1. a restaurant menu based on breast milk
2. the issue of "locals" that is set in richmond, online for free. has a bunch of landmarks, esp around vcu.
3. the 2300 calorie milkshake. yes, for real.

• I didn't realize initially that it was the Michael Phelp-ics, but I'm pretty burned out now. We watched some at the beach, but the Olympics have never been my thing. I do wish I'd followed the soccer a bit more though.
• Mike and I went to Daly City last night to pick up a new dresser and nightstand for me off of craigs list. Oh man. I had measured the car to make sure the dresser would fit in the backseat. Check. However, I made the fatal flaw that I'm sure everyone does at some point — I didn't check to make sure the dresser would fit through the car door. The result? We look like idiots to these people, who send us up the street to the dollar store to buy string to tie the trunk to the dresser. We evenually get it all together after much amateur fumbling and I drive the 45 miles down the 280 sweating the entire time, convinced the string will break and something bad will happen. Nothing does and we make it home just fine. I have a dresser for the first time since moving to the west coast.
• This morning it occurred to me that the "Batman R.I.P." (which I know Ben is reading, at least) by Morrison currently running in the Batman comic is a lot like the "Hush" storyline by Loeb from several years ago. Except that Loeb went low-brow and Morrison is hitting the high-brow notes. Also, "Final Crisis" is very, very good. I'm burned out on DC still, but if you have basic (or nerd-basic) knowledge of DC, "Final Crisis" should tickle you in strange places. Of course, if I say Mister Miracle, Seven Soldiers, Barry Allen and 4th World and you have a blank stare, you'll need to hit up Wikipedia to fully appreciate it. (Also, bringing back Barry Allen is the single worst idea DC could do. I'd like to say it doesn't actually raise my blood pressure, but it does. I am a nerd.)
• This post by the Portman's bf, titled "In Which We Request You Not Tongue Our Balls" might be enough for me to wish the couple well. As much as I love the Portman, I'm not sure I can offer more than this post does. Yes, I may no longer be the perfect match for Natalie. The nerd in me is crying.
• Everything That Happens Will Happen Today is out. It's David Brynes and Brian Eno's first collab in 30-some years, the first since "My Life In The Bush Of Ghosts." I need to listen to this one some more before I decide if I'm buying it or not.
• We were on vacation for Imperial Fleet Week this year. Looks like we didn't miss a ton.
  
• And yes, I'm doing well. I haven't fallen off of any cliffs, though I'm staying up too late, eating too late (last night dinner was at midnight) and generally driving myself to exhaustion. Debate may begin if this is a healthy coping mechanism.

i think i want to found the church of alan moore - be a moorist.  his notion of afterlife is extremely comforting to me: 

we might get this life forever — you'll have to read the book to get the whole thing, but I tend to think that it's a pretty watertight theory: That you don't get reincarnated as somebody else, but that you get reincarnated as yourself, over and over again. You have the same thoughts, and you never know you've done this [before], except for those little moments of déjà vu.

—

i'm a little addicted to the website freerice.  it's a really basic vocabulary type quiz, but for every word you get right, the site donates 20 grains of rice to an underprivileged country through the UN world food program.  how cool is that?

So I'm out of town the next couple of days; on top of that, I have been super busy the last week or so — a trend that will continue for the next 3 weeks or so.

So here are a bunch of links (better late than never) that should have been thrown up days ago. Sorry. And yes, I should be back on track posting someday.

• $490 billion. We have hit a new record with the deficit. This comes as people start to realize we are in some deep trouble: "People in the know like George Soros are saying this is the worst financial crisis since the depression."
• Spoiler alert: Barry Allen is returning as the Flash. If you are a nerd, you've known this for months. If you aren't, you don't know who Barry Allen is anyway. Nor why Geoff Johns writing this "Rebirth" series is frightening. Here is my short take: Barry Allen is pretty much the last (only) superhero that has been killed and not come back. This is a really depressing turn of events, undoing decades of storytelling progress to cater to the whims of fanboys. I mean — Johns is bringing back Krypton in the coming months (by taking Kandor and bringing it up to full size. On Earth.) Anyway, this now will complete the undoing of the original Crisis.
• Lost spoilers from ComicCon. Nothing shocking, really. But still. Spoilers.
• Ludachrist, which I haven't had time to listen to yet. But it's compared to Girl Talk — but better. Which I don't find to be much of a stretch, frankly.
• Randy Pausch has passed away. Worth watching "The Last Lecture" one more time.
• And why you should never talk to the police — even (and especially) when you are innocent.

with over a week to go, Comic-Con is sold out.

I don't think this is actually surprising to anyone, after the attendance the last few years and the re-positioning of the con as a pop-culture event, as opposed to a comic book one. Still though, nicely done. I'm pretty glad I won't have to navigate the crowds this year.

For those of you who enjoy comics and copyrights (or some variation of the two), this is a really big deal:

Judge Says Siegels Now Own Half of Superman

roxy just told me that he was found in his apartment this afternoon. tmz has it, though I imagine it'll be everywhere soon.

Sadly, from what I've seen, he made an excellent Joker. I'm really sad because of this. It will certainly make the movie more somber.