the corresponding lists one could employ. Multiword metal band names, first word only
- White
- Mötley
- Iron
- Def
- Faith
- System
- Queens
- Satan’s
- Led
One word Hasbro board game names
- Monopoly
- Clue
- Sorry!
- Scrabble
- Risk
- Stratego
- Cranium
- Battleship
Thus you get the lineup of Iron Clue, White Cranium, Led Risk, and Faith Sorry! That last one I am personally a little dubious of, but the author using the technique is expected to use a little bit of his or her own critical judgement to filter out the clinkers.
The second observation is that if you name your protagonist Becker, the reader of a certain age will think of the character as being played by Ted Danson.
Popular among secular humanists
Band name: Atheist Mantis
One I saw in Secaucus, NJ, not too far from Giants stadium
Let the CGI renderings begin
Universal Studios has acquired rights to make a live-action movie starring the half-century old doll.
I hope it isn’t all shopping and driving around with Ken and Skipper but has some action sequences in it, preferably of the dark sort.
Poor poor disk drive
When Disks Die
Spent the last couple of days dealing with a disk head crash on my home laptop which seems to have cut a swath through my home directory (this is running Ubuntu), copying as many files off as I can to another disk. I am pretty sure I have backups of all my important stuff anyway.
What it sounds like when disks die: a little tick-tick-tick when the light goes red.
Maybe I’m just too demanding…
Poor Poor Thing 