FireFly is the Underbelly of our Future

Dare I say, millions of viewers will never forget the artistic and intellectual crime perpetrated by Fox executives when they canceled Joss Whedan's FireFly series. I for one, thought it was a good approximation of our far future, as long as one took into account that the "Alliance" of planets was a synonym for the "Federation" from Star Trek the Next Generation.

So did I brake out in a cold sweat when I read this article from the News Tribune which ran in last month's Washington Express about "Cultural Translation"? More than a little. Get your Chinese on by checking out the children's program. And face the facts that in 500 years, English will be the new Spanish.

By the way, if you are not sure you should get into FireFly, just watch the Fruity Oaty Bar commercial from the movie "Serenity". That should clinch it.

Incredibly Detailed, Useful (and free) Dingbat Fonts

You know how when you're designing the perfect office document, the one you want to illustrate beautifully, except every piece of clip art you come upon looks cartoony and amateurish? Or maybe you want to make your own t-shirt for your kick-ball team, fantasy football club, bachelorette party or whatever and you couldn't find any of those elusive silhouettes that make such projects possible. You don't need to get Photoshop, you need better dingbats!

Bitbox's "Dingbat Roundup" sets you free at last. From little bunnies to mujeres of all shapes and sizes, from skulls to maps of Florida, these dingbats are really detailed, useful and (best of all) free.

Leave It On Your License Plates

I know everyone has probably noticed that the U.S. Government's strangle hold on my right to an uncensored internet extends to every URL with the word "blog" in it and has therefore drastically effected my ability to post on a daily basis. I promise to figure out every way possible to post more often. Starting with this laugh out loud column from Marc Fisher, "Mint to D.C.: Leave It On Your License Plates".

It details the lightening fast response of the U.S. Mint to the District of Columbia's coin design submission that included the slogan "Taxation without Representation". You can read excerpts of the actual response in the column, (However, one poster succinctly described the official response as "Get bent."). Make sure you don't end your reading at the words of Mr. Fisher. The real gems of this column lie in the comments at the end. From submission ideas that the coin should portray "the Redskins emblem & the words 'Dallas Sucks'" or depict "...a car with several parking tickets and a boot on it. Something that captures that DC "je ne sais quoi". To one eloquent poster (can you hear my sarcasm?) who decried:

So I suppose the "no taxation without representation" folks also support allowing children who pay sales tax (or even just teenagers who pay income tax) to vote? (Or alternately exempting everyone under the age of
18 from all taxes?)

I guess even intelligent adults in the greater metropolitan area equate the tax paying residents of the District Columbia with children, and therefore have every right to be treated as such. Nice.

Nothing gets a poster back in the game like a good civil rights issue.
Go forth and conquer.

Name Game

As a writer (and especially a fantasy writer) I find the business of naming things to be of singular importance and that knack and believability of names in word culture can make or break not only a character setting but a marketing campaign. In the fourth grade, I often "doodled" by making up culture, mythologies, and languages for the stories in my head. It was no Tolkien feat, being as I was nine, I just fooled around with letters until I thought they sounded masculine, or feminine, like war or like food. I even made a list of letters that I thought should only be used to describe, say metal things, and other should only be used for female farm animals. During one sunlit, boring afternoon I realized something that I would be taught in a college linguistics class twelve years later. Sounds have no intrinsic meaning. Right then, I decided to write down how I felt about every letter of the alphabet with the intent that such knowledge would make naming characters and made up places that much easier. Who knew that twenty years later big companies would be doing the same thing.

Read about drug names and big business in, "Drug Makers Make Name Games Big Business" from Forbes. This informative article talks about how "X" seems scientific and "Z" convey speed. It also describes how naming things is big, big business. It recalled an article I once read in the career section of the Washington Express about a private, professional namer with such a good reputation, she paid the bills by selling cleverly crafted words. Naming for profit is such a modern concept! I mean, talk about wordsmith, the very idea was so Stephensonian (oooo, I just made that word up) to believe that people really can make money by selling intel to the highest bidder.

Thrifty Threads

I don't know if it's my adoration of steam punk or a love of the environment but toss last year's scrap lace onto this year's tweed discards and I'll toss it into my shopping bag. You can't deny that deconstructed and reconstructed threads are a hot, hot trend. Sustainable, fashionable, and often home grown, they may survive to be the hallmark of our age the way pencil skirts recall the 40's, a mod shift signals the 70's, and wedges brings the 70's back to life.

It used to be that I scoured the internet to find independent designers and seamstresses who were hawking their reconstructed duds online. But this article from USA Today which ran in last Tuesday's Washington Express about Thrifty Threads, proves you don't have to. Check out the article to see how big names like American Apparel and Rag & Bone are making moves to locally grown organic fibers and carbon free processes. The hot, new bolts of fabric for next year's fashion shows just may be thrift's store cast-offs.

11 Don’t Tell the Wife Secrets, All Men Keep

We all have them. Our dirty little secrets. However, it was Bono in "the Fly" who suggested, "A secret is something you tell another person." I always imagined secrets were rather like doves, soft and fuzzy while you hold them, but made to be released beautifully for dramatic effect. Were there people in the world who keep their fuzzy, little doves close to their chests forever?

The answer is, yes. And one of those people is most likely your spouse. Now, I'm not advocating that there is anything wrong with a secret kept here and there. Nor that the other way (secrets kept all the time) does anyone any good. But I can acknowledge that some people like to drive on the highway of life with their windows down. Some people like tinted windows. Some like to ride with the top down. And some (not naming any names, but her initials are CB) like to ride with their head out the window, sitting on the door, driving with their toes.

The toe drivers sometimes have trouble understanding the tinted window crew, which is why, "11 Don’t Tell the Wife Secrets, All Men Keep," is a little funny, a little reassuring and a little refreshing. Perhaps, reading this cute article about hidden truths (which I think happens to be accurate for both sides of the marital divide) will help us compulse a little less over every little secret our significant other keeps.

Welcome to America...Your Under Arrest

Sometimes I suffer from, what I call, the "Attack of the Embarrassing Moments". You know what I mean. Everyone has had an Attack of the Embarrassing Moments. Its when some minor image or smell brings you back to the day you marched right instead of left during the half time show at Homecoming in marching band in High School and now every memory of every horrifically embarrassing moment of your life comes to attack you at the same time. Now, your palms are sweating over your palpitating heart and your pretty sure the other rider on the bus to work can smell your panic.

Well, similar to the "Attack of the Embarrassing Moments", is the "Attack of the Insignificant Injustices", which, while not as prevalent, is just as ridiculously palpable. The overwhelming emotion derived from this attack is generally anger instead of self-disgust. My friend Jessica once described this attack to me and she finished with "So I was stabbing the mirror with my finger and pretending I was talking to her, and I got all worked up for a fight and there was no fight."

When recovering from these attacks, I generally try to think of how they are common to other people. Ands some people have it quite worse than me. Enter the subject of today's post "Welcome to America...Your Under Arrest: Tales of a Pakistani immigrant dealing with racial profiling, the Patriot Act and the INS as he tries to make a life in New York City". After reading this, sometimes sad, sometimes shocking and many times humorous post will leave everyone thinking that the Insignificant Injustices are universal to everyone and being able to laugh at them help them to lower their ugly heads.

Celebrity Horoscopes

I was sure Brad Pitt was born under the Sun Sign of Cancer, that was until I realized I was thinking of the character he played (Austrian adventurer, Heinrich Harrer) in Seven Years in Tibet. Enter Libra Rising and their page on Celebrity Horoscopes. I was happy to find out that my suspicions about being astrologically compatible with Leonardo DiCaprio were accurate, as well as my fears that Courtney Love and I have a little too much in common.

Remember that the catalog is alphabetized by your famous person's first name. And also remember that (as the warning says) it is a common practice for many celebrities to change or modify not only their names, but their birth data as well, so view all the charts with a tinge of suspicion. As an extra bonus, can you name all the celebrities in my pop silhouettes?

Spot the Fake Smile

In keeping with the State of the Union address general coverage, play this game at the BBC, "Spot the Fake Smile". By the way, I got 16 out of 20. Never know it to look at me would you? How did you do?

Criminals in the Bush Administration

I'm sitting here listening to the State of the Union Address on WETA and every radio station that can carry NPR in our house. I was debating not even watching the thing, because (as my mother says) it will just make me angry. Leave it to alcohol to save the day. Peter and I are currently playing a drinking game that helps one stay focused. I drink every time Dubya says "Economy" and he drinks every time he says "Empower".

To keep you focused on the future, I direct you to Suzie Q's Blog Post on "Criminals in the Bush Administration". She has conveniently divided the list into section by degree of damnation including:

• "Indicted / Convicted/ Pled Guilty"
• "Resigned Due to Investigation, Pending Investigation or Allegations of Impropriety"
• "Nomination Failed Due to Scandal" and
• "Under Investigation But Still in Office"

Enjoy. (ugh, "economy" again?)

Break the Argument Cycle

"It's not you, it's me. And what I mean by that is, it really is you, but it's me that can't stand you.

Too many times I have started an argument with my significant other by thinking these very thoughts. And too often I have continued an argument I was tired of by simply not walking away. Enter DumbLittleMan and his tips on how to "Break the Argument Cycle". His tips on life are sweet, quick and insightful enough to give anyone something to think twice about.

Vegetarian with Benefits

Plenty magazine has a wonderful article, "Vegetarian with Benefits" about one of the "Most Useful Words of 2003" as voted by the American Dialect Society. The word is "Flexitarian" and the meaning is a person who eats a mostly vegetarian diet, but who is also willing to eat meat or fish occasionally (Sound like anyone we know?). The word has been slow to catch on and not only because it is more than a mouthful, but because it resists easy classification.

Vegetarianism has come a long way since the 50's and 60's, when it was viewed as an odd, overzealous, unhealthy fad, to enter into American vernacular. Our culture now recognizes a vegetarian as someone who has restricted their diet based on moral and ethical objections (described by most vegetarian societies as motivated by either Health, Compassion, or the Environment or some combination thereof) and not because of a food preference.


But what if you are not a strict vegetarian, but you still have moral objections against eating certain foods? Words like "Flexitarian", "Pescetarian", and "Pollotarian" tend to confuse hosts and food servers even more than the eventual dissertation that must follow their use. Because of its familiarity and its strong connotation of moral obligation, the word "Vegetarian" has also become unduly associated with other forms of moral and ethical dietary needs giving birth to the use of "Vegetarian" as a metonym. In other words, the word "vegetarian" is used to describe other diets that are ethically motivated since vegetarianism is ethically motivated, even though those diets are not vegetarian.

This modified use is either your bane as a strict vegetarian or vegan (because the food industry is constantly believing that you will eat fish or chicken stock if prodded) or your blessing (as a "semi-vegetarian you do not need to include a three hour dissertation to your food server using flow-chart). Either way, read the plenty magazine article and discuss the ways the American vocabulary for ethical eating can be expanded.

Bad Ass Bible Verses

Well you know how much CandyBuffet loves contemplating the apocalypse. Well, she also spent a good amount of her childhood in Seminary (read "Bible Study"). With that in mind I can't help a good giggle at Cracked's "Bad Ass Bible Verses" detailing the the most violent passages that would do well as the next summer block buster movie or xbox new rated "m" for Mature. Smooches!

Stick It To Them

This pair of sister sites couldn't make your life easier. "Bug Me Not" keeps listings of free passwords and usernames allowing you to quickly bypass annoying, compulsory registries and login s for many popular websites including the NYtimes, YouTube, and (the real winner) IMDB. Bypassing all those tricky "can we keep you up-to-date" questions (and resulting spam) is priceless.

Speaking of priceless, "Retail Me Not" keeps an extensive listening of user submitted electronic coupons. What make this site different than all the other foul, ad-laden coupon sites? Well first, "Retail Me Not" doesn't have flashing banner screaming at you that you have won two free new iPods. Also, each coupon is submitter by a user and is tracked by other users according to how successful it is (the success percentage is right next to the codes) and is commented on how to use them successfully by real people (not web crawlers). The interface is slick, quick and painless. This candy girl never goes shopping online without checking in and routinely uses coupons for PeaPod, Urban Outfitters and Dehlia's. Go now and take advantage to all the free shipping the internet has to offer.

How to Detect Terrorists

I don't know why I think this poster is funny, but I do. I really do. Besides the obvious 40s-esque homemaker who looks like she may go all militant on your arse, it looks like a poster I might have encountered in Sunday school (Get behind me Satan!). What's even funnier is that it comes from the website of the Dulles chapter of NOW (National Organization for Women) the self proclaimed "dissident" chapter of NOW. I really want to put it up in my cubical at work. However, being as I work for the sarcastic object of this poster, I may need to reconsider.