My wererat drawing is in print now, for those of you keeping track, on the back cover of Outnumbered #5. The colour didn’t turn out terribly faithful to the original but when does it ever? It was a bit of an experiment and it’s super cool to see the thing on the book. Maybe you can pick it up at RX Comics? I’ll find out from Kevin.
For Star Trek fans only
The teaser for the new Star Trek film showed before Cloverfield and although it looks nice, it tells you about as much as this:
Operation: Act!
I can’t embed it here, but if you go to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RzY-LI2N9SI&NR=1 you can watch me wandering around Vienna as a double-crossing Russian nuclear scientist for History Channel’s “Beyond Top Secret – Iran.”
Starting at 02:18 into the video.
An Open Letter to People Who Make Internet Petitions, Especially Facebook Ones…
Good luck.
Have Fun in your Death Trap, Ladies!
I was woken this morning to the landlady and the fire inspector having a rather intense discussion in the sprinkler room, which is right next to my bedroom in the basement of This Old House (no Bob Vila). I could very clearly hear every word being said, which means I could make out about 3/4 of what the Eastern European old lady was saying. There was no mistaking what the fire inspector was saying – and he wasn’t taking any guff. He’d been here a couple times, I gathered, the first time in November (and I was present for that). The inspection occurred, and I gather a list was made – a list of required upgrades/services. From the tone of the rousing back and forth this morning, I gather that none of those services – which affects the sprinkler system, the fire alarm, and the obsolete battery-powered smoke alarms – have been made. All that has been made are weak, naive, “oh don’t pick on me I’m just a poor over-burdened old lady with two houses in Shaughnessy” excuses. So the city official doing his job was heard to refer to the safety of residents, the rules are set by the city, yadda yadda, and the ultimatum was issued: make the changes immediately or I will serve you with a court order and you can give your excuses to the judge.
Now I don’t know what Mrs Addled pays for mortgage and property taxes and whatnot around these parts, but it it seems dubious that she wouldn’t be able to pull together the mortgage money, so she says, much less extra money for repairs. I’m extra skeptical because much of her statements to the city inspector I know to be lies (4-5 people living here? Try 7-8. That’s at least $3500/month to her from us). She basically told him that she couldn’t afford to make the changes, and that she’d have to evict everyone, as if that would make the resolute inspector clement. It was an astounding failure.
So as a tenant should I accept that her bullshit was just a ploy for keeping the city hounds at bay, but presently knowing that she has to shell out the cash, she will; or do I believe her when she says she can’t afford the repairs and everyone in the house will be evicted…leaving an empty house providing no source of income to her whatsoever? The former seems more likely, but I wouldn’t want to live in a place run with this amazing degree of sketchiness more suited to a teenager with a drug addiction rather than a 60 year old Estonian woman who should know better.
And luckily for me – I don’t have to!
An Open Letter to the Guy I Cut In Front of at Wendy's
To answer your question, “Oh is that how it works now? What happened to line etiquette?”
Well guess what – if you’re next in line, and the gal calls “Can I help the next person in line?” and you don’t notice because you’re too busy being Chatty Chatterson to pay attention even though YOU’RE THE NEXT PERSON IN LINE, then it is YOU who have broken line etiquette because now the gal, and I, and whoever is behind me are all waiting for your sorry ass.
So yes, that IS how it works now. Make all the snarky over-loud comments you wish; I cut, and my frostie was no less sweet for it.
The Toren Atkinson Vanity Quiz
I think this link should work for the Flixter quiz I made up: http://apps.facebook.com/flixster/quiz/results?q=650427&red=0
But only when I try.
Like Vagina But Orange
I watched this commercial, and now you have to too.
Now that I know where Orangina comes from I’ll never drink it again.
From the makers of the best short on Animatrix.
I’ve been noticing more and more that people are misusing the word anime. Anime is Japanese animation. So when you say “this is a decent French anime” you are saying “this is a decent French Japanese animated film.” So don’t do that.
Meanwhile, here’s an anime which looks like something I can get behind. If it was in the theaters here, I missed it. But if I see it for rent, I’ll check it out! The English title is Tekkonkinkreet.


