GRABBINGSAND

The vasty fields of LiveJournal are ablaze with the smoking husks of half-a-thousand accounts and communities, all silenced in the wake of a kind of crusade against perceived indecency. Long story short, the powers-that-be at LiveJournal/Six Apart were approached by a group claiming to represent the best interests of children. Apparently, the threat had the stench to it of a “To Catch A Predator” sting, so LJ/6A pulled the plug on any profile who listed certain predilectory interests. Chaos ensued, as the mass comatosing affected not only unsavory stalker-types, but a number of communities who engage in either some kind of fan fiction involving young wizards and the like or users who enjoy certain fetishes that roleplay in a child-like direction.

That, in a nutshell, is it. As of this morning, there is an official (belated) explanation from LiveJournal available. If you need to know more, there’s a great thread going on Metafilter, Nikki’s made an excellent point on her own blog, Alyssa’s posted to her LJ about it and — if that wasn’t all — there have been a number of LJ communities (like metafandom) that are documenting the whole thing with a thoroughness that would make Ken Burns blush through his beard with shame and inadequacy.

While the rest of the world blazes away, I’ve decided instead to take and expand upon a moment of idiocy from the comment I left on Nikki’s blog. So, without further ado, allow me to inspire an entirely new fandom: Perry Mason / Barnaby Jones.

And no, nothing says this has to be slashy. They can just be pals that have all kinds of excellent adventures. So here’s my gauntlet and I’m throwing it down. I want one or more of you good people to write me some awesome Mason / Jones fanfic. Come on … I’m waiting.

[tags]fandom, LiveJournal, Six Apart[/tags]

One of the cooler constants in comics is the homage cover. A modern artist, seeing that another momentous occasion is impending in a superhero’s life, turns to the work of those who went before. And sometimes, the end result is smile-inducingly brilliant.

In both covers, members of The Flash’s infamous Rogues Gallery loom threateningly over a fallen speedster. On the left, the cover of The Flash #174 from 1967, drawn by Carmine Infantino. On the right, the just-released cover to an upcoming issue of The Flash: The Fastest Man Alive, drawn by … well, I’m not sure. I think it’s Tony Daniel, the fellow who has been doing handling artistic chores up to the most recent issue. And though the press release refers to issue #13 (the next one), this cover doesn’t match the much darker one shown over at the DC Comics website.

Correction: Just found out … the throwback preview cover was not drawn by Tony Daniel, but by another guy named Ryan Sook.

He’s not the Second Coming of Ronald Reagan, either.

He’s just a guy — a lobbyist-turned-Senator-turned-actor. That’s it.

Yesterday, I left a comment on this very subject on Peach Pundit, but in light of today’s news, it bears repeating.

Thompson’s going to run. Of course, he is.

For a short while, I thought that he was just enjoying the attention and soaking up all that sweet, sweet political infatuation. But with each passing day, I’m convinced by his actions — the odd rebuttal to Michael Moore, his Memorial Day op-ed, his rather public comments about immigration — that his hat is about to sail into the ring.

But I’ve got to wonder just what people are seeing in him. He’s Fred Thompson, not District Attorney Arthur Branch. And as tough and no nonsense as his Law & Order persona is, he’s still only an actor at the end of the day. He served Tennessee in the U.S. Senate from 1994 to 2002. Before that, from 1975 to 1992, he was a lobbyist for Westinghouse, General Electric and other corporations. Since the mid-80s,he’s been answering Hollywood’s call for gruff and dour authority figures. In other words, Thompson has been an actor or a lobbyist for longer than he’s served in any elected office.

And the Reagan-was-an-actor argument falls very flat here, as Reagan had always been more of a politician than an actor. Even before his two-terms of California governorship started in 1966, he’d held the office of Screen Actor’s Guild president for two non-consecutive terms. For good or ill, Reagan heard the call to attain authority throughout his life.

So, yeah … Thompson will run. And people will cheer. But I don’t think they’ll be getting the Messiah they expect.

And just in case anyone was wondering just what kind of Senatorial magic Thompson performed on behalf of the great state of Tennessee, wonder no more. During his stint, Senator Thompson passed five bills of debatable importance:

• Established a Post Office in Cookville.
• Transferred responsibility for the quarterly financial report from the Federal Trade Commission to the Secretary of Commerce.
• Reports Consolidation Act of 2000 - To authorize the consolidation of certain financial and performance management reports required of Federal agencies, and for other purposes.
• Realigned Inspector General authority as it relates to the Tennessee Valley Authority.
• And finally, a bill extending immigrant visa availability to Jacqueline Salinas and her family.

Does a Senator have to produce bills in his or her own name to be viable and contributory? Not necessarily. But one shouldn’t mistake these five bills as the work of some kind of Senatorial lightning rod. Rather, it looks like Thompson showed up, introduced occasionally, voted when called upon (and present) and behaved much like any other Senator.

Not the Messiah.

(And neither is Newt, so don’t even start.)

(Hat tip to Mr. GriftDrift.)

[tags]Fred Thompson, 2008, Ronald Reagan[/tags]

I’m tempted, you see.

It would be nice if this blog was somewhat self-sustaining. It costs relatively little to maintain, only hosting and the occasional domain renewal, but all the same, it would be nice to tap some small vein of income. Just enough money to feed my gaming and gadget fascination.

I’m an Amazon associate. Any link from here to there has my associate’s tag attached. But after about five years of doing so, I’ve yet to make even enough to warrant a check. I’ve been showing Google Ads for over a year or more, but again, the grand click total is negligible. Linkworth is neat and seems to work like a champ for Amber Rhea, but I’ve yet to get a bite on that line (though I have signed up to beta test their new widget-based ad placement for WordPress). And then there’s little Project Wonderful, a homegrown ad program to serve struggling webcomics and the like. I approve (or not) new ads through PW daily, but at the stated rate of “more than $0,” it will be awhile before I can afford a new Wii.

So today, I got another email from the folks at Pay-Per-Post. They say I’m approved for something called PPP Direct. Now, a simple Google search reveals all manner of opinion about Pay-Per-Post. Some love it. Some hate it. Some think it is illegal. Still others say that PPP has experienced a kind of redemption. As for me, I’m just not sure. If I see one of their opportunities that strikes my curiosity and I write an honest post about it, would it be wrong for me to profit? Of course, if they require participating bloggers to create boilerplate (and therefore positive) posts about their sponsors, then I would have to say no.

So I’m opening the floor. What do you think, gentle reader? Leave me a comment or two and let me know your thoughts (and possible experiences) on the matter.

Update: LinkWorth pays attention. Check out the comments.

05-28-07_1858.jpg
Originally uploaded by grabbingsand.

T-Mobile

Contrary to recent controversy, it really can be.

See?

(Found first on MetaChat.)

I’m a confused Musician who got sidetracked into this goddamn Word business for so long that I never got back into Music — except maybe when I find myself oddly alone in a quiet room with only a typewriter to strum on and a yen to write a song. Who knows why? Maybe I just feel like singing — so I type.

A little insight from the Good Doctor, written at some point in 2000 and collected later in Kingdom Of Fear.

For the curious few, the WordPress folk, you’ll be pleased to know that Asides (the in-line, Kottke-esque kind) still work in WordPress 2.2. And just to be clear, I’m talking about mini-posts like the Del.icio.us-driven ones that appear on my blog automatically. Before today (at least, since my recent upgrade) these were formatted like honest-to-goodness posts with none-too-informative lower-case titles (like “links for 2007-05-23″). Now, they show up as what they are: nice, neat boxes of just the links I’ve posted today. Check ‘em out if you want.

If Asides means something different to you, such as a micro-blog of tiny posts kept over in a sidebar, then I’ve nothing for you. For that matter, I think that adding sidebarred Asides is now as simple as dragging a Widget and dropping it like it’s hot.

Anyway. Asides will work in WordPress 2.2, though you are going to have to use some common sense if the theme your running has strayed far afield from the out-of-the-box install. Just remember that PHP calls don’t always have to be strung together in a single line. And you might want to encase your Asides code in a DIV.

I gave some thought to doing a real-live and honest breakdown of the minor tweaks I had to perform to get Asides to look just right, but I think I’ll just wait and see if anyone else is going to really need that kind of walkthrough.

It could be worse. We could be living in Waycross, where the forecast calls for smoke, smoke and smoke. Up here in Atlanta, we just get the leftovers.

This is the kind of thing that I shouldn’t let myself ponder for long, because it is big and so far beyond what I can control. We expect certain things, like traffic in the morning. But waking up to a haze that remains too late to be natural, because it is particulate and not evaporate, is just a little disconcerting.

As of this weekend, the unfortunately named Bugaloo Bugaboo Scrub Fire stretches from just below Waycross to the Florida state line. I’m assuming that the neighboring fire is under control, as the most recent satellite image I can find that includes area to the west is from May 2nd (though, for some reason, this otherwise informative post on InciWeb cites May 5th as the date of origin).

A lot can happen in three weeks.

Of the total acreage reported (Field 15), 144,161 acres have burned within Georgia, 15,312 acres are within Florida, and 142, 441 acres within the Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge have burned.

Of course, the question on my mind as I drove in this morning was pretty simple: What’s this smoke doing to me? I’ve got issues already. My sinuses are listed in the annual reports of various pharmaceutical companies as a means of income. But beyond the expected, it can’t be healthy to step into a cloud of subtle smoke and take a deep cleansing breath, can it?

The [Florida] DEP warned that the wildfires have increased levels of dust and soot in the air to unhealthy levels. The microscopic particles can get deep into a person’s lungs, and are particularly dangerous for people with heart or breathing problems.*

Joy. Of course, the same article recommends not vacuuming or dusting around the house either. Silver linings for the lazy, I suppose. But I’m thinking that replacing our air filter in the house should be a next high priority.

And while I’m at it, I might follow Amber’s example and break out the duct tape, too.

… and I’m on my third or fourth theme.

I really ought to settle on one thing or another.