Tweet Paste

Plus its got a drawing of one of my tweets...

Top 20 Bookstore Graphic Novels of 2008

A.C. Nielsen’s BookScan service has provided ICv2 with a ranking of the top 20 graphic novels of 2008, drawn from sell-through information in bookstore and other outlets tracked by the service. The rankings are based on piece sales for the entire year. Watchmen was the #1 graphic novel of 2008; although it was selling great all year, sales were turbocharged by the Watchmen trailer released in conjunction with The Dark Knight, the #1 movie of the year. Batman: The Killing Joke Special Edition, another 20 year old volume written by Alan Moore, was the #5 title of the year.

Upper Deck Source of Counterfeit 'YGO' Cards?

This is a big one...

In an amended complaint filed December 11th, Konami Digital Entertainment has alleged that Upper Deck is the source of the allegedly counterfeit Yu Gi Oh! TCG cards it found in packages distributed by Vintage Sports Cards (see 'Counterfeit Yu Gi Oh! Rares'). In the original complaint, filed in October, Konami named Vintage as the distributor of the packages, but didn’t name Upper Deck as a defendant.

Flickr: The Lego Steampunk Pool

Click on the link above to see a Flickr pool of very cool steampunk-themed things that people are doing with their Legos. That's right...legos.

Artistic License Application

If you're like me, you're constantly getting asked things like, 'Why on earth did you paint that toaster purple and install it on the ceiling?' or 'Why do you drive a hearse that looks like a zebra?' Of course, the answer is all too simple: I'm an artist. I'm taking license to make this weirdness. It's called Artistic License.

World Famous Audio Hacker | The Post Turntablist (2009)

World Famous Audio Hacker will be releasing a different cut-up segment every other Monday on this site throughout 2009. At the end of the year, each segment placed together with the others will form a full length listening experience combining the styles of cut-ups, remixes, mashups and remakes.

Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood

On February 15, the Toy Industry Association will gather to present their TOTY (Toy Of The Year) Awards. But first, in honor of the industry that has led the way in commercializing childhood, CCFC will present its inaugural TOADY (Toys Oppressive And Destructive to Young Children) Award for the worst toy of the year. From thousands of toys that promote violence and/or precocious sexuality to children and push branded entertainment at the expense of children’s play, CCFC has selected five exceptional finalists. Who will win the dreaded TOADY? It’s up to you.

Change has come to WhiteHouse.gov

Welcome to the new WhiteHouse.gov. I'm Macon Phillips, the Director of New Media for the White House and one of the people who will be contributing to the blog.

A short time ago, Barack Obama was sworn in as the 44th president of the United States and his new administration officially came to life. One of the first changes is the White House's new website, which will serve as a place for the President and his administration to connect with the rest of the nation and the world.

Millions of Americans have powered President Obama's journey to the White House, many taking advantage of the internet to play a role in shaping our country's future. WhiteHouse.gov is just the beginning of the new administration's efforts to expand and deepen this online engagement.

Just like your new government, WhiteHouse.gov and the rest of the Administration's online programs will put citizens first.

Scrabble Steampunk Keyboard

This has to be the coolest Steampunk mod ever. I want one.

This keyboard was commissioned by a couple of friends of mine from back east (NJ) who are avid Scrabble players. Most of the keys are made from real Scrabble tiles that were all hand-beveled (truly an exercise in patience/masochism!) and built onto a USB, clicky, mechanical-switch keyboard. This keyboard was going into a Mac environment so I decided to use brushed aluminum for the casing and round all of the corners to keep with the sleek, simple Macintosh styling. Near the end of the build, I decided that the keyboard looked a little too minimalist so I added some silver hardware and a seam to put a slightly industrialized twist on the design.

[via Boing Boing]

Lady Sovereign - I Got You Dancing (Medasyn Dub Remix)

You've probably heard by now the precocious Brit grime MC Lady Sovereign is releasing a record in April. After her broke-b*tchin' breakdown at Studio B in 2007, we've been �ber-curious about her comeback and since that we're not ones to sit twiddling our thumbs, we got hold of an exclusive NEW remix of 'I Got You Dancing' fresh off her upcoming album Jigsaw, which has been tweaked by her producer Medasyn. We gotta say, if this track any indication, Lady S. is gonna pound into head and hypnotize you senseless in 2009. The fat bassline sounds like a Transformer squashed it until Medasyn breathed life back into it with a heavy-weight, fuzzed-out synth. Robotic lyrics and Bitcrusher-distorted rhythms add kick and punch. As Lady Sov. says, 'Jump in.'

Neon Sex People gets pulled off YouTube wrongly?

Neon Sex People video is the latest victim of the spat between Warners and YouTube - it has been pulled from YouTube. Big deal, it happens etc (although for the record this is the first time for me).

Tweetup

So, as you can tell if you look at my sidebar here (and look at some of the recent posts that I have made), I use Twitter. Twitter is many things, a lot of those things are time wasters, but I do think that it is a good potential tool for meeting people and building communities. Like Facebook (where this post will also end up) you get out of it what you put into it. If all that you are interested in doing is hearing the sound of your own voice AND having other people hear it as well, sooner or later you'll end up with no one listening. Talk, discuss, build relationships with people. Don't just talk at them. If you want to talk AT people just build a website or a blog and rant and rave there (much like I do).

But, anyway, I am going to my first meeting of Tampa area bloggers and tweeple tonight and I am excited at the prospect of meeting people and at the same time have some trepidations. Will people be talking to each other or at each other? Let's hope for the former.

Roger Rangers Rules

Here's an interesting link that I found in a thread about old school dungeon crawls on RPG.net. I thought that it was interesting enough to pass along. I'll let you do the math on why.

Prisoner star McGoohan dies at 80

Emmy-winning actor Patrick McGoohan, best known for starring in cult 1960s TV show The Prisoner, has died at the age of 80.

He died in Los Angeles after a short illness, his film producer son-in-law Cleve Landsberg told Associated Press.

McGoohan played the character Six in the surreal 1960s show, filmed in the north Wales village of Portmeirion.

Learn about the complete history of TRANSFORMERS action figure toys

More than meets the eye! A great link (thanks to Monica Valentine for providing it).

Game Cryer

Interesting new site featuring reviews of games (with an emphasis on RPGs). I am eagerly following this with the hopes that it turns into something good. Well-written reviews are desperately needed in RPGs and while some bloggers do a good turn, they are few and far between and the "major" RPG sites just turn out drek or fan fiction disguised as reviews.

ACID TED

'The 'acid ted' was the timewarp kid who wasn't hip enough to change with the times. The idea was that the neophte ravers in bandanas and Day-Glo T-Shirts shouting 'acieed!' and dancing on the tables at the tacky nightclub Camden Palace were the equivalent of forty-year old teddy boys with fifties-style rockabilly quiffs, drainpipes and brothel creepers.' Generation Ecstasy:Into the World of Techno and Rave Culture' by Simon Reynolds

'The folk devil of the 'acid ted' was soon created by the old school, an acid ted being a working-class yobo or a clueless middle-classer who necks Es and dances to acid wearing too many smiley accessories with no idea why.' Rave America: New School Dancescapes by Mireille Silcott

Gen Con Scheduled to Emerge from Chapter 11!

Gen Con LLC announced today that the US Bankruptcy Court of Western Washington has confirmed the company’s plan of reorganization and approved the company’s rejection of a hostile takeover bid.

“This is bright day for us”, said Adrian Swartout, CEO of Gen Con. “The entire team is looking forward to 2009 and continuing our growth as a stronger, more focused company. Our emergence from Chapter 11 is a testament to the skill and perseverance of our employees and the strength of the phenomenal Gen Con brand. Everyone here is excited to begin working outside of Chapter 11.”

Since filing for bankruptcy protection in February of 2008, Gen Con has significantly reduced its expenses and increased its cash position. The company’s cash flow is positive and prospects have never looked better. Under the confirmed plan, Gen Con will pay all of it creditors in full over time and will continue to operate. A three-member Advisory Committee will assist the company and its board, and Peter Adkison will retain ownership. “This is an extremely successful case,” said Shelly Crocker of Crocker Kuno, Gen Con’s bankruptcy attorney, “largely due to the efforts of Ms. Swartout and her team, and the cooperation of the Creditors’ Committee.”

Gen Con Indy 2009 will prove to be one of the best shows yet with thousands of events and hundreds of exhibitors. Gen Con attendees can expect to see all of their favorite programs such as the Costume Contest, Auction, Art Show, Family Fun Pavilion, eGame Arena and much more!

About Gen Con
Gen Con, LLC produces the largest consumer fantasy, sci-fi and adventure game convention in North America. Its operations include Gen Con Indy and licensees for European and Asia Pacific Gen Con shows. Gen Con is a consumer and trade experience dedicated to the gaming culture and community. For more information visit the website at www.gencon.com


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Media Contact: Stacia Kirby 206-363-1492, stacia@speakeasy.net

Is Twitter the Next Second Life? - ClickZ

An online friend (ironically met through Twitter) forwarded to me a link to this article, after I had made some online huffings about social media and marketing gurus. Yeah, there are definitely some parallels but I think that the comparison between corporations and their attempted use of Second Life and their use of the social media like Twitter, Facebook, and etc. is really a different animal.

This is probably a topic that's going to be coming up for a while as I define my stances on things. Is this dorky? It's the internet...everything is dorky out there. And thanks, Chandra, for the link.

I'm sorry if I'm about to offend all you dedicated Twitter fanatics out there, but (in the spirit of the holidays) I'm just a big old Scrooge. Articles about Twittering for business make me want to shout 'Bah humbug!' and turn off my computer so I can run screaming into the night.

For the past year or so I've kept silent on this issue, but it now seems like there's an extraordinary parallel between the hype about using Twitter for business and the hype about Second Life and other now-embarrassing fads in the online press.

Remember Second Life? Lots of companies spent big bucks setting up their own islands in the 3-D virtual world so they could do virtual business and rake in the cash. Unfortunately, between protestors who didn't like their chat room sullied with filthy lucre and commercial interests and the sad fact that there's a huge gap between the number of registered users on the site and the number of people who actually use it on a regular basis. Though Second Life seemed like the next big thing, most people who registered for the service used it only once or twice.

Amnar | Experience it

Welcome to Amnar.

Amnar is a place that is not earth, but mirrors earth. Amnar is about all the things that happen on earth but in a place that is elsewhere.

Amnar has no orcs, no elves. The characters you will meet here are all human beings, just like you. They live in a world that you have never been to, but if you've travelled at all, walked through the Namibian Desert, sailed the Yangtzee in China, walked across the great stretches of pale savannah such as the Masai Mara or the Serengeti, then you might well recognise the landscape.

This is a place of great cathedral like halls built underground in a chthonic maze, a world that harbours the same darkness and light that our world does. And that darkness, that light, is thoroughly human in nature.

Amnar is political intrigue, psychological thriller, love story, drama, melodrama, spy tale, and personal legend with the added bonus of a few fire breathing dragons.

Rules of Twitter

I think that these are good guidelines for the use of Twitter, whether you are new or old to the site.

Who cares about all that junk? When you are new to twitter of course you are going to know to do that stuff! It might take you awhile to do it, but still, it will get done eventually. Here are the REAL things you need to do on twitter when you are a newbie.

Personal Blanding Blog

"Spinners after replicants" is just brilliant.

Social media has become the equivalent of commercial hippiewear: it's much more convenient to buy a prefab tie-dye shirt than make one yourself, and while it may appear great, there's not an interesting story behind it. (That changes if you wear the shirt and get into some strange counterculture misadventures, but that's another… story.)

Some people get afraid with all these 21st-century buzzwords passing by them like spinners after replicants. I feel your fear, dudes. And I'm here to tell you so much of it ultimately results in nothing. Just like the 1,000 archetypical fake MySpace friends you don't really know, those numbers… don't add up. But that's been brought up too many times. So let me move on!

I has Twitter

Just click the link above if you are curious, devious or looking for other ways to find out what is going throuh my head.

CD Exchange

So, I want some new music (hopefully things that I haven't heard already) and to get that I am going to try having a CD exchange. Send me a CD and I'll send one to you as well. Get a special "Dorkland Adventures" compilation of music for your dancing and dining pleasure. Interested in join in on the fun? Leave a comment here.

LiveJournal: The Russian Bear Slashes a Social Network

The bubble in social networking has burst, decisively. LiveJournal, the San Francisco-based arm of Sup, a Russian Internet startup, has cut about 20 of 28 employees — and offered them no severance, we're told.

The quirky site, part blog and part social network, is best known for its users' weird obsessions — like the troublesome clique of Harry Potter erotica writers, whose outre tastes ran afoul of LiveJournal's efforts to comply with U.S. child-pornography laws. (Oddly, the site also gained a following in Russia, which led to its acquisition by Sup.) All that adds up to an environment even more distasteful to advertisers than the typical social site.