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.