BTL is now brightstorm.com.  not a bad name, methinks.  check it out & sign up for the beta even if you are not a HS kid.  i want lots of feedback.  seeing myself online in professionally-produced, non-pornographic videos will soon be something i can check off ye old bucket list.  there's some kind of deal with winning free amex gift cards to people testing out the beta now, so do give it a gander, won't you?  much obliged.

i have a total geek boner for the wii game my word coach.   it might be seriously my dorkiest pleasure ever.

i bought the first two seasons of 'entourage' at plan 9 the other day.  i've never seen an episode but 4 (or is it 5?) seasons of uberhype have finally pulled me in.  plus i've been craving a marathonable new show to get into…  not that i'm not thrilled with the new fall TV lineup of the equivalent to a tray of twinkies and ho-ho's - "90210″ and "gossip girl" and "the hills" - ah, nutritionaly-void gluttony, i love you so.

yesterday whilst giving a reading assessment my eager little elementary school learner read the word "hour" as WHORE.   the sentence was, "we waited for an hour for the clue."  the notion of waiting for a whore, particularly when ennunicated by a teeny tiny little squeaky-voiced girl had me biting the inside of my cheeks to keep from completely busting out laughing.    best yet, the story she was reading was called "father's new game"  "father" surely is up to no good, methinks.  and what of this mysterious, clue-giving woman of the night?  now there's a pitch for a tv show.

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.

Jeez. I'm embarrassed for turning into a link blog. But here we are, my friends. And I will try to write something personal and substantial this weekend.

• the nyt article on why Lost is like a game more than a traditional show. after last night's amazing finale, Lost is on my brain.
• the most amazing document on torture from the cia ever looks like this:
  
• the hamdog is "a hot dog wrapped in ground beef then deep-fried, topped with chili, cheese, grilled onions, and served in a hoagie roll."
• nice to see my old professor, michael naimark, get linked by waxy and kottke for his displacements piece(s). 3 years late.
• want your dreams and childhood destroyed? the cure played the sasquatch festival over last weekend. the cure played. and i swear the picture below is him, thanks to pitchfork (where they have a second one as well):
  
• several people emailed me the link about miracle fruit that was in the nyt a few days ago. i finally posted pictures and will write up how our party from a month ago went. in the meantime, here's the article.
• bill cosby is selling sweaters on ebay. 'nuff said

wanna be a writer on lost? wanna see how they write scripts at least? trust me, the format for the lost scripts is unorthodox. or, at least, rated-r.

Cashmere Mafia gets the axe — leaving an opening for my new drama series: Tampon Forest.

Update: Lipstick Jungle is still on the air. I still believe there is room on the airwaves for my show.

This might be tasteless and crass, but I haven't seen it floated anywhere else:

Do you think that Dennis Haysbert, as President Dennis Palmer, in '24′ helped loosen Americans up to the idea of a black President, thus helping take race out of play for the Obama campaign?

Sadly, I think this might have helped.

i can has man on ur boat

either you find this funny or you don't.