Free digital comics

Friend of mine sent me this. The comics run from the '40's to the '80's, and include some major classics, like Kirby's OMAC. You have to download a small program to read 'em, though. Enjoy. Comics Books Archive


Don't know about the rest of ya, but I'm still in major break mode, even though we start again in a week. Been trying to get as much reading and movie watching in as possible. Just saw Death Trance, by Yûji Shimomura, who did Versus. If yer into Japanese supernatural movies with loads 'o' action and stupid humor (admittedly a small group of us), check it out. The evil giant, AKA Walmart, has it for 10 bucks.

Also read the first volume of the Dresden Files (yeah, I'm a bit behind). It's kind of a Cast a Deadly Spell/Witch Hunt type book, with a wizard who's a PI in a Noirish world where vampires, demons and fairies are living amonst us. Got some great humor, and, again, good action. Worth a checkout. I was sorry I got some Cyberpunk volume instead of the second one of these when I picked 'em up before the Pitt trip (had this crazy idea I could read for amusement at night- don't know where that came from).

Well, tapatcha on the boards in a week, and hopefully throw a few entries up here before then. Have a blast while it lasts.

Inmate Kills Self With Toilet Paper

Another pedophile eats shit [paper]. Shoulda been used. Here's the story.

Would you ever really want to see an angel?

or, more fully:

Did you ever notice how in the Bible, when ever God needed to punish someone, or make an example, or whenever God needed a killing, he sent an angel? Did you ever wonder what a creature like that must be like? A whole existence spent praising your God, but always with one wing dipped in blood. Would you ever really want to see an angel? (name the movie- it's one of my all time favorites)

Sorry for the lack 'o' updates. Been vaguely depressed about my birthday. Turned 37 on Sunday. Also spent 4 days, Saturday to Tuesday, trying to breath and not to vomit. Gotta love those combo summer illnesses. Kinda summed up my birthday this year. Wife's not working, so I gotta buy my own present, and can't afford it. Got 35 dollars and a box of oatmeal creme pies from my mother and grandmother. Really wanted that Blind Dead collection. Ah, well. 20 bucks went in the gas tank, the other 15 for the co-pay on my youngest's doctor visit. Get paid tomorrow and it's already gone.

Well, now that I'm done whining (want some cheese with that?), here's some neato links

Olivia

Heavy Metal Mag

The Comic Book Legal Defense Fund- they got a pretty cool Solomon Kane lithograph for $25

Enjoy. See ya back on the boards week after next. Maybe I'll even manage to update this damn blog again before that. Later.

It has begun

Gibson was right. Soon we'll all be able to plug our PCs into our necks and surf the 'net. Bring it on.

Paralyzed man moves computer cursor through thought

Must see movie

I was recently reminded of this one

Dead & Breakfast

Four words to recommend this "zombie line dance number". If you like yer horror movies full 'o' rednecks, and Shaun of the Dead was too full of prissy ass British guys, here's the movie for you. Make sure you page down and check out the trailer just for some idea of what you're in for.

Good video

A certain LIS friend of mine had told me about this vid. Finally found it. Since he probably won't post it, here it is. Takes a while to load, but It's worth it.



The SAM Song by The Mad Irishman

Ooo ah, upthera

Mmmmm, tasty

Indian state bans sale and production of Coke, Pepsi

Knew there was some reason I loved Coke and Pepsi products besides just the caffeine. Have to drink more- maybe I'll end up preserved, like Keith Richards.

Don't know if anybody else saw this

But Big Brother is alive and well at Pitt.

Pitt Awarded $2.4 Million by U.S. Department of Homeland Security

Guess I better watch things like IRA, Provo, and 26 + 6=1

Library Technology Conference

October 23-25 at the Crown Plaza hotel here in Harrisburg. Not too many details yet, 'cept I've been asked for a list of digitization vendors who might want to exhibit, and I'll be tag-teaching a "presentation on the digitization projects recently completed and mounted in the Access PA Digital Repository" from 1245 to 1345 on the 25th. Stay tuned fer details.

DRM for text? That's next

Check dis shit out. Scary thought found in a ZDNet blog.

DRM for text?

Save the quail

So, I'm comin' back from shopping yesterday, outside of Halifax, PA. I'm in a 55, so I'm movin' about 60. Got a car about 2 lengths behind me. I crest a small rise and there's 2 quail crossin' the road.

Can't go into the opposing lane, 'cause they're crossing that way. Can't slam on my brakes, 'cause not only will I probably still nail them, but I'll be wearin' the car behind me. There's a protruding mailbox on the berm about 10 feet in front of me.

So in a masterful bit of defensive driving, I lock the brakes for a sec, ride the swerve onto the berm, and pop back out 3 feet from the mailbox, missing quail & mailbox, and not even crossing into the opposing lane. Old lady in the yard jumped, but the car behind me never got closer than a car length.

So I get home. Do I get any congrats from the wife on this piece of mastery? Hell no. I get bitched out. "You put your wife and kids in danger for a stupid pair of birds". I explained that I hadn't, that the car behind me wasn't even close, that I'd missed the mailbox by 3 feet, and that I'd never left the asphalt. "I could have lost an arm". No, I wasn't even close to the mailbox, and what the hell were you doing hanging yer whole goddamn arm out the window anyway? "You scared that old lady in the yard. She jumped." First off, in a contest between squashing animals and an old lady having to change her Depends, guess which one's going to win? Probably spent her youth building crosses for her husband to burn on people's lawns anyway. I grew up outside of Halifax, and I don't have a great opinion of its citizens in the first friggin' place.

So anyway, saved the quail, got bitched out for my troubles, slept and trundled off to the office, where I'm gettin' screwed with again. Great start to the week.

Here's yer link. Band name about gives my opinion on humanity at the moment. The Tossers

'n' check dis shit out

if yer into industrial.

VampireFreaks.com Industrial Music Player

And

In the tradition

of posting stupid lyrics, here's the latest song I'm stuck on, Gravedigger Girl by Die Monster Die

your silken hair and raven eyes
darkened windows to your soul inside
your quite smile and fair white skin
gravedigger girl where have you been?

i shud have never let u go
grave digger girl (x4)

rain falls in thorugh the roof torn
twisted metal wrapped in burning steel
final faded memories of how i used to feel
where did u go and how couold u leave me all alone

i should have never let you go
gravedigger girl (x4)

i remember dancing in the cemetary
stepping on the graves
tombstones in the moonlight
searching for a soul to save but theres no one out there
isolated damned to be confined

i cant escape or stop remembering
of that horrifying night
i cried up to the heavens thats the night i should have died
gravedigger girl how could you die

i should have never let u go
gravedigger girl (x2)

If you like these guys, check out the Rosedales. Schmater.

The Meeting

So, I been so busy actually doin' work at work that I haven't had a chance to post about the meeting with the Commissioner on Tuesday. In this thing were myself, my boss, my Assistant Director, the Digital Cataloger and the Director. Now, my AD did the smart thing and just sat there, only speaking up when he was directly asked a question. My Director, on the other hand, was a spastic ball of nerves, which, for her, means running her mouth as much as possible. Although she had seemed to see our side in the pre-meeting meeting (which was after the pre-pre-meeting meeting with my boss), she was so busy assuring the Commissioner that no harm would come to the books that she ended up at complete cross purposes with us. For example- I must have said 150 times in our pre-meeting get-together that we were a library, not an archives, meaning that we were there to save the content. She agreed. But what did she show up with? Two handouts on document handling from the National Records and Archives Administration on document handling. As per the norm for this archives stuff, it was all about saving the paper and how no harm must EVER come to it.

Anywho, we spent an hour of talking over her, demonstrating our knowledge on the topic of low impact digitization, and explaining the various forms of disbinding, including the reasons why we only ever relax a binding, not use the other two methods (decasing and guillotining). At the end of it, after Claire expressed her concern for the collection and told us about the upcoming Rare Books Vault (set for ribbon cutting Oct. 03), it all boiled down to one thing. "I can tell you will give this a personal touch. You really CARE about the collection, and won't just apply clinical methods. Carry on". Egad, I spent a week readin' technical info to add to my AD's 300 pages of standard digitization procedures for this? Couldn't I have just stayed in my office and gotten an email?

So, I'm currently in the throws of planning the next phase of outsourcing. Our budget's at least 100 grand, though we only needed to pull together enough to renew the contracts by today. I'm also up to my armpits in 14 boxes of scattered issues, dating back to the 1700s (although most are in the 1810s, 20s and 30s), figuring out which ones can be sent out. Most can, as they're on rag. But they'll all have to be recorded, a number of them cataloged, then boarded by individual issue and labelled before they go out. Guess I know where my next 6 months are going.

On the amusing link front I got this article on the Library foot kisser, to add to the library jerkoff. Enjoy.

My wonderous office

Below you can see pics of the area where digitization is done at the State Library. Can't ya just feel the love?

Office pics