Today’s TDC says Comic creator Grant Snider has long used comics for expression and he periodically goes through periods where he turns his poetry into comics. He even has a book of Poetry Comics. For Write Out, Snider suggests a haikomic, or a haiku in the form of a three panel nature comic. Grant has even provided a template, if you need one. Read more about Grant’s idea at the Write Out site. Here’s the haiku I sit on a branch As I sing a happy tune And my friends sing too

Getting asked by someone important to do your dream project will make you feel amazing. But if you’ve never done anything like it before, it’s not very likely to happen. Don’t wait for someone else to ask you. Ask if there’s an opportunity. Observe problems and suggest a solution. Make a proof of concept, and show it to people. Take this opportunity as seriously as if a client was paying you. The ego wants the reward (money, validation, prestige) before the work starts. If it can accept that…

Lona ParrI'm a Bop Side A of her Mystic single (her only record?). Publisher is Okun Music (BMI), owned by Harry & Madelyn Okun at 1430 North McCadden Place, Hollywood, CA. Unknown singer and composer Lona Parramore wrote several songs in 1954-1956 but I can't find any release for these songs : COOL DADDY BLUES; w, m & © Lona Parramore 5Apr54 EU353234 I WANT TO TELL MY STORY; w, m & © Lona Parramore 5Apr54 EU353235 HARD WORKING MAN; w, m & © Lona Parramore 5Apr54 EU353236 I'M A BOP; w, m & ©…

The Miseducation of Mister Mary Marmalade. Vol. 7, No. 4 Featuring Butthole Surfers, Fatboy Slim, Trampled by Turtles, Spacemoth, Mhaol, SLOT, PISS, MOULD, shishi, Yard Act, Fionna Apple, 7ebra, Pan Amsterdam, Bloc Party, Spike Fuck, Caley Watts, and Baby Nova. Cassette via TapeDeck.org.

Ben Nadel demonstrates how to replace the now-defunct "\U" and "\L" regular expression flags with the Matcher::replaceAll() closure in ColdFusion....

History has a lot to teach people today, lets look at an example from activism, back in October 2013, a urgent message from the very lively Balcombe Anti Fracking Camp set out a familiar dilemma for grassroots activism. The fallow on smaller Wisborough Green anti-fracking camp was being established on private land, with limited amenities. It was a step camp, for people to recover there energy to pass on the skills and equipment. The landowners wanted it to remain focused on stopping fracking,…

The end credits of Onslaught (dir. Adam Wingard, 2026) are bordered with red string connections. ▲ Onslaught (dir. Adam Wingard, 2026) ▲ Onslaught (dir. Adam Wingard, 2026) ▲ Onslaught (dir. Adam Wingard, 2026) ▲ Onslaught (dir. Adam Wingard, 2026) ▲ Onslaught (dir. Adam Wingard, 2026) ▲ Onslaught (dir. Adam Wingard, 2026) ▲ Onslaught (dir. Adam Wingard, 2026) ▲ Onslaught (dir. Adam Wingard, 2026) ▲ Onslaught (dir. Adam Wingard, 2026) ▲ Onslaught (dir. Adam Wingard, 2026)

Skilled facilitators offer participants many different ways to engage with a topic. Not everyone comes to a meeting or focus group ready to give it their full participation. This is especially true in virtual meetings where it's easier for folks to disengage. I try to help people find ways to share even if they can't or don't want to speak up.I try to incorporate the meeting's chat window whenever I'm planning an agenda. All the major conferencing platforms offer some kind of text-based…

This isn’t even the first time this has happened. I get that Jony Ive seems to think his life’s mission is to remove every button on Earth, but ugh. Then again, I bet Jony Ive doesn’t have a pet. They’re not clean enough to keep in a featureless white box. Anyway, I woke up angry because my neighbors were being loud again, then quickly realized that, for once, I was the loud neighbor. At least I can blame Sir Jony Ive, a billionaire. What’s my neighbors’ excuse for being absurdly loud day in…

These falls are 442 feet high and there’s greenery all along the cliff the falls tumble over. There’s an endemic goby fish that spawns above the falls, but lives in the ocean. It has a suction disk that enables it to climb the falls at spawning time. There’s a shrimp that does similar, but without the suction disk!

Initially, I was thinking that “for the new year…” I’d add a post each week with a quote or bit of inspiration but I realized, why should I wait? Can I not launch a new idea or project on any day? Can we not wake up on a new day with a new commitment to do things differently, do them better or just do them at all? So, starting today, we will have a quote or bit of inspiration each week that I hope will get you inspired, get you thinking or just put a smile on your face. I’m delighted to kick…

I recently stumbled upon a TED Daily podcast on AI and the end of loneliness by Paul Bloom. The talk was mainly about the nature of AI responses, how they are overly supportive, and why they are good for the isolated elderly but a danger for the young. Bloom's point was because how AI are built to be supportive in most cases, young users and not getting the pushback that they would normally would with a human. Under the veil, talking to AI is talking to a toaster. They are a network of…

This is an infuriating book. So much so that I didn’t finish it. Don’t get me wrong; I love the idea of The Pirate Queen. Telling the life story of Gráinne Ní Mháille is an excellent premise for some rip-roaring historical fiction. It’s even got an interesting structure alternating between three different parts of her life. I was pleasantly surprised when I cracked open the book to find a small pronunciation guide to some Irish words in the front matter. It would be nice to have some Gaeilge…

Good friends and family know this, but I am bad at email. Like chronically bad. If you have tried to email me, you know this too and you either never got a reply or received one 9-months later starting with the phrase, “Sorry.” I am truly sorry… but also I’m not. It’s a function of who I am. I was never great at email, but in a slower time before social media it raptured my attention. I would habitually refresh my inbox hoping for a long range communication from a friend or stranger. When I was…

Another day, another answer to the question “but can it play DOOM”—this time for a clamp meter (specifically the FNIRSI DMC-100 [affiliate link]).

Meaningful innovation in men’s shoes doesn’t come around often, but what Sketchers has done with their hands-free Swift Fit is a miracle — and one you can get for $35 at Costco. Dads everywhere salute you.

One of my favorite xkcd comics of all time is Random Number. The image depicts a C function that supposedly returns a random integer, but in reality always returns 4. I was reminded of this wonderful comic a few days ago, due to a security incident where people accidentally used the number 4 (among others) instead of a properly generated sequence of random bytes. Satire has a tendency to become reality, I guess.

I am very late to write this but anyways. But please do the survey. KDE Plasma desktop icons (the actual system that holds the icons, not the .desktop files) is a bit crusty, due to many years of people fixing bugs there. This now causes new bugs in return. So, at Akademy this year I had my own very first BoF around this topic. It was bit of a mess as I have never done a BoF before, but we had a good brainstorm session and I got good feedback. One of the good feedback was that hey, let's ask…

I haven't been on this planet very long. Part of me feels like I've kinda coasted, or stumbled, through most of it. It wasn't until I got to a more 'stable' place in my life that I began to question the meaning of everything. It's one of life's great mysteries isn't it? Why are we here? I mean, are we the product of some cosmic coincidence, or is there really a God watching everything? You know, with a plan for us and stuff. I don't know, man, but it keeps me up at night. Why are we here? Just…

Just a week ago, I bemoaned the lack of any good iPod click wheel explainers, and today the news broke about Apple Music hiding a functioning iPod on their 404 page. I am usually not a fan of easter eggs – most of them are poorly made – but this might be the best iPod recreation I’ve seen, and it’s an interesting thing to study: I think it generally covers all the modes etc. (with small exceptions) the typography looks accurate, it has the little “haptic” beeps, it has proper acceleration and…

I have met a great many people through my work. I am, by and large, a likeable person. I don't voice harsh opinions, at least not at first. I have a decent sense of humour. I can take a joke at my own expense and crack a good one without giving offence. I can accommodate people who are different from me, or who hold opinions entirely opposed to mine. This ensures I am never short of people around me. However, I am not good at keeping them. I never carry the relationship into the next stage,…

I have known of Final Fantasy for ages now. It was one of the first franchises I discovered by myself, outside the usual Nintendo games, FIFA or Halo. I remember learning about RPGs and figuring out what turn based combat was, I thought that such a granular level of control over character actions would be kinda neat, although I ended up focusing a bit more on Pokemon. Downloading a ROM of Final Fantasy I & II for Game Boy Advance, to play on my HTC ChaChaCha and mapping its physical keys to…

Early morning, looking west from the Togetsukyo Bridge. The autumn leaves are just beginning to turn. 早朝、渡月橋から西を眺めた。紅葉がちょうど色づき始めたところだ。

It’s almost 60° and there is talk of a high near 75° today here in North Dakotaland. My suspicion is that this has something to do with El Niño, but I am not going to complain! It’s a quiet weekend on the football front with Ohio State having off and the Eagles playing on Monday Night when I will be flying to Austria. This is fine because the Sixers’s season has started and they play the scuffling Milwaukee Bucks on Saturday night at home. I’ll probably keep only one eye on that game as there…

The third week of Spooktober is done! And because I managed to wrap up Bloomtown, This Bed We Made and Slay the Princess with more than 1 week left in the month, I included one more game in the play-along list: Gloomy Eyes. This one is a puzzle game with Tim Burton-inspired vibes, where you take turns as a human and a zombie to solve challenges. It’s a very interesting concept of self co-op game. I got the game in the Cozy After Dark showcase Humble Bundle, here is the link if you’re interested…

Perusing the origins of the 2013 horror movie Frankenstein’s Army…kinda reminded me of King Charles’s head. You know, from Charles Dickens’s novel David Copperfield, in how the severed monarch’s cranium keeps intruding into the mind of poor, befuddled Mr. Dick, preventing him from completing his epic self-history. A similar fixation seemed the case with the director Richard Raaphorst, who made this film…mainly because of Boris Karloff’s head. Although, oddly (or not), it wasn’t an impediment…

Tom Waits - Mediasound Studios, New York City, December 14, 1976Tom Waits still pops up occasionally — a film role here, a Massive Attack collab there — but it seems like he’s more or less retired these days. And hey, fair enough! There’s something to be said for just relaxing and enjoying your old age after decades of good work. However, Tom could certainly give fans a little more in the way of archival releases. There’s a recent 50th anniversary edition of Small Change out now, but there’s no…

40889 Build, Paint and Play from LEGO® Ideas is a gift with purchase (GwP) set, which means you can't simply pick it up in store or order it online. You have to meet the predetermined spend threshold at LEGO to receive the set as a "free" additional bonus; the added anxiety for collectors here being the inevitable "while stocks last" disclaimer. The threshold is US$130/ £115/ 130€/ AU$210 and the set launches on Wednesday 28 October 2026.There aren't any new moulds, which is entirely expected,…