Diane Duane
He spent all yesterday writing an entry about the hunting wasps who’ve been setting up housekeeping in our upstairs bathroom. He thinks he’s going to post this on my weblog.
Bwaaaahahahahahaaaaa. 
Watch this space and I’ll have the address for his new LJ for everybody as soon as it’s ready. (About a zillion comments would be appreciated, guys: he needs to realize that blogging is a Good Thing.)
It’s not that I haven’t been annoyed enough by events in the Middle East these past couple weeks. But now it turns out that, as if it all wasn’t bad enough to begin with, someone I really like (regardless of never having met him) is stuck in the middle of it.
“we are currently shooting an episode of NR in Lebanon–and it should be video gold. Those kookie-krazy kids from Hezbollah were popping off their weapons today(shooting in the air, I gather)–and Israel has been bombing and mobilizing a division in the South with reported land and sea strikes… (See today’s news–and quotes from Israeli PM). While the party continues in Beirut–there’s a lot of concern that the Israelis will follow up with strikes on infrastructure (like the power grid). And we were due to head to the Bekka Valley tomorrow. BTW..this town is Party Central!”
Keep your head down, Tony…
[tags]Bourdain, Anthony Bourdain, No Reservations, Lebanon[/tags]
A proud title, and one I don’t much like to see in the obits column…especially in this case.
Mickey Spillane has died at the age of 88.
Spillane had no pretensions about his writing, going about it with the philosophy that “If the public likes you, you’re good.”
(The New York Times article title — subscription-blocked, unfortunately — reads, “Critic-Proof Writer of Pulpy Mike Hammer Novels”. Ah, to be critic-proof…)
[tags]Mickey Spillane, pulp[/tags]
No sooner do I find out that they did a fifth season of the animated Teen Titans — which our SkyPlus box seems to hate, as it keeps dropping scheduled recordings — but now this:
Looks like there’s an anime version of the Powerpuff Girls. (Henshin sequence here on an episode guide page.)
…I confess I kind of like Buttercup’s giant hammer. (But then I’ve always been more simpatico with Buttercup: our management styles are similar.) Bubbles’ giant bubble-blowing thing is predictable: not sure what to make of Blossom’s magic yoyo.
[tags]Powerpuff Girls, Powerpuff Girls Z, Anime[/tags]
Or it’s corny this year, anyway. From Reuters:

A British fan of the cult TV show “Star Trek” has boldly gone where no man has gone before and created a giant maize maze dedicated to the program.
…I foresee many, many such strange things happening this year to celebrate the 40th anniversary of Trek. (Such as the last of the Rihannsu books coming out.) 
Now playing: Christopher Cross – Ride Like The Wind
(Other than in the usual context of the epic battle of good against evil, etc etc.) Flash required….
Now playing: Bill Whelan – Andalucia
Some nice stuff here:
Cosmotions: timelapse photo animations of the real cosmos
Now playing: Leech – Studer- Van Dam. Dir: Plasson – “Ainsi que la brise légère”
Won’t need sugar in the tea this morning…

(Hmm… I wonder if anyone in Ireland is breeding these guys…)
Now playing: Kenneth Gilbert – Air vif pour Zephire et la Rose (piece croisee)
[tags]cat, cats, Bengal, kitten, kittens, oooh, cute[/tags]
And what either Nietzsche or George Bernard Shaw would have made of this, I have no idea.

The chart above represents development of power levels of both God and Superman beginning in 1940, and extrapolated to predict trends up to 2030. Several features are worthy of note. First, note that God has had no substantial increase in Power Level during the time period analyzed. Supermans powers, on the other hand, have been increasing steadily. The largest gain in Power Level can be seen in 1980, which followed Supermans discovery of his ability to travel back in time, violating physics as we know it, and presumably requiring an infinite amount of energy. A reader also points out that in ’93 Superman died and was resurrected, which presumably indicates a large jump in power as well.
Using conservative estimates for the development of Superman’s powers, we can see that they will exceed those of God by the year 2030 (if present trends are a reliable indicator.) By 2040, Superman will not only be omniscient and omnipresent, but will most likely be capable of altering the logical fabric of all existence.
Oooooookayyyy…. But then, this would still be cool, because around 2035 we should be all set for one of those great DC crossovers. God Vs. Superman! Who wins? (Hint: which one does DC [oh, all right, Warner, be that way] own?)
Now playing: Orlando Consort – Chançonette/Ainc voir/A la Cheminee/Par verité
[tags]comics, Superman, DC Comics, Warner Bros, super powers, superhero, superheroes, superpowers, God, deity, potential change of management, but somehow I don’t think the Arisians are going to take this lying down[/tags]
On summer evenings, when the little ultrasonic things that keep bugs and mice out of the house are turned on, if the windows are going to be open, turn the ultrasonics off. Otherwise the local pipistrelle bats come in the windows and start hunting through the house for the strange mutant bat-thing that’s suddenly appeared on their territory and is making these weird noises.

(sigh)
Now playing: Tina Turner & Elton John – The Bitch is Back
[tags] bats, pipistrelle, protected species, Ireland, summer[/tags]
…whose stuff I’ve always loved, especially the line about the new definition of “apostrophe”: “Look out, an S is coming!”. But these is so much good sense here that I’ve copied the whole thing. (And there’s a link back to the source.)
Fourteen Things That It Took Me More Than 50 Years To Learn—by Dave Barry
- Never, under any circumstances, take a sleeping pill and a laxative on the same night.
- If you had to identify, in one word, the reason why the human race has not achieved, and never will achieve, its full potential, that word would be “meetings.”
- There is a very fine line between “hobby” and “mental illness.”
- People who want to share their religious views with you almost never want you to share yours with them.
- You should not confuse your career with your life.
- Nobody cares if you can’t dance well. Just get up and dance.
- Never lick a steak knife.
- The most destructive force in the universe is gossip.
- You will never find anybody who can give you a clear and compelling reason why we observe daylight savings time.
- You should never say anything to a woman that even remotely suggests that you think she’s pregnant unless you can see an actual baby emerging from her at that moment.
- There comes a time when you should stop expecting other people to make a big deal about your birthday. That time is age eleven.
- The one thing that unites all human beings, regardless of age, gender, religion, economic status or ethnic background, is that, deep down inside, we ALL believe that we are above-average drivers.
- A person who is nice to you, but rude to the waiter, is not a nice person. (This is very important. Pay attention. It never fails.)
- Your friends love you anyway.
Thought for the day: Never be afraid to try something new. Remember that a lone amateur built the Ark. A large group of professionals built the Titanic.
…Perfection. 
[tags]Dave Barry, humor[/tags]
