Today is WEAR YOUR PAJAMAS TO WORK DAY. Which I do nearly every day, since I work at home, so big whoop.

the winter of your discontent
Okay, having received snarling complaints to the effect that it's been Armenian Appreciation Day for, like, years, I'm posting a new entry. Would it help if I said I was sorry? I've been trying to wrestle this recalcitrant short story into submission, but it refuses to cooperate. That, and I've had a new onslaught of corporate projects, I'm learning to kickbox and belly-dance at the same time, I've been obssessed with building perfect amusement parks in Railroad Tycoon 2, and my daughter has just been getting cuter and more distracting by the day.


Enough rationalization. On with the show.


bibliophilia
Yesterday, Dean picked up no less than four trade paperbacks at Comic Quest: Runaways, Human Target, Queen and Country: Operation Storm Front, and the latest Noble Causes. For a change, everything was actually terrific (Usually any multiple buy of reading material results in at least one scum-sucking, soul-devouring loser.), with Runaways and Queen and Country leading the pack in terms of sheer enjoyment and brilliantly developed comic book writing, respectively. Brian K. Vaughan and Greg Rucka inspire my awe, devotion, and mean-spirited envy.


in the news today
Spectra-txt is the first SMS-interactive sculpture, a 33-foot-tall beacon of light now on display in Middlesbrough, England. A mirror-finished tower made of stainless steel, Spectra-txt is studded with lights that change color when anyone within range sends it any of the following text commands: blue, starvibe, xxx, pearl, boro, and chromapop. It was created by artist Peter Freeman for the Middlesbrough Borough Council.


It's strange to note that Jason has been writing about books and I am reporting on something (however vaguely) tech-y. Invasion of the Blog Snatchers!

TRIVIA QUIZ
What does "lorem ipsum..." mean?


answer to last last Saturday's question
A pangram (derived from the Greek pan grammata, meaning 'all letter') is a sentence using every letter of the alphabet, such as the well-known "The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog." Ideally, however, a pangram not only uses all the letters, it should be as short as possible while still making some sort of sense. A 'perfect pangram' is one that contains only 26 letters, using each letter of the alphabet exactly once in the sentence. The best example I've been able to find is "Blowzy night-frumps vex'd Jack Q."


Of course, for Grant Morrison, a perfect pangram would contain 64 letters. Heh.


Pangramists (Yes, it is a word!): Marc, Ron, Amie, Gabby, and Angela